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. What kind of
work will you be doing? 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. More importantly you will
be challenged to reassess your professional values and your commitment to your craft. Clean
Code is divided into three parts. The first describes the principles patterns and practices
of writing clean code. The second part consists of several case studies of increasing
complexity. 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. The third part 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. Readers will come away from this book 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.
