Jeff Vodel provides tips for writing more comprehensible code, in a very humoruous article. They don't just apply to solo coders, people who inherit or update your code down the line will also thank you. Even though they're written for C programmers, his advice applies to any programming language. For web programmers, #5 should be heeded, as we've learned that the code we run on the server typically contributes only a fraction towards how long users must wait to see your web page. You get more bang for the buck by reducing how much data browsers have to download (file sizes) and how many connection it must make (hits to download css, images, javascript files, etc...).

This means that, if I make a stinky mess, I'm doing it in my own nest. When I'm chasing down a bug at 3 a.m., staring at a nightmare cloud of spaghetti code, and I say, "Dear God, what idiot child of married cousins wrote this garbage?", the answer to that question is "Me."

I've written previously my own set of tips to write readable php code.