Code Craft: The Practice of Writing Excellent Code Book

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR CODE CRAFT; ; Dedication; PREFACE; What's In It for Me?; Getting Better; Who Should Read This Book?; What's Covered?; How This Book is Organized; The Chapters—a Closer Look; How to Use This Book; ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; ABOUT THE AUTHOR; AT THE CODEFACE; Chapter 1: ON THE DEFENSIVE; 1.1 Toward Good Code; 1.2 Assume the Worst; 1.3 What Is Defensive Programming?; 1.4 The Big, Bad World; 1.5 In a Nutshell; 1.6 See Also; 1.7 Get Thinking; Chapter 2: THE BEST LAID PLANS; 2.1 What's the Big Deal?; 2.2 Know Your Audience; 2.3 What Is Good Presentation?; 2.4 Brace Yourself; 2.5 One Style to Rule Them All; 2.6 House Styles (and Where to Stick Them); 2.7 Setting the Standard; 2.8 Righteous Wars?; 2.9 In a Nutshell; 2.10 See Also; 2.11 Get Thinking; Chapter 3: WHAT'S IN A NAME?; 3.1 Why Should We Name Well?; 3.2 What Do We Name?; 3.3 Name Games; 3.4 The Nuts and Bolts; 3.5 A Rose by Any Other Name; 3.6 In a Nutshell; 3.7 See Also; 3.8 Get Thinking; Chapter 4: THE WRITESTUFF; 4.1 Self-Documenting Code; 4.2 Techniques for Self-Documenting Code; 4.3 Practical Self-Documentation Methodologies; 4.4 In a Nutshell; 4.5 See Also; 4.6 Get Thinking; Chapter 5: A PASSING COMMENT; 5.1 What Is a Code Comment?; 5.2 What Do Comments Look Like?; 5.3 How Many Comments?; 5.4 What Goes Inside Our Comments?; 5.5 In Practice; 5.6 A Comment on Aesthetics; 5.7 Working with Comments; 5.8 In a Nutshell; 5.9 See Also; 5.10 Get Thinking; Chapter 6: TO ERR IS HUMAN; 6.1 From Whence It Came; 6.2 Error-Reporting Mechanisms; 6.3 Detecting Errors; 6.4 Handling Errors; 6.5 Raising Hell; 6.6 Managing Errors; 6.7 In a Nutshell; 6.8 See Also; 6.9 Get Thinking; THE SECRET LIFE OF CODE; Chapter 7: THE PROGRAMMER'S TOOLBOX; 7.1 What Is a Software Tool?; 7.2 Why Worry About Tools?; 7.3 Power Tools; 7.4 Which Tools?; 7.5 In a Nutshell; 7.6 See Also; 7.7 Get Thinking; Chapter 8: TESTING TIMES; 8.1 Reality Check; 8.2 Who, What, When, and Why?; 8.3 Testing Isn't Hard . . .; 8.4 The Types of Test; 8.5 Choosing Unit Test Cases; 8.6 Design for Test; 8.7 Look! No Hands!; 8.8 The Face of Failure; 8.9 Can You Manage It?; 8.10 In a Nutshell; 8.11 See Also; 8.12 Get Thinking; Chapter 9: FINDING FAULT; 9.1 The Facts of Life; 9.2 Nature of the Beast; 9.3 Pest Extermination; 9.4 Bug Hunting; 9.5 How to Fix Faults; 9.6 Prevention; 9.7 Wasp Spray, Slug Repellent, Fly Paper . . .; 9.8 In a Nutshell; 9.9 See Also; 9.10 Get Thinking; Chapter 10: THE CODE THAT JACK BUILT; 10.1 Language Barriers; 10.2 Making Mountains out of Molehills; 10.3 Building Builds; 10.4 What Makes a Good Build System?; 10.5 The Mechanics; 10.6 Please Release Me; 10.7 Jack-of-All-Trades, Buildmaster Of?; 10.8 In a Nutshell; 10.9 See Also; 10.10 Get Thinking; Chapter 11: THE NEED FOR SPEED; 11.1 What Is Optimization?; 11.2 What Makes Code Suboptimal?; 11.3 Why Not Optimize?; 11.4 Why Optimize?; 11.5 The Nuts and Bolts; 11.6 Optimization Techniques; 11.7 Writing Efficient Code; 11.8 In a Nutshell; 11.9 See Also; 11.10 Get Thinking; Chapter 12: AN INSECURITY COMPLEX; 12.1 The Risks; 12.2 The Opposition; 12.3 Excuses, Excuses; 12.4 Feeling Vulnerable; 12.5 Protection Racket; 12.6 In a Nutshell; 12.7 See Also; 12.8 Get Thinking; THE SHAPE OF CODE; Chapter 13: GRAND DESIGNS; 13.1 Programming as Design; 13.2 What Do We Design?; 13.3 What's All the Fuss About?; 13.4 Good Software Design; 13.5 How to Design Code; 13.6 In a Nutshell; 13.7 See Also; 13.8 Get Thinking; Chapter 14: SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE; 14.1 What Is Software Architecture?; 14.2 What Is Good Architecture?; 14.3 Architectural Styles; 14.4 In a Nutshell; 14.5 See Also; 14.6 Get Thinking; Chapter 15: SOFTWARE EVOLUTION OR SOFTWARE REVOLUTION?; 15.1 Software Rot; 15.2 The Warning Signs; 15.3 How Does Code Grow?; 15.4 Believe the Impossible; 15.5 What Can We Do About This?; 15.6 In a Nutshell; 15.7 See Also; 15.8 Get Thinking; A HERD OF PROGRAMMERS?; Chapter 16: CODE MONKEYS; 16.1 Monkey Business; 16.2 The Ideal Programmer; 16.3 So What?; 16.4 The Stupidest of Men; 16.5 In a Nutshell; 16.6 See Also; 16.7 Action Sheet; 16.8 Get Thinking; Chapter 17: TOGETHER WE STAND; 17.1 Our Teams—The Big Picture; 17.2 Team Organization; 17.3 Teamwork Tools; 17.4 Team Diseases; 17.5 Personal Skills and Characteristics for Good Teamwork; 17.6 Teamwork Principles; 17.7 The Team Life Cycle; 17.8 In a Nutshell; 17.9 See Also; 17.10 Acttttttion Sheet; 17.11 Get Thinking; Chapter 18: PRACTICING SAFE SOURCE; 18.1 Our Responsibility; 18.2 Source Control; 18.3 Configuration Management; 18.4 Backups; 18.5 Releasing Source Code; 18.6 Wherever I Lay My Source; 18.7 In a Nutshell; 18.8 See Also; 18.9 Get Thinking; PART OF THE PROCESS; Chapter 19: BEING SPECIFIC; 19.1 What Are They, Specifically?; 19.2 The Types of Specification; 19.3 What Should Specifications Contain?; 19.4 The Specification-Writing Process; 19.5 Why Don't We Write Specifications?; 19.6 In a Nutshell; 19.7 See Also; 19.8 Get Thinking; Chapter 20: A REVIEW TO A KILL; 20.1 What Is a Code Review?; 20.2 When Do You Review?; 20.3 Performing Code Reviews; 20.4 Review Your Attitudes; 20.5 Code Perfection; 20.6 Beyond the Code Review; 20.7 In a Nutshell; 20.8 See Also; 20.9 Checklist; 20.10 Get Thinking; Chapter 21: HOW LONG IS A PIECE OF STRING?; 21.1 A Stab in the Dark; 21.2 Why Is Estimation So Hard?; 21.3 Under Pressure; 21.4 Practical Ways to Estimate; 21.5 The Planning Game; 21.6 Keep Up!; 21.7 In a Nutshell; 21.8 See Also; 21.9 Get Thinking; VIEW FROM THE TOP; Chapter 22: RECIPE FOR A PROGRAM; 22.1 Programming Styles; 22.2 Recipes: The How and the What; 22.3 Development Processes; 22.4 Enough, Already!; 22.5 Pick a Process; 22.6 In a Nutshell; 22.7 See Also; 22.8 Get Thinking; Chapter 23: THE OUTER LIMITS; 23.1 Applications Programming; 23.2 Games Programming; 23.3 Systems Programming; 23.4 Embedded Programming; 23.5 Distributed Programming; 23.6 Web Application Programming; 23.7 Enterprise Programming; 23.8 Numerical Programming; 23.9 So What?; 23.10 In a Nutshell; 23.11 See Also; 23.12 Get Thinking; Chapter 24: WHERE NEXT?; 24.1 But What Now?; Answers and Discussion; Chapter 1: On the Defensive; Chapter 2: The Best Laid Plans; Chapter 3: What’s in a Name?; Chapter 4: The Write Stuff; Chapter 5: A Passing Comment; Chapter 6: To Err Is Human; Chapter 7: The Programmer’s Toolbox; Chapter 8: Testing Times; Chapter 9: Finding Fault; Chapter 10: The Code That Jack Built; Chapter 11: The Need for Speed; Chapter 12: An Insecurity Complex; Chapter 13: Grand Designs; Chapter 14: Software Architecture; Chapter 15: Software Evolution or Software Revolution?; Chapter 16: Code Monkeys; Chapter 17: Together We Stand; Chapter 18: Practicing Safe Source; Chatper 19: Being Specific; Chapter 20: A Review to a Kill; Chapter 21: How Long Is a Piece of String?; Chapter 22: Recipe for a Program; Chapter 23: The Outer Limits; BIBLIOGRAPHY; COLOPHON;

Pete Goodliffe is a senior software engineer, currently working on embedded systems in C++. He never stays at the same place in the software food chain; from bringing new systems up, writing device drivers, through OS implementation, audio codecs, JVM implementation, to MIDI sequencing applications. He writes a regular column for accu.org called Professionalism in Programming and has published articles on software development in Hardcopy, C/C++ Users Journal, and Dr Dobb's Journal.