Review Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software CraftsmanshipReview Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship is a comprehensive guide for authors and programmers. This book is designed to help people who write, sell, and maintain code. It was written by Christopher Freville, who has also produced and directed movies about software development. Review Clean Code was reviewed by Charles Moore and Bruce Hyman. The book has been used as a reference book by many people involved with the development world.
Even bad code can work. But poorly written code can quickly bring a software development firm to its knees, costing millions of dollars and thousands of man hours. Each year, millions of hours and countless resources are lost due to poorly written software code. If you've ever given the software a single mistake, you know that your company's bottom line will suffer for it.
As a professional software engineer, I can tell you that writing clean code takes an enormous amount of time and effort. I've seen literally thousands of lines of spaghetti code written just to demonstrate this point. While it's true that most developers have learned to become skilled at writing spaghetti code, the average person who hasn't is not yet prepared. That's why, when I wrote this book, I made sure to cover all the basic techniques and practices necessary for building clean code. This includes Java programming, CSS, and JavaScript.
The book is divided into three major chapters. Chapter one focuses on the basics of coding. You'll learn the importance of indentation, how to use whitespace, and how to use quotation marks and braces. You'll also see how to create classes, create methods, and create functions.
Chapter two guides you through the different kinds of errors that can be made when writing clean code. You'll find out what "typecasting" is, why "var" must be quotes and why using"!" should always be quoted. In addition, you'll learn about using arrays and function expressions. Finally, you'll get some advice about what "underscore" means and when to quote a variable or function. While it may not seem important at the moment, reviewing these things in the future can save you many hours while debugging difficult code that doesn't compile.
The third chapter deals with testing your clean code. Once you learn how to use an automated code checking tool, you'll also learn how to test it. The book shows you how to write a simple test for each statement in your program. Once you have your test running, you can start refactoring your code piece-by-piece. This process will make it easier for you to transition from your current design to your desired design.
Overall, the book is well-written and easy to read. It's a quick read but not a "quick fix." I especially like how Doolittle presents alternative ways to approach code. I particularly like that she discusses testing and cleanup as separate steps. That makes it easier to remember what needs to be done and why. It also helps to keep you from repeating the same "checkerboarding" process.
I especially liked how Doolittle describes the benefits of refactoring and how it relates to the design process. This is a great talk for people who are just getting started with a certain concept. However, if you're already deeply involved, I wouldn't read this book. It could easily confuse. However, if you're a beginner who wants to brush up on coding basics, this book will serve as a great jumping off point.
The Code Complete series is excellent. The first in the series was released back in 2021 and is still a terrific guide. The book is chock full of information on how to write readable, testable, and functional code. Doolittle she offers testing solutions to problems and gives you an example of how to use the code analyzer. If you've only had exposure to C or Java, this book will serve as a great introduction to these programming languages.
However, if you need a more in-depth or specialized book, I would recommend Code Complete Second Edition by Christopher Budd. It's more advanced but still very easy to read and understand. My favorite thing about this book is the line of books that follow the "Bugs Bunny" code mantra. After reading this book, I found it made me want to learn more C and Java because the style of writing code with these two languages is very similar. Again, this book is great if you need an advanced book on Coding.
Review Clean Code by Stephen Doolittle and Amy Waterman is a very good book to read if you have C/C++ experience. It's a quick read with some advanced topics. You shouldn't have any problems understanding the book. For Coding newbies, especially, this book should be required reading. To learn more about Coder, subscribe to my weekly newsletter Coding newsletter.