I have picked it two days ago in Chapters - Code Craft by Pete Goodliffe. Somehow similar in topics covered as the Rapid Development or From Coder to Developer - but newer. Divided into 6 parts: Part I - At the codeface - defensive programming techniques, naming, formatting, commenting, error handling Part II - The secret life of code - code contruction tools, testing and debugging methods, building Part III - The Shape of the code - code design, architecture, source code growth and decay over time

It has been said that the great scientific disciplines are examples of giants standing on the shoulders of other giants. It has also been said that the software industry is an example of midgets standing on the toes of other midgets. [Alan Cooper] And the users exclaimed with a laugh and a taunt: "It's just what we asked for but not what we want." For a sucessful technology, honesty must take precedence over public relations for nature cannot be fooled.

We build software line by line, idea by idea, side by side. Our software is an expression of ourselves, our best moments, our toughest challenges, our greatest hopes. This wonderful quote is from handcrafted copy of Vista, which was distributed to everybody who worked on a product. It is a Microsoft tradition that the people who worked on a project get a copy of the project when it ships.

Back in old country, I once had a programmer working for me who made himself famous with the following quote: "I have fixed that bug, do you want me to compile it too ?". In his mind, he was done as soon as he identified the bug and put the fix in the code. All the rest was trivial and unimportant routine. During last 20 years I have worked with many very different developers and learned the hard way, how very many different meanings the word "

Continuing from here. Ch-7: Digging into the source code In this chapter, Mike describes the tools that work with, around or towards source code: Idlasm, Reflector and FxCop. The book is written for Visual Studio 2003, so some references are slightly outdated - but there is one utility that stands out and is still more useful than ever: Lutz Roeder's Reflector. It is part of the Visual Studio 2005 (albeit in older version that you can get on the Web site).