Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction

This is by far the most important book for anyone who writes code. After reading this book you'll feel like the best programmer around. I used to think I wrote good code until I read this book. It has really showed me how to write great code. If you have never read this book you absolutely have to.

When I first bought the book I started in the chapters about variable names and comments and eventually went back and read the earlier chapters. If the first few chapters turn you off to the book try hopping around at first and come back to those chapters.

Code complete is an excellent insight into the mind of an experienced developer and what a successful software project must have. Certainly required reading for anyone running large to small software projects.

fantastic book. good for anyone who programs. even people who suck at it will take this book and love it. unless you are really stupid. but i doubt that. i bet you are very smart.

I feel that this book has some holes in it. In some areas where I do have some understanding of the topic, McConnell I believe misses the mark. As an example, let me contrast CC2E's advice on speeding up your programs with with advice provided by by Alex Martelli (Martelli is "Uber Technical Lead" at Google). In Martelli's excellent book Python in a Nutshell, when discussing optimization, Martelli focuses almost exclusively on a dicussion of the big-0 (how an algorithm is proportional to N; log N, N, N log N, N squared, etc). He goes on for pages in detail about the topic and says "do yourself a favor and watch out for the big-O: all other performance issues, in comparison are almost always insignificant." The book "The Pragmatic Programmer" also dissusses O(N) issues quite a bit as well. In Code Complete 2nd edition, there is no discussion of the big-O at all that I can find, or any mention of algorithms being proportional to some function of N. I cannot find it even mentioned. This is an incredible oversight. If CC2E is missing something that important, then I'm suspicious of what else it is missing.

This book turned to be exactly what I expected. It's one of few books that I have that is fun to read. It's not just a practical guide for software construction, but it also points out everything you need to know about software development cycle if you don't already know them.

The actual talk about software construction starts at chapter 5. The chapters before this is an emphasize on the importance of software prerequisites and its impact on projects success.

The book is a must for anyone involved in software development. And it's an extremely important guide for new project managers as it points out all steps involved in the software development process