Recommend the Art of Readable Code 200 Pages

Preface

Nosotros've worked at highly successful software companies, with outstanding engineers, and the code we run across notwithstanding has plenty of room for comeback. In fact, nosotros've seen some actually ugly lawmaking, and you probably have too.

But when nosotros run into beautifully written code, it's inspiring. Skilful code can teach you what'southward going on very quickly. Information technology's fun to utilise, and information technology motivates you to make your own code better.

The goal of this book is help yous make your code better. And when we say "code," we literally mean the lines of code you are staring at in your editor. We're not talking almost the overall compages of your projection, or your choice of design patterns. Those are certainly important, simply in our feel well-nigh of our day-to-twenty-four hour period lives as programmers are spent on the "basic" stuff, like naming variables, writing loops, and attacking problems down at the function level. And a big part of this is reading and editing the code that's already there. We hope you'll find this book then helpful to your day-to-day programming that you'll recommend information technology to anybody on your team.

What This Book Is Most

This book is most how to write code that's highly readable. The key idea in this book is that code should exist easy to sympathise . Specifically, your goal should exist to minimize the time it takes someone else to understand your code.

This book explains this thought and illustrates it with lots of examples from different languages, including C++, Python, JavaScript, and Java. We've avoided whatever advanced language features, and then fifty-fifty if y'all don't know all these languages, it should all the same be easy to follow along. (In our feel, the concepts of readability are mostly language-contained, anyhow.)

Each affiliate dives into a different aspect of coding and how to make it "easy to empathise." The book is divided into 4 parts:

Surface-level improvements

Naming, commenting, and aesthetics—simple tips that apply to every line of your codebase

Simplifying loops and logic

Ways to refine the loops, logic, and variables in your program to make them easier to empathise

Reorganizing your lawmaking

Higher-level means to organize large blocks of lawmaking and assault bug at the office level

Selected topics

Applying "like shooting fish in a barrel to understand" to testing and to a larger data structure coding example

How to Read This Book

Our book is intended to be a fun, casual read. We hope well-nigh readers volition read the whole book in a week or 2.

The chapters are ordered past "difficulty": basic topics are at the beginning, and more advanced topics are at the terminate. All the same, each chapter is cocky-contained and can be read in isolation. So feel free to skip around if you lot'd similar.

Using Code Examples

This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, you may use the lawmaking in this book in your programs and documentation. You lot exercise non need to contact u.s. for permission unless yous're reproducing a significant portion of the lawmaking. For example, writing a program that uses several chunks of code from this book does not require permission. Selling or distributing a CD-ROM of examples from O'Reilly books does require permission. Answering a question by citing this volume and quoting case code does non require permission. Incorporating a meaning amount of example code from this book into your production's documentation does crave permission.

We appreciate, but practice non require, attribution. An attribution commonly includes the title, author, publisher, and ISBN. For example: " The Fine art of Readable Code by Dustin Boswell and Trevor Foucher. Copyright 2012 Dustin Boswell and Trevor Foucher, 978-0-596-80229-5."

If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission given in a higher place, feel free to contact u.s. at permissions@oreilly.com.

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Annotation

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With a subscription, yous can read any page and lookout man any video from our library online. Read books on your cell telephone and mobile devices. Access new titles before they are available for print, and go sectional admission to manuscripts in development and post feedback for the authors. Copy and paste lawmaking samples, organize your favorites, download chapters, bookmark central sections, create notes, print out pages, and benefit from tons of other fourth dimension-saving features.

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How to Contact U.s.

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We have a web folio for this volume, where we list errata, examples, and any additional information. You tin admission this folio at:

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Acknowledgments

Nosotros'd similar to thank our colleagues who donated their time to review our entire manuscript, including Alan Davidson, Josh Ehrlich, Rob Konigsberg, Archie Russell, Gabe Due west., and Asaph Zemach. Whatsoever errors in the volume are entirely their fault (but kidding).

We're grateful to the many reviewers who gave us detailed feedback on various drafts of our volume, including Michael Hunger, George Heineman, and Chuck Hudson.

We too got numerous ideas and feedback from John Blackburn, Tim Dasilva, Dennis Geels, Steve Gerding, Chris Harris, Josh Hyman, Joel Ingram, Erik Mavrinac, Greg Miller, Anatole Paine, and Nick White. Thanks to the numerous online commenters who reviewed our draft on O'Reilly'southward OFPS arrangement.

Thanks to the squad at O'Reilly for their endless patience and support, specifically Mary Treseler (editor), Teresa Elsey (production editor), Nancy Kotary (copyeditor), Rob Romano (illustrator), Jessica Hosman (tools), and Abby Trick (tools). And also to our cartoonist, Dave Allred, who fabricated our crazy cartoon ideas come to life.

Lastly, nosotros'd similar to give thanks Melissa and Suzanne, for encouraging united states of america forth the way and putting up with incessant programming conversations.

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Source: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-art-of/9781449318482/pr03.html

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