C++ Coding Standards: 101 Rules, Guidelines, and Best Practices (Paperback)

~ Herb Sutter (Author), Andrei Alexandrescu (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Consistent, high-quality coding standards improve software quality, reduce time-to-market, promote teamwork, eliminate time wasted on inconsequential matters, and simplify maintenance. Now, two of the world's most respected C++ experts distill the rich collective experience of the global C++ community into a set of coding standards that every developer and development team can understand and use as a basis for their own standards.

The authors cover virtually every facet of C++ programming: design and coding style, functions, operators, class design, inheritance, construction/destruction, copying, assignment, namespaces, modules, templates, genericity, exceptions, STL containers and algorithms, and more. Each standard is described concisely, with practical examples. From type definition to error handling, this book presents C++ best practices, including some that have only recently been identified and standardized--techniques you may not know even if you've used C++ for years. Along the way, you'll find answers to questions like

What's worth standardizing--and what isn't? What are the best ways to code for scalability? What are the elements of a rational error handling policy? How (and why) do you avoid unnecessary initialization, cyclic, and definitional dependencies? When (and how) should you use static and dynamic polymorphism together? How do you practice "safe" overriding? When should you provide a no-fail swap? Why and how should you prevent exceptions from propagating across module boundaries? Why shouldn't you write namespace declarations or directives in a header file? Why should you use STL vector and string instead of arrays? How do you choose the right STL search or sort algorithm? What rules should you follow to ensure type-safe code? Whether you're working alone or with others, C++ Coding Standards will help you write cleaner code--and write it faster, with fewer hassles and less frustration.

From the Back Cover

Consistent, high-quality coding standards improve software quality, reduce time-to-market, promote teamwork, eliminate time wasted on inconsequential matters, and simplify maintenance. Now, two of the world's most respected C++ experts distill the rich collective experience of the global C++ community into a set of coding standards that every developer and development team can understand and use as a basis for their own coding standards.

The authors cover virtually every facet of C++ programming: design and coding style, functions, operators, class design, inheritance, construction/destruction, copying, assignment, namespaces, modules, templates, genericity, exceptions, STL containers and algorithms, and more. Each standard is described concisely, with practical examples. From type definition to error handling, this book presents C++ best practices, including some that have only recently been identified and standardized-techniques you may not know even if you've used C++ for years. Along the way, you'll find answers to questions like

• What's worth standardizing--and what isn't?

• What are the best ways to code for scalability?

• What are the elements of a rational error handling policy?

• How (and why) do you avoid unnecessary initialization, cyclic, and definitional dependencies?

• When (and how) should you use static and dynamic polymorphism together?

• How do you practice "safe" overriding?

• When should you provide a no-fail swap?

• Why and how should you prevent exceptions from propagating across module boundaries?

• Why shouldn't you write namespace declarations or directives in a header file?

• Why should you use STL vector and string instead of arrays?

• How do you choose the right STL search or sort algorithm?

• What rules should you follow to ensure type-safe code?

Whether you're working alone or with others, C++ Coding Standards will help you write cleaner code--and write it faster, with fewer hassles and less frustration.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (November 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321113586
• ISBN-13: 978-0321113580
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #164,135 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a coding standard that programmers can accept., November 22, 2004

By	G. Wade Johnson (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For many programmers, the term "coding standard" generates a gut-level response. We all know that someone is going to be pushing the "one, true brace style" or the "proper" way to indent code. This subject is probably the best way to generate instantaneous rebellion among a group of programmers.

The first "standard" in "C++ Coding Standards" wipes all of that away with their first rule:

0. Don't sweat the small stuff. (Or: know what not to standardize.)

In one quick entry, Sutter and Alexandrescu sweep all of the indent-level, brace-placement, CamelCase/underscores holy wars into a single category and give a useful bit of advice: <em>Be consistent.</em> The authors point out that any professional programmer should be able to read and write in any of these styles. The differences are basically a matter of personal preference.

From this point on, we get to see a coding standard that is focused on "best practices" and proven techniques for improving code.

This is the only coding standard I've ever seen that would really help a group of programmers improve their work.

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Higher level than Effective C++, November 19, 2004

By	Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

I love both this book and Effective C++ for different reasons. The Effective C++ series is mainly very low level hints that help you avoid the pitfalls that C++ has in store for you. This book, while showing a lot of code, gives a higher level perspective of the areas it covers (e.g. templates, STL, class design, namespaces, etc.). That perspective grounds you in an understanding of the topic, then binds that to some real world code examples. Both approaches are very valuable. I would recommend getting both books. You can't live without the practical advice of Effective C++ or the architectural material in C++ Coding Standards.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Thirty Five Dollar Index of Classic C++ Books, May 1, 2005

By	Karl Rosaen (Saratoga, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sutter and Alexandrescu are certified C++ gurus, and have each written classic works on C++ (Exceptional C++ series, and Modern C++ Design, respectively). So why does this book fall short? Because it doesn't go into the level of detail necessary to make every recommendation meaningful, and instead relies on citations of previous works. And those citations very often fall into a handful of books that every serious C++ programmer should own and understand anyway: Effective C++ series by Scott Meyers, The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Strousup, and Exceptional C++ by Sutter.

One might argue that 5 books or more is too many, and that this book adds value by providing a one stop ultimate resource for best practices. The problem is that if proper justification isn't provided for each best practice, it's difficult for readers to internalize them. Even if these guys are experts, and a, "trust me" will suffice to believe what they say, it doesn't mean that everyone will understand what they say without diving into the other books that they so often reference. And that brings us back to my main point: you may as well just buy and read the original books in the first place.

Many of the items are complete repeats of items from Scott Meyers books with much less explanation. For example, number 81 of best practices, 'Prefer range operations to single-element operations', is the same as item 5 in 'Effective STL'. However, in Coding Standards, a page is devoted to the explanation; not sufficient if you don't already fully understand why this is a good practice. Meyers, on the other hand, spends 8 pages fully convincing you it is a good idea with several examples. After reading Meyers, I'm going to understand and remember the practice of preferring range member functions.

If you already own all of Scott Meyer's books, along with some of Sutter's and want a concise summary of coding practices, this book may be worth while. Otherwise, start with the original works.