How often do you get to work along some coding superstar that’s been at it for decades? If you’re anything like me, the answer is “never”. That’s why I’ve recently decided to go after books that are aimed to fill this gap exactly. The latest is “Agile Software Development: Principles, Patterns, and Practices” by the one and only, Uncle Bob (the previous is “TDD by example”, which gets 5 stars from me too).

It’s like coding with the Uncle himself

The thing I liked the most about the book, is the way it walks through (relatively) huge amounts of code. Uncle Bob shows several programming problems and walks through his design process and the implementation of the interesting parts. Reading it (even though it was written almost a decade ago) you can’t miss the fact the author has so much experience. Whenever I tried coding a solution myself before reading on, I later found out exactly where I went wrong because he somehow managed to cover every decision I made.

When I say it’s like coding with him, I really mean it. I don’t know how, but whenever I looked at a code sample I didn’t like for some reason, I was astonished to read “You may be wondering why I did X” the next paragraph. And, maybe less fun, is when I read something, totally agreed with it, and he went on to explain why it sucks.

The feeling throughout reading the book is that you get to pair with one of the best software craftsmen ever.

You get experience in every paragraph

A big part of the book is dedicated to talking about XP and design patterns. I’ve read several books about both and yet I didn’t find those parts in the book redundant. The reason is because Uncle Bob has managed to put a few grains of experience into whatever he talked about. Even though I’ve coded my fair share of Factories, he made me realize a few interesting concepts about them. And although I’ve done Visitors, I suddenly am a bit in love with them (which means I have to fight myself extra-hard not to introduce them everywhere).

If you don’t have people around you that care about coding a lot (enough to send out awesome Clean Code wristbands, one of which I own) you’ll quickly grasp what I’m talking about. The whole writing is of an experienced mentor (which might explain why his company is called “Object Mentor”).

It simply changes the way you look at coding

Having gone through the SOLID principles, my whole designing process and way of thinking has changed. I can’t think of a sane developer that will refuse to put his hands on a set of principles that the best coders of the past decades have deemed as necessary for quality code.

Do yourself a favor and get your hands on this piece of software-craftsmanship gold-mine!

Stay tuned for the next part of this series, Uncle Bob’s Clean Code!

You should follow me on twitter and subscribe to my RSS feed, it’s free!