Solid Code [Paperback]

Donis Marshall (Author), John Bruno (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 18, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0735625921 | ISBN-13: 978-0735625921 | Edition: 1

Get best-in-class engineering practices to help you write more-robust, bug-free code. Two Microsoft .NET development experts share real-world examples and proven methods for optimizing the software development life cycle—from avoiding costly programming pitfalls to making your development team more efficient. Managed code developers at all levels will find design, prototyping, implementation, debugging, and testing tips to boost the quality of their code—today.

Optimize each stage of the development process—from design to testing—and produce higher-quality applications.

• Use metaprogramming to reduce code complexity, while increasing flexibility and maintainability
• Treat performance as a feature—and manage it throughout the development life cycle
• Apply best practices for application scalability
• Employ preventative security measures to ward off malicious attacks
• Practice defensive programming to catch bugs before run time
• Incorporate automated builds, code analysis, and testing into the daily engineering process
• Implement better source-control management and check-in procedures
• Establish a quality-driven, milestone-based project rhythm—and improve your results!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Donis Marshall has over 20 years of experience in designing and building enterprise software utilizing Microsoft technologies for leading companies across industry segments. He is an endorsed trainer for Microsoft Global Learning Services, and has been training Microsoft developers and engineers for many years. Donis is the author of the Programming Microsoft Visual C# 2005, Programming Microsoft Visual C# 2008, and Solid Code, published by Microsoft Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; 1 edition (February 18, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735625921
• ISBN-13: 978-0735625921
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,215,772 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor value, June 3, 2009

By 

AmazonH (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Solid Code (Paperback)

Poor value, watered-down treatment of topics, rehash of past material.

John Robbins gives a great foreword however, and the cover design is great with nice chapter quotes.

Visual Studio 2008 Team System is the minimum required software to work with the code.

Where's the beef? "Designing for Scale" was such a promising chapter, but instead offered platitudes and hardly solid advice. "Choose Scalable Application Designs: Design simple application architectures, Design to scale out, Partition data effectively..." And "Design Application Infrastructure to Scale: Load balance hardware..."

Disappointing title, as Writing Solid Code from 1993 was such a great (and aptly titled) book.

Better books IMHO:

* Code Complete 2 by Steve McConnell

* Rapid Development by Steve McConnell

* Secure Coding by Mark C. Graff and Kenneth R. van Wyk

* Writing Solid Code by Steve Maguire (uses only C however)

* Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt, David Thomas

See for yourself, hopefully at your library or bookstore.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Junior Book, May 23, 2010

By 

W. Ashley (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Solid Code (Paperback)

This book did a really good job going over the basics of good software design and gave a junior level programmer lots of good ideas to do before they just jump in and write code. Surprisingly, the book even went into detail on some of the third party tools used by developers.

For experienced developers, might I suggest coffee or something to keep you awake for some of the chapters; very dry.

There are many generalities, not very specific details, on the things they tell you to do.

If you already know Viso and some of the other 3rd party tools, you can skip several paragraphs in many of the chapters.

Overall it was a good book that went over the basics of what a good programmer needs to do to help write better code. An experienced programmer might not get too much information from this book because its focus is very broad.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for coding projects big or small, March 27, 2009

By 

Jason C. Fluegel (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Solid Code (Paperback)

I spent several years building products and services for Microsoft and now manage product development at another company. The authors do a FANTASTIC job distilling the best practices of one of the top engineering companies on the planet. Well-written and very applicable to the development of any commercial-strength software product or service, big or small. I've bought several copies for my organization and made it mandatory reading.