Growing Better Software

Growing Better Software

Based on decades of real-life software development experience, this book will help you produce best-of-breed, world class software. Set up both as a manual and reference, this book will help both novice and experienced software developers to take their skills to the next level. Learn how to produce lean, mean, structured code; how to keep bugs out of your programs; to make your software more user-friendly; to improve maintainability; to troubleshoot your projects; and to guarantee software quality.

Code Complete

Widely considered one of the best practical guides to programming, Steve McConnell’s original CODE COMPLETE has been helping developers write better software for more than a decade. Now this classic book has been fully updated and revised with leading-edge practices—and hundreds of new code samples—illustrating the art and science of software construction. Capturing the body of knowledge available from research, academia, and everyday commercial practice, McConnell synthesizes the most effective techniques and must-know principles into clear, pragmatic guidance. No matter what your experience level, development environment, or project size, this book will inform and stimulate your thinking—and help you build the highest quality code. Discover the timeless techniques and strategies that help you: Design for minimum complexity and maximum creativity Reap the benefits of collaborative development Apply defensive programming techniques to reduce and flush out errors Exploit opportunities to refactor—or evolve—code, and do it safely Use construction practices that are right-weight for your project Debug problems quickly and effectively Resolve critical construction issues early and correctly Build quality into the beginning, middle, and end of your project

Better Software. Faster!

The recent rise of "smart" products has been made possible through tight co-design of hardware and software. The growing amount of software and hence processors in applications all around us allows for increased flexibility in the application functionality through its life cycle. Not so long ago a device felt outdated after you owned it for a couple of months. Today, a continuous stream of new software applications and updates make products feel truly "smart". The result is an almost magical user experience where the same product can do more today than it could do yesterday.

In this book we dive deep into a key methodology to enable concurrent hardware/software development by decoupling the dependency of the software development from hardware availability: virtual prototyping. The ability to start software development much earlier in the design cycle drives a true "shift-left" of the entire product development schedule and results in better products that are available earlier in the market.

Throughout the book, case studies illustrate how virtual prototypes are being deployed by major companies around the world. If you are interested in a quick feel for what virtual prototyping has to offer for practical deployment, we recommend picking a few case studies to read, before diving into the details of the methodology.

Of course, this book can only offer a small snapshot of virtual prototype use cases for faster software development. However, as most software bring-up, debug and test principles are similar across markets and applications, it is not hard to realize why virtual prototypes are being leveraged whenever software is an intrinsic part of the product functionality, after reading this book.