This book is a unique and essential reference that focuses upon the reading and
comprehension of existing software code. While code reading is an important
task faced by the vast majority of software developers, it has been virtually
ignored as a discipline by existing refernces. The book fills this need with a
practical presentation of all important code concepts, form, structure, and
syntax that a developer is likely to encounter. The concepts are supported by
examples taken from real-world open source software projects. The focus upon
reading code (rather than developing and implementing programs from
scratch) provides for a vastly increased breadth of coverage. The book covers
anything related to code that is likely to appear before a software developer's
eyes. This breadth, in conjunction with the book's practical orientation, makes
it a must-have item for every software developer as a reference of first and last
resort.
Diomidis Spinellis has been developing the concepts presented in this book since 1985, while also writing groundbreaking software applications and working on multimillion-line code bases. Spinellis holds an M.Eng. degree in software engineering and a Ph.D. in computer science from Imperial College London. Currently he is an associate professor in the Department of Management Science and Technology at the Athens University of Economics and Business.