Even bad code can function. But if code isn't clean, it can bring a development organization to its knees. Every year, countless hours and significant resources are lost because of poorly written code. But it doesn't have to be that way.
Noted software expert Robert C. Martin presents a revolutionary paradigm with Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship. Martin has teamed up with his colleagues from Object Mentor to distill their best agile practice of cleaning code "on the fly" into a book that will instill within you the values of a software craftsman and make you a better programmer-but only if you work at it.
Clean Code is divided into three parts.
- The first 13 chapters, fully contained in the audio, describes the principles, patterns, and practices of writing clean code.
- The second part, chapters 14 to 16, consists of several case studies of increasing complexity and is included in a pdf that comes with your purchase. Each case study is an exercise in cleaning up code-of transforming a code base that has some problems into one that is sound and efficient. You'll be reading code-lots of code. And you will be challenged to think about what's right about that code, and what's wrong with it.
- The third part, chapter 17, is provided both in the audio and the pdf. It is the payoff: a single chapter containing a list of heuristics and "smells" gathered while creating the case studies. The result is a knowledge base that describes the way we think when we write, read, and clean code.
Listeners will come away from Clean Code understanding:
- How to tell the difference between good and bad code
- How to write good code and how to transform bad code into good code
- How to create good names, good functions, good objects, and good classes
- How to format code for maximum readability
- How to implement complete error handling without obscuring code logic
- How to unit test and practice test-driven development
This book is a must for any developer, software engineer, project manager, team lead, or systems analyst with an interest in producing better code.
