Improving Error Handling, Code Comments, and Readability in Mojo

Improving Error Handling, Code Comments, and Readability in Mojo

Let’s be real — writing code that simply “runs” isn’t enough. If you’ve ever had to come back to your own project after a month, you know the pain of deciphering cryptic logic or debugging something that could’ve been caught with better error handling. In this article, we’ll dig into how to make your Mojo code easier to maintain and understand by focusing on three often overlooked areas: error handling, code comments, and readability.

Error Handling in Mojo

Even in a fast language like Mojo, we’re not immune to runtime hiccups. You might expect Python-like handling, and you’d be right — Mojo supports the familiar try / except structure:

try:
    result = divide(a, b)
except ZeroDivisionError:
    print("Cannot divide by zero!")

That said, don’t fall into the trap of catching every error with a generic except. Handle specific issues, log something useful, and never just pass unless you want future-you to suffer.

Writing Useful Comments

You know what’s worse than no comment? A bad one. Comments should make your code friendlier — like leaving breadcrumbs for your future self or someone else trying to understand your logic. Here’s the deal:

• Explain the “why”, not the obvious “what”.
• Keep them short and relevant.
• Update them when the code changes — stale comments are worse than none.

# Correct the raw sensor reading for bias
adjusted = raw - offset

Readable Code is Kind Code

Readable code saves lives. OK, maybe not literally — but it definitely saves time. Mojo’s indentation rules already help, but you can go further:

• Use clear, meaningful names — no more x1 or temp123.
• Stick to consistent formatting.
• Break down long logic into smaller functions that each do one job.

def calculate_average(scores: List[Float]) -> Float:
    # Return the average of the scores list
    if not scores:
        raise ValueError("Score list cannot be empty")
    return sum(scores) / len(scores)

Conclusion

Clean code isn’t just about elegance — it’s a kindness to your future self and anyone else who touches your project. By tightening up your error handling, writing better comments, and formatting things clearly, your Mojo code becomes easier to read, debug, and build on. It’s the difference between “code that works” and “code you’re proud of”.y make you a better developer. Great code isn’t just code that works — it’s code that communicates.