Code Craft: The Practice of Writing Excellent Code

Product Description

Many programmers know how to write correct code - code that works. But not all know how to craft great code - code that is well written and easy to understand. Code Craft teaches programmers how to move beyond writing correct code to writing great code. The book covers code writing concerns, including code presentation style, variable naming, error handling, and security; and the wider issues of programming in the real world, such as good teamwork, development processes, and documentation. Code Craft presents language-agnostic advice that is relevant to all developers, from an author with loads of practical experience. A Q&A section at the end of each chapter helps readers to review the material and makes the book suited for academic use as well.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #349435 in Books
* Published on: 2006-12-15
* Format: Illustrated
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 624 pages

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover
You know how to write code that works, but what about code that's well written and easy to understand? And robust and bug-free? If other programmers looked at your handiwork, would they be able to figure out the code's logic and purpose? Exceptional programmers have more than just technical know-how; they adopt the right approach and attitude to development.

Code Craft will help take your programming beyond writing correct code to writing great code, thus turning you into a true programming professional or enhancing your existing professional skills.

With language-agnostic advice that's relevant to all developers, Code Craft covers code-writing concerns such as presentation style, variable naming, error handling, and security. And it tackles broader, real-world programming issues like effective teamwork, development processes, and documentation. Each chapter ends with a Q&A section that reviews key concepts to get you thinking like an expert, making it an especially great reference for newer programmers who want to work professionally and efficiently as part of a team.

This survival guide for the software factory will show you how to:
* Write good code when the world's not helping you
* Avoid disasters and distractions in the workplace
* Assess your abilities accurately and determine ways to improve
* Adopt productive attitudes and follow best practices

There's little more valuable than the advice of a true, programming professional. You'll find Code Craft to be clear, practical, and entertaining throughout, and a great way to take your code (and your career) to the next level.

About the Author
Pete Goodliffe is an expert software developer who never stays at the same place in the software food chain; he's worked in numerous languages on diverse projects. He also has extensive experience in teaching and mentoring programmers, and writes the regular "Professionalism in Programming" column for ACCU's C Vu magazine. Pete enjoys writing excellent, bug-free code, so he can spend more time having fun with his kids.
Customer Reviews

Become A Better Developer With Code Craft4
There's some strongly negative reviews for 'Code Craft: The Practice of Writing Excellent Code' but I am not one of those people that feel this is a waste of time reading. Becoming a better developer and designer doesn't come from just one book, one idea, one THING, rather it comes from other things in life by doing/experiencing lots of things and this book is worth the time to read. With 550+ pages of content you will learn about documentation, tools, testing, architecture, source control, etc. You will learn more about what makes a good application and how to go about writing it. You will enhance your development skills and hopefully be better off when you are done with this book.

I like the content of this book and it's tailored towards anyone in the software business that wants to learn to write and design better. While a lot of the concepts in here you will find in many other books, this is a welcome addition to the bookshelf.

My only glaring negative is the boring design in this book. Nothing about the layout makes one get excited about reading it and that's never a good thing. Serious time should have been spent making the inside of the book look better to make the experience better. This isn't a reference book and it doesn't need to look like one.

**** RECOMMENDED

A great book for a beginning pragmatic programmer5
This one is a very good book. It is essentially a book in natural philosophy, not quite "scientific", coming from observation to show you a little bit of everything. An insight to the entire world of programming if you like.

It goes from bottom up, from coding style through techniques and tools to paradigms and architecture. A lot (A LOT) of things explained, briefly, but perfectly understandable. It lacks any analysis or in-depth discussion, but that is on purpose.

Not that many things for an experienced programmer to learn from this book though. To a point where it is boring. It took me longer to read this book through than many others, because I knew much of it in the first place.

The language of the book, the author really is in for wordplay and puns of all sorts, it's all over the place. And although I do believe that proficiency (and desire to excel) in written language is a sure indication of a great programmer, this is not always to the book's best. It sure doesn't read like a textbook, but that's ok. There were a few really good jokes, but most of it is just wordplay for its own sake. For example,

[quote]
This is the really nasty one - when your program isn't pushing up the daisies, just pining for the fjords.
[/quote]

Look, I know what "pushing up the daisies" mean, and I can deduce the meaning for "pining for the fjords" from the context, but having it written like that doesn't really help.

Like some other reviewer, I also didn't like the "good programmers" vs. "bad programmers" checklists. See, being a good programmer (aren't we all ?), I wouldn't know how bad programmers think, thus any attempt to declare "bad programmers do that" would be at best a guess.

What's really good about this book, is that it goes under a positive "do as I do" key, not a negative "don't do as I say", seen much more frequently. I'd guess that the guy is really keen on what he's doing, and you can feel it in his book.

I was pleased to see that yet another author's word supports my belief in that programming is simply patience, discipline and common sense. Oh, and PRACTICE.

Anyhow, a great book for a beginning pragmatic programmer.

There is nothing new here!1
I have two comments.
First, do not expect technical details on this book. There isn't. Second, the only paragraph that is really good is on page 461 and it says: "Find the classic books of the field". This is not one of those. He recommends and I agree almost completely:
* Code Complete
* Design Patterns: Elements of reusable object-oriented software
* The mythical man-month
* The psychology of computer programming
* The practice of programming
* Peopleware
* The pragmatic programmer
* refactoring

I do not thing that "Code Craft" is one of those.