51.

Not the Last Word

Naturally, adopting principles like these will help to reduce the occurrence of bug patterns in your code. You may find that some of the bug patterns discussed here are not the ones you most frequently encounter; and, to be sure, many of the bug patterns we've discussed are problematic enough that we can't expect to stop them from recurring. We can only learn to diagnose them more quickly and to eliminate them with the right preventative measures.

As you discover that other patterns become more frequent, document them. Talk to others about them. Write articles about them and let people know.

Many new books, such as Bruce Tate's Bitter Java (see Resources), have started documenting various common bugs at the level of design. Tate also discusses many coding-level issues, including the Split Cleaner bug pattern (although Tate labels it an "anti pattern," a term more commonly reserved for design-level bugs).

Bug patterns can occur not just in Java, but in any programming language, even in markup languages, scripting languages, and query languages. The more we document such patterns, the more we can benefit from each other's experience. And in the fast-paced world of software development, leveraging the experience of others is a must.

May your days be filled with many successful bug sleuthings!