Book Review: Clean Code by Uncle Bob Martin

Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software CraftsmanshipIt is true that seasoned developers will find that they “already know” much of what is in the early part of the book — but my experience is that Martin has a unique ability to crystallize even common wisdom in a way that gives accepted practice new impetus and that expands my understanding of the implications of tenets I hold to but don’t always fully implement.

 

I first met Bob Martin 15 years ago by reading his brilliantly lucid  Designing Object Oriented C++ Applications Using The Booch Method. He was kind enough to help me sort out my own struggles with the writings of the “Three Amigos” and I’ve been something of a fan ever since.

He followed with a number of excellent books; took the lead first on Patterns and then on Agile development; but now he has reached beyond his dedicated audience of serious software architecture geeks, with this extraordinary work on writing code well.

This book ranks on any shelf that has Why Software Sucks by David Platt, Code Complete by Steve McConne or Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code

Bob Martin is known to many of us as “Uncle Bob,” and with good reason; his writing is avuncular in the finest sense of being solid advice offered in good cheer and without condescension.

All of that said, this is not a light weight book; while offering up the fundamental principles that separate yeoman programmers from the truly expert, he goes on to teach more (and more effectively) about test driven development in one chapter than most authors accomplish in a book. He does the same for refactoring and, I would argue, on the way he offers a brilliant introduction to Agile programming.

While we’re at it, let’s note that the chapters on naming and on comments would serve well as a standard for any software development group and should certainly be required reading for all new developers.

In short, I recommend Clean Code without reservation to those who are not yet convinced they know all that can be known about creating great software.