Beautiful Code
I’d hesitated to buy Beautiful Code for a while, but finally went ahead and included it in an order I placed for some other books. I received the book today and have barely cracked the cover open, and I’m already glad to have this addition to the library.
I’ve only read as far as Brian Kernighan’s essay on Rob Pike’s regular expression matcher, and I’m impressed. Kernighan’s essay is a short but insightful look at Pike’s short and elegant piece of code. I especially appreciated the examples of how to use this code as a starting off point for classroom work. Not only did the exercises get the wheels turning in my brain, but they also make me want to start teaching again. Hmm…
Time for me to dive back into the book now. If I find more gems I may post them, but if you’re into this kind of thing, you should probably just go buy the book now. (For what it’s worth, all royalties from sales are being donated to Amnesty International, in case that helps you make up your mind.)