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Max Kanat-Alexander

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Code Simplicity: The Fundamentals of Software 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by Max Kanat-Alexander (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.0 193 ratings

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Good software development results in simple code. Unfortunately, much of the code existing in the world today is far too complex. This concise guide helps you understand the fundamentals of good software development through universal laws--principles you can apply to any programming language or project from here to eternity.

Whether you're a junior programmer, senior software engineer, or non-technical manager, you'll learn how to create a sound plan for your software project, and make better decisions about the pattern and structure of your system.

Learn what differentiates great programmers from poor programmers
Understand the ultimate purpose of software and the goals of good software design
Determine the value of your decisions now and in the future
Examine real-world examples that demonstrate how a system changes over time
Learn to allow for the most change in the environment with the least change in the software
Make easier changes in the future by keeping your code simpler now
Understand why to write tests and what tests to write

ISBN-13

978-1449313890
Edition

1st
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

O'Reilly Media
Publication date

March 23, 2012
Language

English
File size

258 KB
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Max Kanat-Alexander is the Technical Lead for Code Health at Google and former Chief Architect of the Bugzilla Project. He been fixing computers since he was eight years old and writing software since he was fourteen. He is the author of codesimplicity.com and fedorafaq.org, and is currently living in Northern California.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B007NZU848
Publisher ‏ : ‎ O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (March 23, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 23, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 258 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 84 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,157,342 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #257 in Computer Systems Analysis & Design (Kindle Store)
- #664 in Computer Systems Analysis & Design (Books)
- #799 in Two-Hour Computers & Technology Short Reads

Customer Reviews:
4.0 193 ratings

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Max Kanat-Alexander

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Max Kanat-Alexander is the Technical Lead for Code Health at Google and former Chief Architect of the Bugzilla Project. He been fixing computers since he was eight years old and writing software since he was fourteen. He is the author of codesimplicity.com and fedorafaq.org, and is currently living in Northern California.

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4 out of 5

193 global ratings

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Z

Very helpful and practical

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2012

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As a database programmer with a few years of experience, I found this book very helpful. As I read the book, I found myself thinking of many examples in my daily work where it would be helpful to apply the philosophies of Code Simplicity. The general idea of keeping code as simple as doesn't seem to get nearly as much emphasis as it should. For example, while working I'll often come across a very complicated query, usually written that way in an attempt to make it perform as fast as possible. But this book clearly shows how such an approach can have very negative consequences in terms of how difficult it is to maintain the software. Though in some cases it may be necessary to trade simplicity for speed, simplicity should be a very primary concern, and those trade offs should be carefully considered. The author clearly is speaking from a position of experience, and has obviously run into many of the issues caused by overly complex code first hand.

The book also deals with similar issues regarding the higher level software architecture / design. I can't comment on that advice as much from my own experience, as my day to day tasks are generally lower level, but I can say the general principles outlined in the book could be very successfully applied to my type of work. I recommend this book to any programmer who is looking for some clearly written, practical advise for writing better code.

4 people found this helpful

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Inky Digits

Collected, creditable and well explained software theory

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2017

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TL;DR: This book provides collected and well explained software design theory (not algorithms) from a creditable source. I would recommend it particularly to self-taught or junior programmers, managers of programmers or senior programmers responsible for training new hires. It will result in better code.

If you're a seasoned programmer then there is probably little or nothing to gain from this book... although I've met some people who had been programming for several years who would benefit from the theory in this book.

The principle value I get from this text is a useful way to look at software design in general; almost at a philosophical level. It is not so much a book about writing code as it is about writing (or rewriting) manageable code, and why that's critical to success. It is not language or platform specific, nor does it contain various algorithms for sorting or searching, or sample code outlining various patterns or anything like that. It is also not very "how-to" you'll have to work out much of how this applies to your specific use case, but having done just that very recently with someone else's code I can say that it is quite doable and well worth it.

It helps to answer why certain best practices are the best practice, what you have to keep in mind when writing or maintaining code to make your work valuable, and theories on how to fix up existing and yet difficult to maintain code bases.

Some other reviews have pointed out the pretense of attempting to codify "laws" of programming, or that there is nothing terribly revelatory here to anyone who has read a few good blog posts about programming best-practices. I get those arguments but I'm going to offer an alternative viewpoint, as I found the book worthy enough to ready twice through and hand out to colleagues.

First, attempting to establish a seniority of facts, as long as it does not seek to elevate unimportant facts to prominence, is worthwhile. This is one of the key reasons textbooks need to get written, or educators have work to do. After a certain point one cannot seek to know the whole of a subject. With practice someone will learn much and be able to sort out for himself what is important and what is unimportant in that which he specializes in, but given that the field is advancing he cannot then hope to teach the next generation all of what he knows, plus leave room for them to learn all of the new stuff. So the most important facts must be codified and taught, then the new information can be related to them, and the things of lesser importance are given their proper place amongst the nearly-forgotten curiosities of the past.

Next, and along similar lines: yes, you can find much, if not all of this information in blog posts and articles on-line, which can be read for free. But first you'll have to find the correct information, sort it from misinformation and the unimportant, and assimilate it (which can be tricky depending on the quality of the writing). A textbook lends a sense of correctness and erudition, which may be of secondary importance to the actual correctness of the data, but at least you can be more certain that the information is creditable and the editors will have made sure its readable.

So, what this book provides is collected, well explained and important information, from a knowledgeable source. One can attempt to fish such from the vastness of the Internet, wasting more time and being less certain of its correctness, skip the searching and for the cost of a few coffees buy a book which can be read in a couple of hours, reread and handed around to each programmer you work with, and which will certainly result in better code.

15 people found this helpful

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David S. James

the shortest but most inofrmative book ever!!!

Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2014

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I was nearly to stop reading the book as first 50% of the book is very boring. I would recommend to read it from the middle and then move to the beginning. It may sound strange but 40 pages of this book contain more information than you may find in really thick books for 800 pages. All information is very compact and easy to understand. It's simply the tips and tricks from professional developer. I personally knew some of them but as well as the author, it took me ages to find them. So do not waste your time for inventing the bicycle and read this book ;)

2 people found this helpful

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uuklanger

Nice for setting a mindset for code development

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2012

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I read this book cover to cover as I traveled from city to city. There are some interesting little anecdotes throughout the book but much of it was high level and thin. I think for someone getting into project management it could be useful and full some good ways of thinking.

There is a section that is also nicely summarized in a back appendix about how to calculate the value of a change.

2 people found this helpful

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Marwa

Not for experienced users

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2021

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I chose this book based on a recommenation from a colleague. It is a simple book with an easy language and you can finish reading in less than one day. But, I believe this book is for junior programmers, not for experienced ones. Most if not all rules presented in the book are already known.

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2013

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This book is full of lots of pithy, simple, true advice. This is the kind of stuff that after you read it, you feel that you should have known it already, but you just haven't had the chance to think it over enough. Kanat-Alexander has done an excellent job of rounding up a large number of the simple truths of software design and presenting them in a clear, concise, self-evident manner.

2 people found this helpful

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Yiannis Karadimas

Excellent single afternoon read

Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2013

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The author manages to drive home some of the most painful issues around coding. It 's a thoroughly enjoyable read, if perhaps a little generic. A must read for any software engineer, particularly those that think highly of their code.

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Anton Petrov

If there exists a silver bullet for developing maintainable software it is the Simplicity.

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2019

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Small and easy to read book about the most important quality of a good software which is the code simplicity. A must read for architects and tech leads struggling with increasing complexity and chaos in their projects.

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Amazon Customer

Buena lectura

Reviewed in Spain on September 23, 2020

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Un conjunto de reglas que no debemos olvidar a la hora de crear software explicadas de forma sencilla y breve haciendo honor al propio título del libro. De todas las reglas, me quedo con una esencial que es fácil olvidar: el objetivo del software es ayudar a las personas.

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Cliente Amazon

Bel libro

Reviewed in Italy on August 24, 2020

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Leggibile e digeribile, concetti chiari ed semplici. Facile lettura e quantità dei capitoli giusti. Per chi se ne intende dell’argomento è un ottimo libro da rileggere ogni tanto.

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J. A. Rodriguez

Un libro que todo recién egresado debe leer...

Reviewed in Mexico on November 16, 2017

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Este libro explica por qué el hacer SW de manera sencilla es un deber ético y cómo se puede lograr. Siempre lo tomo como ejercicio para cualquier ingeniero recién egresado que contrato, aunque no por eso significa que gente experimentada no pueda aprender de él.

One person found this helpful

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PriHrish

Very good for people who know programming but liitle confused how ...

Reviewed in India on May 21, 2017

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Very good for people who know programming but liitle confused how or what should i program.best to learn industrial level tips nd techniques.
Programming has a direction.

Fabiano C. de Oliveira

Regras e dicas para se ter boas praticas no desenvolvimento

Reviewed in Brazil on September 4, 2014

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Eu sempre considerei e ainda considero o desenvolvimento de software mais uma arte do que uma ciência. Infelizmente, ainda temos , acredito eu, um longo caminho para que as "boas práticas" se tornem "formulas matemáticas".

Este livro me mostrou que apesar disso podemos, na falta de formulas matemáticas, usar o bom senso e a experiência acumulada em milhares de projetos e aplicar o que ele chamou de leis do software. Não são leis no sentido aplicado as ciências mas algo bem próximo disso, segundo a definição do próprio autor. Quem ja possui alguma experiência com o desenvolvimento de software ao ler este livro vai ter uma sensação de dejavu. Mas é uma sensação boa quando alguém define em palavras e regras bem definidas a experiência que você teve em projetos. Isso ajuda tanto aos mais experientes quanto aos inexperientes a não cometer os chamadas erros clássicos do desenvolvimento.

Altamente recomendado principalmente para aqueles que estão iniciando no desenvolvimento de software trabalhando em projetos sozinho ou em equipe. Não é um livro técnico se você deseja ver aqui trechos e trechos de código este é o livro errado. Nele temos uma abordagem teórica que em tese pode ser assimilada ate por quem não esta lidando no dia a dia do desenvolvimento. O intuito do livro é estabelecer as regas gerais do software que todo aquele que tem experiência sabe mas infelizmente comete o pecado de ignora-las. Para os mais experientes o livro expressa em palavras a sua vivência e te lembra a não cometer os mesmos erros e para os mais novos ele deveria ser obrigatório.

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