The Clean Coder

I just finished reading The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers. This book was written by Robert C. Martin commonly know and Uncle Bob and is key to getting me onto my current journey of becoming a better developer and growing my career. The core theme of the book is that software development isn’t just some random thing you do but is truly a profession like any other. To be taken seriously as a professional there are rules and practices you need to follow. This is much like a physicians Hippocratic Oath but for software development.

Each chapter leads with an anecdote of the author’s own personal experience, some of these are not flattering, and then shows us how to properly handle a given situation as a professional. These “best practices” range from Time Management, Estimation, Coding, and many more areas. I personally enjoyed the chapters on Professionalism (Chapter 1), Test Driven Development (Chapter 5) and Practicing (Chapter 6).

I’ve always felt that I came across as professional but Chapter 1 on the topic showed me that I might not be when it comes to my career as I’ve been more a passenger than a committed driver. I’ve begun using one of the suggestions from the book to dedicate at least 20 hours a week to your career. To that end I sat down and worked out a schedule to find that time. I ended up finding 10 hours pretty easy but it took some creativity to find some more. I found another 7 and 1/2 driving to and from work every day to listen to podcasts. This may not be the full 20 but it’s better than where I was before.

Test Driven Development or TDD and Practicing are my core thrust during the 10 hours a week that I’ve marked down in my schedule. In the book Uncle Bob goes over some of the may benefits of TDD. I’ve always had a hard time with this concept which is why the next chapter on Practicing really hit me. I’m not good at TDD because I don’t practice it enough. The book highlight the idea of the Coding Dojo like material arts and the kata as a series of coding movements again much like martial arts where it is drawn from. The key item here is The Bowling Game which allows you to practice TDD and proper development practices in a short 30 minute span. You can do these kata in what ever language you want and is best to use them frequently to keep your skills sharp. Once you are comfortable with them start to make changes to how you approach them so you don’t become to familiar and this pushes you to expand your skills

All in all I found this book to be really good and it has influence me in a positive way and only time will tell as to how much of this I am able to stick with. But I’m now exploring how to be a better coder a clean coder!