Writing Solid Code (20th Anniversary 2nd Edition)

Written by a former Senior Level Microsoft developer, this book takes on the problem of software errors by examining the kinds of mistakes that developers typically make. With the growing complexity of software today and the associated climb in bug rates, it's becoming increasingly necessary for programmers to produce bug-free code much earlier in the development cycle, before the code is first sent to the testing group. The key to writing bug-free code is to become more aware of how and why bugs come about. Programmers can gain this awareness by asking two simple questions for every bug they encounter: "How could I have prevented this bug?" and "How could I have automatically detected this bug?" The guidelines presented in this book are the results of programmers regularly asking these questions for every bug they've had to track down over years of programming. WRITING SOLID CODE provides practical approaches to prevention and automatic detection of bugs. Throughout, Steve Maguire draws candidly on the history of application development at Microsoft for cases in point-both good and bad-and shows you how to use proven programming techniques to write rock-solid code. If you're serious about developing world-class code, you'll benefit from Maguire's experience and practical advice in WRITING SOLID CODE.