The coding blog of Alastair Smith, a software developer based in Cambridge, UK. Interested in DevOps, Azure, Kubernetes, .NET Core, and VueJS.
Next week I’m starting an adventure. I mean that in the truest sense of the phrase: I feel exhilaration and trepidation in equal measure. The path is littered with potholes and other small dangers. But at the end of it, I will emerge a better developer. Next week, I am starting to read Code Complete (2nd ed.) by Steve McConnell. This is a seriously important book in Software Engineering literature. Jeff Atwood, a .NET developer and prolific blogger that I respect, classes this as “the single most recommended programming book” and even went as far as to name his blog, Coding Horror, after one of the key concepts in the tome. My friend Steve maintains that reading this book was his transition from amateur to professional developer. Many software houses mandate that their employees have read the book before writing any code.
In short, it’s a book I should have read over a year ago when I started out in my chosen profession, and if you haven’t read it already, so should you.
In an effort to aid the small community I have built up around my blog, to ensure my understanding of the material, and make me a better technical writer as well as developer, I will be writing a series of posts on this book, summarising the key ideas from each chapter. Stay tuned to the Code Complete category, or subscribe to the topic feed. I look forward to having you along for the ride!