Monday 20 April 2015

Book review: Code Complete by Steve McConnell

Code Complete, 2nd Edition. Redmond, Wa.: Microsoft Press, 2004. 960 pages. Retail Price $49.99. ISBN: 0735619670stevemcconnell.com/cc.htm, or Amazon. Wiki says "Code Complete has received outstanding reviews, being widely regarded as one of the leading must-reads for software developers" but what does wiki know?

I brought this home for the weekend. But I got to page 371 and then stopped, fairly bored. There's not enough here that's new to me. Perhaps that's good. I did have some nice time in the garden in the sunshine beneath the young quince shoots before I realised it was dull.

It feels far too long though. Perhaps it might be useful as a reference book; but it feels like bloatware. There's just too much stuffed in here. Too much is dull or obvious; the few interesting things are deeply buried in the dross.

To do: review something I did like. Software craftmanship. I'd have to read it again, of course.

Friday 3 April 2015

Ermine usury

Unprompted, E told me that she had been lending at interest at school: her rate was something like 10p on a 70p loan, due the next day. I was impressed with her enterprise, and we briefly discussed usury and its negative connotations, and the difference between 5% annual interest on a 10k loan and 300% interest on a pay day loan. Unfortunately, the dead hand of authority has squashed E's enterprise: Miss C has forbidden lending-at-interest which, in an interesting echo of the payday lending stuff, means she'll no longer be lending to the boys. Also interestingly, she had no problems with being repaid; she only lent to people who were trustworthy.