Name: Code Simplicity
ISBN: 9781449313890

Max Kanat-Alexander

Examines the purpose of good software design, shares examples that demonstrate how a system changes over time, and provides principles applicable to any prgramming language or project.

Code Simplicity

Nikolay Bachiyski

Great explanation of why software and it's design must have a simple purpose.

The book is short, but complete. It doesn’t touch on “how” to abide to the rules it sets and focuses on the “why”, instead.

The language is clean and to the point. Most of the examples are practical enough, only a few too vague.

I love that the content wasn’t buried in a blog post and at the same time I love the author kept the book very very short (70 pages).

Before saying it’s all common sense, give it few minutes to appreciate that it’s all of the knowledge about why we need simpler designs and purposes in one place. And take few minutes to look through your experience and find better examples than those in the book.

Lance Willett

Very short and concise read. I love the purpose of software explained: to help people. A rubric to evaluate everything from bugs (does this hinder people?) to new features (does it help people?).

I also love the concept of incremental progress to make sure you don't defer cleanup and maintenance to a future time when it's unlikely to happen.

My favorite quote is about testing: "Unless you tried it yourself, you don't know that it works."

Highly recommended to everyone who works in software.