Book Review: Clean Code

At KLAS Research I had one of my employees recommend that we get a bunch of copies of the book Clean Code by Robert C. Martin and give them out to all of the software developers on the team. Having never read the book, I picked up a copy from Amazon and it arrived at my house that very evening. I didn't even have to go to the local bookstore, which actually is one of my favorite activities. I wanted to read it before I recommended that the company purchase the $50 book.

I immediately started reading it and felt it had some great ideas that every software developer should learn. I recommended it to one of my engineers and she checked it out from the library before I even made the decision if it is worth getting for everyone. She found value and wisdom within its pages.

Ultimately I decided not the purchase copies for everyone on the team because it had a number of ideas that I disagree with. The book uses Java for almost all of the coding examples. It then goes on to say that there are very few differences between computer programming language choices and the principles in the book can be applied to the vast majority of them. I completely disagree. I am not a fan of Java because I think it requires too many lines of code to do anything useful. You can do so much more with Python in significantly fewer lines. Furthermore, while some of the suggestions in the book will help with Java, they are not needed for Python.

Computer programming languages all have their pros and cons, which is why there are so many of them. When it comes to data science, which is what I am doing now at Sony, most people choose between Python or R. Even then R is better for statistical computations while Python is better for machine learning and general-purpose programs. Java has its place too, but I wouldn't use it for data science as it is too cumbersome.

Going back to the book, Clean Code. I found it to be very helpful and it outlined a lot of concepts that will help you become a better coder. It talks about tried-and-true things like self-documenting variables and that if you have to use extensive comments to describe what your code is doing, you may want to rethink what you wrote. I also like the concept of when you fix bugs, to take that time to make the code simpler and easier to read. If you are looking to improve your own coding skills or are just getting into coding, the book will help you a lot. I'm not sure I can justify the high price for the book though and recommend finding it at the library or looking for a great deal on a used copy.

Technical Books

Lately I have been working on a new software project that involves SQL Server Integration Services or SSIS as it is more commonly known. While I have extensive experience using Oracle and PostgreSQL databases, my SQL Server knowledge is somewhat shallow.

Yesterday I decided to make a quick run to the bookstore to see if there was a book or two that I could use to help me with one or two details on SSIS. I drove down and found two books. One was 400 pages and the other was 700. The difference in price was only $5.00 and so I did a quick scan of the index. I'm not sure if the larger book had a more comprehensive index or if it truly contained that much more material, but it seemed to be the better purchase. I was then back home with the entire roundtrip taking less than 30 minutes.

I got home and used the index to find the component of SSIS that I was working with and eagerly read. The book was a disappointment. It had no more information that I could figure out on my own by looking at the computer screen. There were no tips or tricks on how to get the tool to do more than what I was already doing. I was sad.

I used to love going to the bookstore and pick up technical books. In my office, I have three floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with computer-related books. Some I have even chapters chapters or been the technical editor. One I even wrote myself that was published by SAMS.

Yesterday was my first time back at the bookstore in quite a while and my experience with the SSIS book helped me understand why. Now that the Internet and World Wide Web have grown in size, it is generally where I go when I want to learn something new. With a few quick searches at Google or Bing, I can almost always find out what I need to know. When I couldn't find what I was looking for in the SSIS book, I did a quick search and found an example of what I was trying to accomplish.

Books are still a great place to get technical information. They are easy to carry and don't require an Internet connection to read. However, I think it is tough to compete with automated searches and up-to-date web sites. I still have my receipt so I think I will see if I can't get my money back on this SSIS book.