Robby on Rails: Code Complete

Code Complete

Robby Russell — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 11:11:00 -0500

I came across a review of Code Complete, 2nd Ed. last night… and saw the following quotes.

””People have already made all the mistakes that you’re making now, and unless you’re a glutton for punishment, you’ll prefer reading their books and avoiding their mistakes to inventing new versions of old problems.” “

...and

””Once a programmer realizes that programming principles transcend the syntax of any specific language, the doors swing open to knowledge that truly makes a difference in quality and productivity.”“

I’m sold and with 900+ pages… I’m sure I have a few things to learn. I’m going to go pick it up shortly at Powell’s Technical. :-)

"Code Complete" by Robby Russell

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 11:44:12 -0500

Stephen,

It’s also required reading in many CS courses. I’m sorry that you or people that you know were required to read the book. I’ll admit that much of the book is pointing out things that any competent developer should know already… but to make a generalization that the book is crap for this reason alone is nonsense. What the book does do is give developers something to think about. It’s mental stimulation for developers just like many of the books about development and processes are. It’s important to remember that there is no one way to do it and this sort of skepticism is in my opinion… one of the biggest challenges that face developers.

Why are we so skeptical?

"Code Complete" by Stephen Waits

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 11:17:41 -0500

s/Their/There/

"Code Complete" by Stephen Waits

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 11:17:04 -0500

Just giving you my opinion of the book.

In my experience . . .

Middle and upper management usually think this is a great book to require all of their people to read. Their was a huge trend of doing this, with this specific book, about 8 or 9 years ago.

People who do the work generally think this book sucks.

I suspect the middle and upper managers never actually read the book themselves.

"Code Complete" by ian

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 10:43:37 -0500

what the are you on about, stephen? care to elaborate a bit?

"Code Complete" by Stephen Waits

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 21:19:09 -0500

Total junk.

People with this on their bookshelf are the people you don’t want to waste your time with.

You’ll see for yourself though. Happy reading.

"Code Complete" by Sean

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 18:02:26 -0500

I first came across the (1st Edition) of this book while on my first work term doing system testing. Reading it in my spare time between new tests and I kept running across things where I thought ‘that is so simple and makes sense, why did I never think of that before?’

I still refer back to it every few months, and list it as one of the must reads of CS.

Hmmmm…... maybe I should really pick up the 2nd Edition.

"Code Complete" by dgibbons

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 13:47:59 -0500

Sounds like I’ll have to steal that from your desk when you’re not looking!

"Code Complete" by Jason Bekolay

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 12:12:23 -0500

Definitely one of the best, and a must-own for every programmer. Luckily I had a prof recommend it to me back when I was a student :-) Pull it out every few months and see if any bad habits have snuck into your coding practices. I always need to reread the bits about table-based methods to keep them fresh in my head.