I think every person who has written a fair amount of code should read this book. Managers should buy it for their teams. It should be required reading for new team members (it doesn't long to get through - a few hours).
It is NOT for beginner programmers in my mind - you will not have written enough code to understand the points being made. I'd say it's perfect for mid-level to advanced programmers. Why for advanced? Because they can quickly get throught it, and challenge some of their own design assumptions and practices. Mid-level programmers will find it a treasure.
The title of the book is perfect, because it really is more philosophical and high-level. But that doesn't mean it's abstract nor boring. I find the ideas very applicable and easy to understand. The opening statements are very powerful - what is complexity, the difference kinds of complexity ("cognitive load" is an excellent concept), etc. It ends with a gem - you know your code is complex if you end up spending a lot of time fixing bugs in it. Complexity begets complexity.
Don't let the critical reviews stop you from reading this book - so what, it ignores functional programming. Readers can buy books on that and contrast the desgin philosphy. Yes, it's OOP-based, but so what? It's easy to apply these ideas to non-OOP languages or concepts.
Some complained about "3 chapters on comments alone". Not true - the three chapters cover different subjects, and provide excellent guidelines for commenting first (designing with your comments - kind of like writing a mini-spec, if you will), what constitutes a useful comment, and how to name variables. I found it very useful.
The concept of "deep" versus "shallow" classes is very interesting, even if some of the reviews have criticized it. The author provdes a very nice clue to whether or not code should be broken out - do you have to keep flipping back and forth between the sub-task and the original function? Maybe it shouldn't have been broken out. Deep classes have simple interfaces and accomplish a lot for the caller. Shallow classes, on the other hand, require the caller to know about them, how to call them in order, etc. Good stuff.
It's a short read. You'll scarcely find a book that's so short be so valuable.
You can get through it in about 3-4 intense, focused sessions.
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Reviews with images
Reducing complexity as an overarching design principle.
This book is about software complexity and how to reduce it by design. John Ousterhout teaches you how to do it with no dogma by telling you how, why, where and when you are taking it too far. It will help you manage the complexities of software.His philosophy challenges many popular notions you find in the current state of the software development industry, especially those you see in the agile world preached by the gurus of the agile manifesto. I recommend you to read this book to provide nuance to that discussion.
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Top reviews from other countries
Pablo
Excelente lectura para ingenieros de software
Reviewed in Mexico on December 22, 2021
N�SLUND ERIK
A straight forward book packed with tons of valuable knowledge
Reviewed in Sweden on November 18, 2023