book

Code That Fits in Your Head: Heuristics for Software Engineering

by Mark Seemann

November 2021

Intermediate to advanced

416 pages

9h 26m

English

Addison-Wesley Professional

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1.1 Building a House1.2 Growing a Garden1.3 Towards Engineering1.4 Conclusion
2.1 An Aid to Memory2.2 Checklist for a New Code Base2.3 Adding Checks to Existing Code Bases2.4 Conclusion
3.1 Purpose3.2 Why Programming Is Difficult3.3 Towards Software Engineering3.4 Conclusion
4.1 Start with Working Software4.2 Walking Skeleton4.3 Outside-in4.4 Complete the Slice4.5 Conclusion
5.1 Save the Data5.2 Validation5.3 Protection of Invariants5.4 Conclusion
6.1 Short-Term versus Long-Term Memory6.2 Capacity6.3 Conclusion
7.1 Code Rot7.2 Code That Fits in Your Brain7.3 Conclusion
8.1 Principles of API Design8.2 API Design Example8.3 Conclusion
9.1 Git9.2 Collective Code Ownership9.3 Conclusion
10.1 Feature Flags10.2 The Strangler Pattern10.3 Versioning10.4 Conclusion
11.1 Refactoring Unit Tests11.2 See Tests Fail11.3 Conclusion
12.1 Understanding12.2 Defects12.3 Bisection12.4 Conclusion
13.1 Composition13.2 Cross-Cutting Concerns13.3 Conclusion
14.1 Personal Rhythm14.2 Team Rhythm14.3 Conclusion
15.1 Performance15.2 Security15.3 Other Techniques15.4 Conclusion
16.1 Navigation16.2 Architecture16.3 Usage16.4 Conclusion
A.1 The 50/72 RuleA.2 The 80/24 RuleA.3 Arrange Act AssertA.4 BisectionA.5 Checklist for A New Code BaseA.6 Command Query Separation331A.7 Count the VariablesA.8 Cyclomatic ComplexityA.9 Decorators for Cross-Cutting ConcernsA.10 Devil’s AdvocateA.11 Feature FlagA.12 Functional Core, Imperative ShellA.13 Hierarchy of CommunicationA.14 Justify Exceptions from the RuleA.15 Parse, Don’t ValidateA.16 Postel’s LawA.17 Red Green RefactorA.18 Regularly Update DependenciesA.19 Reproduce Defects as TestsA.20 Review CodeA.21 Semantic VersioningA.22 Separate Refactoring of Test and Production CodeA.23 SliceA.24 StranglerA.25 Threat-ModelA.26 Transformation Priority PremiseA.27 X-driven DevelopmentA.28 X Out Names

Content preview from Code That Fits in Your Head: Heuristics for Software Engineering

1 Art or Science?

Are you a scientist or an artist? An engineer or a craftsman? Are you a gardener or a chef? A poet or an architect?

Are you a programmer or a software developer? If so, then what are you?

My response to these questions is: Yes, none of the above.

While I self-identify as a programmer, I’m a little of all of the above. And yet, none of those.

Questions like these are important. The software development industry is about 70 years old, and we’re still figuring it out. One persistent problem is how to think about it. Hence these questions. Is software development like building a house? Is it like composing a poem?

Over the decades, we’ve tried sundry metaphors, but they all fall apart. Developing software is like building a house, ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780137464302