Introduction

This book addresses the topic of software design: how to decompose complex software systems into modules (such as classes and methods) that can be implemented relatively independently. The book first introduces the fundamental problem in software design, which is managing complexity. It then discusses philosophical issues about how to approach the software design process, and it presents a collection of design principles to apply during software design. The book also introduces a set of red flags that identify design problems. You can apply the ideas in this book to minimize the complexity of large software systems, so that you can write software more quickly.

Preface
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 The Nature of Complexity
Chapter 3 Working Code Isn’t Enough
Chapter 4 Modules Should Be Deep
Chapter 5 Information Hiding (and Leakage)
Chapter 6 General-Purpose Modules are Deeper
Chapter 7 Different Layer, Different Abstraction
Chapter 8 Pull Complexity Downwards
Chapter 9 Better Together Or Better Apart?
Chapter 10 Define Errors Out Of Existence
Chapter 11 Design it Twice
Chapter 12 Why Write Comments? The Four Excuses
Chapter 13 Comments Should Describe Things that Aren’t Obvious from the Code
Chapter 14 Choosing Names
Chapter 15 Write The Comments First
Chapter 16 Modifying Existing Code
Chapter 17 Consistency
Chapter 18 Code Should be Obvious
Chapter 19 Software Trends
Chapter 20 Designing for Performance
Chapter 21 Conclusion
Summary

Introduction

Contents