Code Complete (book)

One of the key idea is summarized in:

Measure twice, cut once

Suggests reallocation of resources to prevent defects cheaply instead of fixing expensively. Note: sometimes preventing defects is costly and fixing cheap

About pair programming, he matches notes about (mob)[./mob.md]:

• don't turn it into watching
• don't force it on easy stuff
• rotate regularly
• match pace
• highly reduce defects, increase quality, increase efficiency...
• 1 monitor, 1 keyboard...
• match senior/junior (avoid all junior) => knowledge transfer
• don't force pairing with person you don't like / mismatch => hard to move forward when both want to go opposite direction

Inspections (can be applied to code reviews):

• provide areas to focus
• focus on defect detection

On testing:

• A successful test is one that breaks the software
• Testing can never prove completely the absence of defects
• Testing by itself does not improve quality
• Testing requires to assume you'll find errors. In a Glenford Myers study, the average programmer found 5/15 defects, max was 9/15

On debugging:

defects as opportunities => helps learn the code, product, how to fix, mistakes made...

Inneffective approaches:

• guessing
• not trying to understand the problem (not the code)
• fixing the symptom (not looking for the root cause)

Scientific method:

• gather data through repeatable experiments
• form hypothesis
• test hypothesis
• draw conclusions

Self documenting code: comment only informations that cannot be expressed by the code itself. ex:

// computes the square root using Newton-Raphson method
const squareRoot = (n) => {
  // complex code implementation here
}

Another example is commenting on performance tricks that are not obvious and might get simplified if not hinted.