Review of C++ Coding Standards: 101 Rules, Guidelines and Best Practices, by Herb Sutter, Andrei Alexandrescu

Wednesday, 01 February 2006

The key points from the book are neatly summarised in the 12 page "Summary of Summaries" at the back of the book. This lists all 101 guidelines, with both their title and summary; the primary reason for reading the main body of the book is to understand the background and reasoning behind the guidelines, as well as any exceptions. These guidelines are not casually thrown together; they are well researched, with extensive references. It is also worth reading the introductory text to each section, as this pulls the guidelines from the section together; a nice touch from the authors is the selection of a "most valuable Item" from each section, one which you really really ought to follow.

In contrast with other books from Addison Wesley, such as Effective STL, which have a much easier-to-read layout, but in common with the other books in the C++ In Depth series, the text is slightly too small, and the margins slightly too narrow, so there is too much text on a page. This, combined with the high density of technical content, makes it hard to read cover to cover in one go. There are also a couple of errors; though nothing major, they do detract from the authority of the book, given the nature of the content.

In the preface, the authors state that they intended each item to be short, non-controversial, authoritative, and something that needs saying, and I believe they have achieved that. In any set of coding standards I usually find something that I disagree with, but there was not a single item that grated on me here. I agree with the authors that this book is something you should reference from your own coding standards.

Highly Recommended.

Buy this book

At Amazon.co.uk
At Amazon.com

Posted by Anthony Williams
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