The Art of Readable Code

Preface;
What This Book Is About;
How to Read This Book;
Using Code Examples;
Safari® Books Online;
How to Contact Us;
Acknowledgments;
Chapter 1: Code Should Be Easy to Understand;
1.1 What Makes Code "Better"?;
1.2 The Fundamental Theorem of Readability;
1.3 Is Smaller Always Better?;
1.4 Does Time-Till-Understanding Conflict with Other Goals?;
1.5 The Hard Part;
Surface-Level Improvements;
Chapter 2: Packing Information into Names;
2.1 Choose Specific Words;
2.2 Avoid Generic Names Like tmp and retval;
2.3 Prefer Concrete Names over Abstract Names;
2.4 Attaching Extra Information to a Name;
2.5 How Long Should a Name Be?;
2.6 Use Name Formatting to Convey Meaning;
2.7 Summary;
Chapter 3: Names That Can't Be Misconstrued;
3.1 Example: Filter();
3.2 Example: Clip(text, length);
3.3 Prefer min and max for (Inclusive) Limits;
3.4 Prefer first and last for Inclusive Ranges;
3.5 Prefer begin and end for Inclusive/Exclusive Ranges;
3.6 Naming Booleans;
3.7 Matching Expectations of Users;
3.8 Example: Evaluating Multiple Name Candidates;
3.9 Summary;
Chapter 4: Aesthetics;
4.1 Why Do Aesthetics Matter?;
4.2 Rearrange Line Breaks to Be Consistent and Compact;
4.3 Use Methods to Clean Up Irregularity;
4.4 Use Column Alignment When Helpful;
4.5 Pick a Meaningful Order, and Use It Consistently;
4.6 Organize Declarations into Blocks;
4.7 Break Code into "Paragraphs";
4.8 Personal Style versus Consistency;
4.9 Summary;
Chapter 5: Knowing What to Comment;
5.1 What NOT to Comment;
5.2 Recording Your Thoughts;
5.3 Put Yourself in the Reader's Shoes;
5.4 Final Thoughts-Getting Over Writer's Block;
5.5 Summary;
Chapter 6: Making Comments Precise and Compact;
6.1 Keep Comments Compact;
6.2 Avoid Ambiguous Pronouns;
6.3 Polish Sloppy Sentences;
6.4 Describe Function Behavior Precisely;
6.5 Use Input/Output Examples That Illustrate Corner Cases;
6.6 State the Intent of Your Code;
6.7 "Named Function Parameter" Comments;
6.8 Use Information-Dense Words;
6.9 Summary;
Simplifying Loops and Logic;
Chapter 7: Making Control Flow Easy to Read;
7.1 The Order of Arguments in Conditionals;
7.2 The Order of if/else Blocks;
7.3 The ?: Conditional Expression (a.k.a. "Ternary Operator");
7.4 Avoid do/while Loops;
7.5 Returning Early from a Function;
7.6 The Infamous goto;
7.7 Minimize Nesting;
7.8 Can You Follow the Flow of Execution?;
7.9 Summary;
Chapter 8: Breaking Down Giant Expressions;
8.1 Explaining Variables;
8.2 Summary Variables;
8.3 Using De Morgan's Laws;
8.4 Abusing Short-Circuit Logic;
8.5 Example: Wrestling with Complicated Logic;
8.6 Breaking Down Giant Statements;
8.7 Another Creative Way to Simplify Expressions;
8.8 Summary;
Chapter 9: Variables and Readability;
9.1 Eliminating Variables;
9.2 Shrink the Scope of Your Variables;
9.3 Prefer Write-Once Variables;
9.4 A Final Example;
9.5 Summary;
Reorganizing Your Code;
Chapter 10: Extracting Unrelated Subproblems;
10.1 Introductory Example: findClosestLocation();
10.2 Pure Utility Code;
10.3 Other General-Purpose Code;
10.4 Create a Lot of General-Purpose Code;
10.5 Project-Specific Functionality;
10.6 Simplifying an Existing Interface;
10.7 Reshaping an Interface to Your Needs;
10.8 Taking Things Too Far;
10.9 Summary;
Chapter 11: One Task at a Time;
11.1 Tasks Can Be Small;
11.2 Extracting Values from an Object;
11.3 A Larger Example;
11.4 Summary;
Chapter 12: Turning Thoughts into Code;
12.1 Describing Logic Clearly;
12.2 Knowing Your Libraries Helps;
12.3 Applying This Method to Larger Problems;
12.4 Summary;
Chapter 13: Writing Less Code;
13.1 Don't Bother Implementing That Feature-You Won't Need It;
13.2 Question and Break Down Your Requirements;
13.3 Keeping Your Codebase Small;
13.4 Be Familiar with the Libraries Around You;
13.5 Example: Using Unix Tools Instead of Coding;
13.6 Summary;
Selected Topics;
Chapter 14: Testing and Readability;
14.1 Make Tests Easy to Read and Maintain;
14.2 What's Wrong with This Test?;
14.3 Making This Test More Readable;
14.4 Making Error Messages Readable;
14.5 Choosing Good Test Inputs;
14.6 Naming Test Functions;
14.7 What Was Wrong with That Test?;
14.8 Test-Friendly Development;
14.9 Going Too Far;
14.10 Summary;
Chapter 15: Designing and Implementing a "Minute/Hour Counter";
15.1 The Problem;
15.2 Defining the Class Interface;
15.3 Attempt 1: A Naive Solution;
15.4 Attempt 2: Conveyor Belt Design;
15.5 Attempt 3: A Time-Bucketed Design;
15.6 Comparing the Three Solutions;
15.7 Summary;
Further Reading;
Books on Writing High-Quality Code;
Books on Various Programming Topics;
Books of Historical Note;
Colophon;