Clean Code

One of my refrain's at the recent SoCal Code Camp was "Simple Code."  I was inspired by Scott Bellware's recent appearance on Hanselminutes where he equated simplicity with easy testability.  It is a great podcast, and highly recommended.  Ultimately the point is that we want the code we touch to become more simple.  That is, more easy to understand, more easy to explain, more easy to change and more easy to test. 

  Well, Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob) recently published a new book called Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship which seems to be concerned with similar themes.  I'd had it on my radar since Uncle Bob did a .NET Rocks a few months ago but hadn't gotten a copy yet.  There's always more books than I have time for, particularly lately.

But after my code camp sessions, Vladimir mentioned that he was participating in a study group going through Clean Code.  I had never heard of programmers doing such a thing, but it sounded great.  I liked the notion of the added accountability that comes of joining a group project.  "Hmmm," I thought, "that might be a great way to really learn a book." 

A couple of days later when I asked Vladimir to let me know how the study group went, he surprised me with an invitation to join.  So I went out and got a copy and started in on it. 

My first 'meeting' was today, over the phone.  And it was great.  The whole conference call thing isn't real high on my list, but the book is solid and the discussion really added to it. 

One meeting down and I think this has real promise.  Uncle Bob is great, but Uncle Bob supplemented by a roomful of experienced software developers is a real treasure.

So I'll be attending, every Thursday at noon.  Since I want to make sure I keep up my end of the discussion, I'll be taking copious notes as well.  I'd like to find some way to turn them into blog posts too.  so stay tuned and see what unfolds.