Writing Solid Code

Writing Solid Code: Microsoft's Techniques for Developing Bug-Free C Programs by SteveMaguire. Microsoft Press

ISBN 1556155514 Develop bug-free code with guidance from former Microsoft developer, SteveMaguire, this book presents practical approaches to detecting and preventing bugs early in the development cycle.

Writing Solid Code (20th Anniversary 2nd Edition) by SteveMaguire. GreydenPress?

http://www.greydenpress.com/Store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=134

Microsoft's Techniques for Developing Bug-Free C Programs A short book then? No - there's a different technique for each bug

Don't let the subtitle put you off. There's a great deal of good advice given here, mostly practical, some less so. It makes you wonder how many of the techniques are actually practiced at MicroSoft. It probably should also be added that most techniques for writing good code require good programmers.

Not to be confused with SteveMcConnell, author of CodeComplete and another former Microsoft developer.

A few examples of the advice are:

Enable all the diagnostics of your development tools -- I totally agree with this one. When I do C, I always use -Wall -ansi -pedantic, and I make sure to actually *fix* the stuff it warns me about.
Use debugging aids like assert()
Write error detection into wrappers for your subsystems
Step through your code in a symbolic debugger, watching the data flow
Design functions that are hard to misuse
Design subsystems for testability
Know the common pitfalls of your language and resist the urge to write "clever" code
Have the right attitude: don't think of a bug as something that "just happens".

Some of the advice in this book is dated (for example, his admonishment against "cleaning up code" was written before disciplined refactoring became well known), and much is C-specific. Some of the ideas can be applied to more modern environments, but it would be nice to see a more updated version.

All new hires at MicroSoft are given both WritingSolidCode and CodeComplete so that they get deep into MicroSoft coding culture fast.

What I do not understand about MicroSoft is how they totally obviate UnitTests. They prefer to have a human tester verify everything you write. That's the opposite of RapidFeedback, no matter how fast the tester is.

A lengthy and unfavorable criticism of this book: http://accu.org/index.php/book_reviews?url=view.xqy?review=w001915

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