35.1. Information About Software Construction

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I originally wrote this book because I couldn't find a thorough discussion of software construction. In the years since I published the first edition, several good books have appeared.

Pragmatic Programmer (Hunt and Thomas 2000) focuses on the activities most closely associated with coding, including testing, debugging, use of assertions, and so on. It does not dive deeply into code itself but contains numerous principles related to creating good code.

Jon Bentley's Programming Pearls, 2d ed. (Bentley 2000) discusses the art and science of software design in the small. The book is organized as a set of essays that are very well written and express a great deal of insight into effective construction techniques as well as genuine enthusiasm for software construction. I use something I learned from Bentley's essays nearly every day that I program.

Kent Beck's Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change (Beck 2000) defines a construction-centric approach to software development. As Section 3.1 ("Importance of Prerequisites") explained, the book's assertions about the economics of Extreme Programming are not borne out by industry research, but many of its recommendations are useful during construction regardless of whether a team is using Extreme Programming or some other approach.

Cross-Reference

For more in the economics of Extreme Programming and agile programming, see cc2e.com/3545.

A more specialized book is Steve Maguire's Writing Solid Code Microsoft's Techniques for Developing Bug-Free C Software (Maguire 1993). It focuses on construction practices for commercial-quality software applications, mostly based on the author's experiences working on Microsoft's Office applications. It focuses on techniques applicable in C. It is largely oblivious to object-oriented programming issues, but most of the topics it addresses are relevant in any environment.

Another more specialized book is The Practice of Programming, by Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike (Kernighan and Pike 1999). This book focuses on nitty-gritty, practical aspects of programming, bridging the gap between academic computer-science knowledge and hands-on lessons. It includes discussions of programming style, design, debugging, and testing. It assumes familiarity with C/C++.

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Although it's out of print and hard to find, Programmers at Work, by Susan Lammers (1986), is worth the search. It contains interviews with the industry's high-profile programmers. The interviews explore their personalities, work habits, and programming philosophies. The luminaries interviewed include Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft), John Warnock (founder of Adobe), Andy Hertzfeld (principal developer of the Macintosh operating system), Butler Lampson (a senior engineer at DEC, now at Microsoft), Wayne Ratliff (inventor of dBase), Dan Bricklin (inventor of VisiCalc), and a dozen others.