A Practical Handbook of Software Construction - Second Edition

My first (rash) reaction to this book was unfairly negative, because of the word "code" in its title. I teach software design to technicians, and so they already know how to code. The problem I have is getting them to think about design and its importance. This book, despite its title, contains a lot of useful information regarding design. The electronic (Kindle) version was helpful to find the areas where it is.

This book covers a very wide band of the planning and construction phase of software. I'm a self taught programmer going on 5 years now doing it full time, and I have learned a lot of techniques that have filled in some holes in my skills. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve their programming skill set and quality of finished code. Very well written.

I cannot tell more comments as almost all have been covered in other reviewers'. But, truly, purchasing this book will not waste your money at all! Very good coverage on how to do good software construction, from very beginning. It is really from practical perspective, not from academic perspective (which sometimes unrealistic when it goes to real implementation).

Now I can see which ones are good software developers and which ones are not :-)

Though this book is filled with debatable opinion and redundant information, it's an important read. Read it if only to keep software engineering topics fresh in your head. Otherwise, if you are already experienced, it's kind of elementary.

This book is truly one of those books that anyone that is serious about learning how to write more maintainable code should have on their shelf. At 800+ pages, there are so many good nuggets of information that you are sure to go back to this book again and again to see what you can pick up with each subsequent perusal. It will make you paranoid about the code you are writing, but in a good way.

The book itself appears to be geared towards those that are doing production-level code, and in a team environment, but I would say it is worth a read for anyone that is ever going to write something that they may have to go back and take a look at / tweak / modify later.

One thing to note is that the code examples are in C++, Java, and VB; So if you have not had much exposure to these languages, that may make the examples a bit unfamiliar. But if you ever do plan on getting into coding in any of those languages, or .Net or the like, then you will definitely want this book around. Each topic is handled expertly; at no time did I become confused with what the author was attempting to lay out. And it was not laborious to read. In short, I ranked this book as a 5, because I found no fault with it. nuff said!

This is one of those books that every developer should have in front of him all the time. Filled with really useful information on the best programming practices. This book will save you many headaches you may have while writing software.

Great tips for coding well. Some of it is obvious if you've been writing software for a while, but it's still good to see it in written form, and it forces you to think about how you structure your code. The architecture / requirements chapter is great for figuring out how to work with product managers and make architectural decisions.

Examples are mostly in Java and C++.

"Code Complete" is the meat and potatoes of software engineering. It's not the most interesting treatise on the topic (that's an honor I'd personally bestow on "Programming Pearls"), but it has just about everything you need to know to be effective. It's comprehensive enough that you'll get something out of it even if you've read several other books on the topic.

By reading and implementing everything in this book (or trying to, at least), I went from being terrible at software engineering to being only sort-of bad at it. That's a pretty significant improvement from just one book. I can't recommend it strongly enough.

It's very wonderful how the book avoids a language oriented approach to coding and focuses on some very important heuristics which can be followed to improve quality of code.Definitely a must read for coders

Have not read the final version, just various chapters released for reader commets. A definite replacement for the first version. All areas have been updated and new chapters on topics such as refactoring.

As a professional software engineer, with a few years of experience (3 professionally, several more from university, and high school pet projects), I found this book to be very wordy, but very thorough. I would not recommend it for another person in my own shoes, but perhaps for someone who has little experience or is looking to find a job without the degree.

This book covers each topic pretty thoroughly, and hits many good points that I often find problematic in novice programmers' coding styles and habits.

This book does an excellent job layout strategies and methodologies for keeping your code clean and manageable while meeting the goals of the project. From techniques to keep your code readable to different strategies in building a better team this book is a must have for any programmer looking to produce a product and service of quality.

Fantastic thorough and concise explanations. Steve McConnell really has summarized a great coding standard of sorts. I would recommend to anyone who is just starting out, or anyone who is looking for better foundational or practical knowledge of industry best-practices.

Has helped me greatly throughout the years as a developer. The book is easy to read and understand, the concepts are laid out in an intuitive and clear way, and the information in the book is greatly valuable, even 5 years later. Reading this book is when I started to become a true professional programmer.

I've been a programmer/developer for over 35 years. While my primary programming language isn't represented in this book, the concepts for writing clear, concise code remain the same regardless of language. I think most developers would benefit from this book. The author does seem to repeat some concepts but overall I've enjoyed reading it.

Phenomenal book has help me tremendously in my career as software engineer.

it steps you through build great software whether you are a C#, C++, JAVA, Python...etc developer this is a must have for all developers and software engineers alike

Muchos de nosotros, los programadores, necesitamos un libro como Code Complete para ordenar nuestra mente y poner en práctica lo que intuitivamente sabíamos que debíamos hacer y no aplicabamos.

La filosofía de hacer del código que escribimos obligatoriamente legible y entendible por otros programadores es excelente.

Congratulations Steve! Well done.

By far the most easy to read software construction book I have read. Gives you enough depth and width to teach you something new regardless of previous programming experience. I recommend this to other front-end developers.

After discussing some of the concepts in this book with my programmer friends, I must say that It's a bit outdated. Nevertheless it contains really useful tips for programming in general and that was what I was essentially searching for.

I am utterly convinced that "general advice book" about how to become a better programmer are invariably useful only to their authors and publishers, but this book is a partial exception to the rule, being more down to earth, and code-centered than the typical book in this genre. I see it as a good bedtime read for a fresh CS graduate who is very sharp on the tecnical side and on "programming as a lerning the theory" but needs a primer on the more pragmatic aspects of "programming as a work". For anyone who has been in the profession for more than a few years it can be nothing more than a written version of the typical relaxing coffe break chat you have with a coworker about issues that you both know very well but still like to talk about. Its size could definitely be cut by at least 30% without loss of information or clarity, minimizing boredom and wasted time on the reader's part. It would also contribute to make this text a book that people actually read instead of just liking to show it on one's own desk or library. But then how to justify the excessive price tag? :)

Here are the positive aspects you find:

1. Tries to cover possible issues that could effect coding practices

2. Tries to give names for the common coding problems

3. Tries to explain what is meant my quality of the code

4. Tries to explain logistics behind choosing one coding practice against another

5. Could definitely make a novice programmer a better programmer

Here are the things I don't like:

1. Tries to make money by making a big book. This book doesn't need to be this big

2. Tries to present obsolete data some times to support nothing

3. Unrelated (to the title of the book) some times meaning less sidebars