June 2025
Intermediate to advanced
152 pages
3h 15m
English
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Chapter 8Down at the Codeface
I don’t care if you use two- or four-character indentation, whether you put the opening brace at the start of the next line, or any of the other ridiculous things developers argue about whenever code formatting comes up.
I care about two main things:
- Is it simple to read?
- Is it simple to edit?
Can I:
- Find things quickly?
- See the structure at a glance?
- Add and remove things with the minimum number of collateral updates?
Here I’m not talking about the design of the code; I’m talking about the source files, the program text—the stuff I see in an editor buffer.
The practices in this chapter are things I do to make my code easier for me to read and modify. But this is just my list.
Keep an eye on your own code. Are there ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.