Friday, May 27, 2011

Interesting metric

Recently I did a search through some code for the expression "? true : false". Nearly 20 matches from several different developers. At least it's not breaking anything.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Thank you Michael Feathers

Michael Feathers's book Working Effectively With Legacy Code is probably the computer book I get the most use out of. There's a lot of books out there that will tell you the principles of good design but this is the very best book for the more tactical stuff, i.e. how to work with the messy code you're given. This book is full of real word scenarios and practical advice and you can tell it's written by a battle-scarred veteran. Because of Working Effectively, I've been able to improve the design of some of the biggest, messiest, and most convoluted static classes I've run into. When I think of which programing book has been the most useful and mind-expanding for me, this one is tied with the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs and anyone who programs should read both.