BOOK: Beautiful Code (Leading Programmers Explain How They Think)

Using a similar idea used for Clean Code, this book talks about... Beautiful Code. (PS. When will the Fluffy Code book come out?)

Beautiful code » nvie.com


Quoting (nvie.com):

""The book's concept is simple: each of the 33 chapters is written by a well-respected professional programmer who answers the question: "What is the most beautiful code you've ever seen?" after which they discuss elaborately why they think it's beautiful."


Quoting Amazon.com (this is the link to buy it):

"How do the experts solve difficult problems in software development? In this unique and insightful book, leading computer scientists offer case studies that reveal how they found unusual, carefully designed solutions to high-profile projects. You will be able to look over the shoulder of major coding and design experts to see problems through their eyes. This is not simply another design patterns book, or another software engineering treatise on the right and wrong way to do things. The authors think aloud as they work through their project's architecture, the tradeoffs made in its construction, and when it was important to break rules. Beautiful Code is an opportunity for master coders to tell their story. All author royalties will be donated to Amnesty International."

SW Construction: Clean Code vs Dirty Code? Good Code vs. Bad Code?

- Discussing the sex of angels.
Could it be the answer to what the question "What is clean code"? Guess not.

The "Clean Code" book author and SW Engineering guru Robert C. Martin asked some other software well-known and deeply experienced programmers what they thought about it. Who are those people?

- Bjarne Stroustrup: inventor of C++ and author of The C++ Programming Language.
- Grady Booch: author of Object Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications.
- Dave Thomas: founder of OTI, godfather of the Eclipse strategy.
- Mike Feathers: author of Working Effectively with Legacy Code.
- Ron Jeffries: author of Extreme Programming Installed and Extreme Programming in C#.
- Ward Cunningham: inventor of Wiki, Fit, coinventor of  eXtreme Programming, Motive force behind Design Patterns, Smalltalk and OO thought Leader. The godfather of those who care about code.

If you don't know them [and are interested in building better/cleaner code] maybe it's time to start following them and/or reading to whatever books or initiatives they have been involved in (some of those are listed above).

If you want to know their answers and what the Robert C. Martin "school of thought" thinks about it (to the point of writing an entire +400 pg. book on the subject) maybe you should read the book (Amazon link here).

BOOK: Clean Code | Robert C. Martin

So, another good book on how to write good (clean) code to keep in mind is Robert C. Martin's "Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship":

https://www.amazon.com/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882

Quoting:
"Even bad code can function. But if code isn’t clean, it can bring a development organization to its knees. Every year, countless hours and significant resources are lost because of poorly written code. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Noted software expert Robert C. Martin presents a revolutionary paradigm with Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship . Martin has teamed up with his colleagues from Object Mentor to distill their best agile practice of cleaning code “on the fly” into a book that will instill within you the values of a software craftsman and make you a better programmer—but only if you work at it.

What kind of work will you be doing? You’ll be reading code—lots of code. And you will be challenged to think about what’s right about that code, and what’s wrong with it. More importantly, you will be challenged to reassess your professional values and your commitment to your craft.

Clean Code is divided into three parts. The first describes the principles, patterns, and practices of writing clean code. The second part consists of several case studies of increasing complexity. Each case study is an exercise in cleaning up code—of transforming a code base that has some problems into one that is sound and efficient. The third part is the payoff: a single chapter containing a list of heuristics and “smells” gathered while creating the case studies. The result is a knowledge base that describes the way we think when we write, read, and clean code.

Readers will come away from this book understanding
How to tell the difference between good and bad code
How to write good code and how to transform bad code into good code
How to create good names, good functions, good objects, and good classes
How to format code for maximum readability
How to implement complete error handling without obscuring code logic
How to unit test and practice test-driven development
This book is a must for any developer, software engineer, project manager, team lead, or systems analyst with an interest in producing better code."

Table of Contents 

Clean code

Meaningful names

Functions

Comments

Formatting

Objects and data structures

Error handling

Boundaries

Unit tests

Classes

Systems

Emergence

Concurrency

Successive refinement

JUnit internals

Refactoring serialdate

Smells and heuristics

Appendix A: Concurrency II

Appendix B: Org.jfree.date.serialdate

Appendix C: Cross references of heuristics

Epilogue.