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Title: Enough Rope to Shoot Yourself in the Foot: Rules for C and C++ Programming by Allen I. Holub ISBN: 0-07-029689-8 Publisher: Computing McGraw-Hill Pub. Date: October, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3.3 (10 reviews)

Rating: 2
Summary: Read Code Construction instead
Comment: Read McConnell's "Code Construction" instead. Covers the same ground, but better, more informative, and less opinionated. Nothing wrong with opinionated. Just that Holub tends to present his views as the de-facto best practice when other views are just as valid or more valid. He tends to neglect any supporting reasons for his views. For instance, his section on tab stops ("40. Use four-space indents") presents the following reason logic: a) 1 space indents are unreadable and b) 4 space indents are ideal. That's it.

What this book is, is a codification of Holub's prejudices regarding writing C & C++ code. I agree with most of them personally. In fact, he's the only coding style writer I've seen that agrees with me on some, but nevertheless this appears to be simply a vanity book in style and substance.

McConnell's book is more thorough in style and substance, even if I think he's wrong in many cases.

Rating: 5
Summary: A Great set of Guidelines from a Master
Comment: Allen Holub's book should be on every C/C++ programmer's shelf.
He is a master of his craft and one of the few writers in the
field that is not afraid of being critical of the latest and
greatest fad. His experience comes from years of work in the
trenches and it shows. Ignore his guidelines at your own risk.
You may not agree with everything he writes (I didn't) but it's
all food for thought.

Rating: 2
Summary: Why read this when there are more disciplined books?
Comment: Imagine someone took the Ten Commandments and tossed in some of his own commandments, and published it; of course, it would have some GREAT parts, but it would lend authority to the author's additions which they don't deserve.

Yes, he includes the venerable rules of programming style, as laid out by the classic authors, then tosses in some of his own that are self-indulgent and provincial. Good luck to a beginner trying to sort them out.

Pulling rules out of thin air makes you an autocrat, not an authority. Get The Practice of Programming, Code Complete.

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