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Title: Writing Solid Code: Microsoft's Techniques for Developing Bug-Free C Programs by Steve Maguire ISBN: 1556155514 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: May, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.61
Rating: 4
Summary: Just because its printed by the Microsoft press...
Comment: Mr. Maguire is an experienced programmer, and this shows in his book. You'll find a lot of his advice useful. Sometimes though, one gets the impression that the author's showing off all that he's learnt.
The book offers advice on how to write bug-free code (or as close to bug free as possible :). It is NOT for beginner, but if you've been programming for even a few months, you'll learn from it. Its not a 'dry' read either. While nothing should be taken as the final word in how to do things/code, condiser Mr. Maguir a teacher imparting his experience through the book. Finally, I disagree with the reviewers who feel that anything printed by the Microsoft press/written by Microsoft's engineers is no good.
Rating: 4
Summary: Still Offers Good Advice
Comment: The negative reviews I've read tend to fall into two categories: 1) Anti-Microsoft Bashing and 2) Nitpicking.
This book isn't a recipe book, and it's a bit dated, having been written during the days of DOS and the first Macintosh, but the underlying themes and general advice are still valid:
- Enable compiler warnings and pay attention to them.
- Use assertions to validate your assumptions.
- Don't quietly ignore error conditions or invalid input.
- For a complicated, critical algorithm, consider using a second algorithm to validate the first. (e.g. validate binary search with a linear search).
- Don't write multi-purpose functions such as realloc (it can grow memory, shrink memory, free memory, or allocate new memory -- it does it all).
- Check boundary conditions carefully.
- Avoid risky language idioms.
- Write code for the "average" programmer. Don't make the "average" programmer reach for a reference manual to understand your code.
- Fix bugs now, not later.
- There are no free features; don't allow needless flexibility (like realloc).
- Ultimately the developer is responsible for finding bugs; he shouldn't write sloppy code and hope that QA will find all his bugs.
Rating: 2
Summary: Heavy on Obfuscatory Text, Light on Content
Comment: In the Preface of "Writing Solid Code," Maguire comments that he had never written a book before. Unfortunately, his lack of experience with writing a good technical manual is readily apparent. Much of the text revolves around examples of finding and correcting a bugs in the Macintosh Excel division of Microsoft. The text is awkardly written and his explanations are often obscure, especially to a beginning "C" programmer. It doesn't help matters that there is no difficulty rating assigned to this book; Writing Solid Code is definiately not written for the amateur, and beginners are unlikely to get much of value out of this text.
I suppose my biggest gripe is that this book is very light on content in comparison to other computer books that are available. A much better book on software engineering is Steve McConnell's "Code Complete," which costs only ten dollars more, and is available from Microsoft Press.
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Title: Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction by Steve C McConnell ISBN: 1556154844 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: May, 1993 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Debugging the Development Process: Practical Strategies for Staying Focused, Hitting Ship Dates, and Building Solid Teams by Steve Maguire ISBN: 1556156502 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: August, 1994 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Practice of Programming by Brian W. Kernighan, Rob Pike ISBN: 020161586X Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 04 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $29.99 |
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Title: Software Project Survival Guide by Steve C McConnell ISBN: 1572316217 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: November, 1997 List Price(USD): $24.99 |
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Title: Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules by Steve McConnell ISBN: 1556159005 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: 02 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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