Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship

Citation

Hutton, D.M. (2009), "Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship", Kybernetes, Vol. 38 No. 6, pp. 1035-1035. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684920910973252

Written for the author's own Richard C. Martin Series and designed for the professional programmer it will be of value to any aspiring software creator. Most programmers since Ada Lovelace's time learnt by their own mistakes. Those of us who have tried to teach programming as an “art” appreciate the difficulties. Indeed there was a time in the early days of programming when the “gifted amateur” matched the skills of any professional, and students of the classics were often the most successful program writers.

Since then, we have developed theories of programming and have weaned a breed of software engineers to replace the simple “coders of yesteryear.”

Nowadays, there are innumerable books on programming, and software designers and implementers all have their own beliefs about it what writing “good” software programs means.

A book on “clean code” does not come amiss, any text that guides the coder to produce good practice and software craftsmanship is particularly welcome. A book that claims to be a handbook of “Agile Software Craftsmanship” has a great deal to offer provided it is itself well‐structured. This handbook follows the rules for constructing good software. It has a simple ordered approach and introduces the reader to a practical system on how to develop the sought after clean code. This is done by providing the reader with useful advice throughout and by supplementing the important chapters with appendices of code listings to match. The examples given are well chosen and illustrate both the right way and the error‐free way of constructing software that is well‐designed, re‐usable and exhibits the “craftsmanship” that is so desired.

This is a book that all intending “clean coders” should read and one that has practical strategies for producing the good software that computer users deserve. In particular those of us that develop software systems in cybernetics and for management science projects will benefit from the advice given by this experienced author who advocates a change in the approach to writing good software coding.