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Title: Code Complete (Dv-Professional) by Steve McConnell, Microsoft ISBN: 0-7356-1967-0 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: June, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $49.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.64 (136 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Lives up to its name and fame
Comment: This book is a very helpful and informative guide to software construction. It covers anything from identation to psychology, routine construction to project planning and management, and proves useful regardless of your experience level, or the language you program in.
Even if some of its contents feel a little aged (I think that we can safely discard discussion of Fortran, for example, and syntax-coloring alleviates code layout problems in most modern environments) at least 95% of the contents are still pretty valuable.
The concepts and guidelines teached in this book are useful because they cover things that will probably be with us for years to come. For example, even if OO is not covered in deep, the concept of proper encapsulation and modular design are a recurring theme, and can easily map to OO development. The book is well organized and full of examples, hard data and checklists which will help you improve your general coding practices.
Don't think that this book is targeted to novices or amateur programmers (even if they will find it useful, too): expert coders have probably already discovered many of the principles by themselves, and a lot of the concepts are available in other books (like The Pragmatic Programmer, for example) but this does not detract from the value of this book.
Also don't be intimitated by the size of the book: the style is easy to follow, with plenty of examples, typographic highlights to stress various points, good use of images and diagrams, and lots of recaps, checklists and cross indexing among the various sections. You may read it from cover to cover and then use it as a reference by zooming to the appropriate chapter or section.
I think that this book may be considered a true classic, along with the works of Knuth or Bentley: a new edition could just update the bibliographic resources and perhaps freshen up some of the statistics (most of the points made by the author are backed by hard data and research, a valuable tool in teaching or advocating methodologies or design practices) and let the rest of the contents remain unchanged.
Even in its present edition, I think it fully deserves its 5 stars... in a sense, it deserves them even more, considering how well it stands the test of time in our fast-changing line of work.
Rating: 5
Summary: Exhaustive account of programming practices of last 30 years
Comment: Buy this book only if you are SERIOUS about programming. Because if you're not, you'll never get through it.
McConnell's book is an exhaustive guide to the nitty-gritty details of programming. There are entire CHAPTERS devoted to choosing names for variables, and dozens of pages covering every style of indenting since 1950. I am devouring programming books for my future career, and I am glad that I got this book. It covers all aspects of the design and coding process, with a heavy emphasis on readability and maintainability. It helped me to correct some bad coding practices that I developed.
I was most impressed by the references. McConnell has drawn together hundreds of papers, articles, and books written since the 60s and digested them all for you in this compact volume. He frequently quotes statistics and studies to support his claims. (Indenting lines 3-5 spaces boosts comprehension by 68%, but indenting by 6 or more spaces decreases it by 32%)
I got a real chuckle on his advice about how to deal with bosses who want to see code during the planning stages -- get printouts from previous projects and leave them around your desk, then lie!
Rating: 5
Summary: An essential volume for your bookshelf
Comment: The original Code Complete has long been regarded by many serious software developers as a "must have" compilation of software construction best practices. CC2 has similar breadth and depth and has been thoroughly updated to include discussion of emerging methodologies as extreme programming and best practices such as refactoring.
Steve McConnell provides a balanced, thoughtful discussion of competing opinions along with a wealth of references to additional materials covering specific topics in more detail. At the same time, McConnell has a clear voice articulating his judgment on various controversial topics.
Overall, CC2 is an essential book to include in your library whether you're just starting out in your career or an old grey hair responsible for mentoring teams. In both cases, CC2 puts a mountain of software construction best practices at your fingertips.
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Title: Rapid Development by Steve McConnell ISBN: 1556159005 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: 02 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt, David Thomas ISBN: 020161622X Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional Pub. Date: 20 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
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Title: Software Project Survival Guide by Steve C McConnell ISBN: 1572316217 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: 14 November, 1997 List Price(USD): $24.99 |
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Title: The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, 20th Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition) by Frederick P. Brooks ISBN: 0201835959 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional Pub. Date: 02 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Design Patterns by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides ISBN: 0201633612 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional Pub. Date: 15 January, 1995 List Price(USD): $54.99 |
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