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Code Craft
book

Code Craft

by Pete Goodliffe
December 2006
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
610 pages
22h 58m
English
No Starch Press
Content preview from Code Craft

What Is Defensive Programming?

As the name suggests, defensive programming is careful, guarded programming. To construct reliable software, we design every component in the system so that it protects itself as much as possible. We smash unwritten assumptions by explicitly checking for them in the code. This is an attempt to prevent, or at least observe, when our code is called in a way that will exhibit incorrect behavior.

Defensive programming enables us to detect minor problems early on, rather than get bitten by them later when they’ve escalated into major disasters. All too often, you’ll see “professional” developers rush out code without thinking. The story goes something like this:

They are continually tripped up by the incorrect assumptions ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781593271190Errata