CodeQuotes » Refactoring

McConnell on readability

Neal Enssle — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:02:30 +0000

“Making code readable is not an optional part of the development process, and favoring write-time convenience over read-time convenience is a false economy.”

— Steve McConnell, Code Complete

Andrew Glover on refactoring

Neal Enssle — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:00:37 +0000

“Refactoring is the act of improving code that has already been improved.”

— Andrew Glover, In pursuit of code quality

Gandalf on wisdom

Neal Enssle — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:01:09 +0000

“He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.”

— Gandalf the Grey, J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Fellowship of the Ring”

Fred Brooks on specifications

Neal Enssle — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:11:48 +0000

“Even perfect program verification can only establish that a program meets its specification…. Much of the essence of building a program is in fact the debugging of the specification.”

— Fred Brooks, No Silver Bullet

Martin Fowler on understandability

Neal Enssle — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:32:11 +0000

“Understandability is next to godliness.”

— Martin Fowler, Refactoring

Martin Fowler on naming

Neal Enssle — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:07:57 +0000

“Remember that your code is for a human first and a computer second. Humans need good names. Take note of when you have spent ages trying to do something that would have been easier if a couple of methods had been better named. Good naming is a skill that requires practice; improving this skill is the key to being a truly skillful programmer.”

— Martin Fowler, Refactoring