Kent Beck is smart because he proposes fixes that work in real life, as in environments with dumb code and undisciplined people.

I can very much recommend his latest book ”Tidy first?”. It’s extremely short and concise, and is perfect for a very light book club within any tech team.

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RHSeeger 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

I agree, both with your analysis of him and your review of "Tidy first?". We read and discussed it at work, and I enjoyed it a lot.

	▲	skydhash 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I enjoyed the last (and theoretical) part of "Tidy first?" as I was already doing the recommended practices in the first two. But yes, very pragmatic advice and easy to apply to get your own corner of peace in a somewhat chaotic codebase. One term I can use is "defensive programming" (not sure if the term has been used before). People are going to do awful stuff with their code, it's up to you to draw boundary of correctness to stop it from spilling on the part that you're responsible for. It should be automated (with tests and static analysis) as well as documented. I think of those boundary as hazmat suits and I take extra care of maintaining their integrity.

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grim_io 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I assure you, there is no such thing as a book club at my job, especially not one focused on technical writing :)