[Book Review] Code Reading : The Open Source Perspective

Code Reading : The Open Source Perspective:

Source code reading is an activity meant to provide:

1. Insight into the design of a system
2. Relevant information for reuse of parts of a system (extension, modification, reuse of a systems aspects)
3. Debugging info on a system
4. Re-factoring and maintainance of a system.
5. Reverse Engineering of a system

The book could be reorganized for accessibility-at-a-glance. Thereby reducing the need to go through it entirely. Focus of the book can be made more action-oriented and rationale oriented.

However there is  an Appendix of maxims from the book chapters.I really didn't feel upto reading the book in its entirety.
So I confined myself to the maxims. These are not directly usable off-the-shelf.
They could be made more action oriented without being too generic or too specific.

Some reflection on the maxims alone helped to get insight into the Where, What, How and Why of code reading.

How to choose books!!

I regularly buy books of all types - Technical (computers), Autobiographies, Fiction, Fantasy, Science. I spend something like up-to 3 hours browsing the book-racks in Shops, Libraries, Peoples collections, Amazon (esp. the book reviews) in order to find refreshing and enlightening books.

Take a chance once in a while.
Make use of amazon.com reading lists by the users.
References to other books from a good book.

General:
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Foreword - Intention of the author ie what particular axe he wants to grind.
Author tries to keep the audience with him by summarizing what he just said.
Giving same info in more than one way with examples for different types of people.
Blurb at the back of the book.
Whether the author shows Awareness of opinions/theories not agreeing with what he's saying. Does he attempt to reconcile differences or explain them. At least a footnote.

Technical:
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Intended audience.
Giving simple definitions of terminology in every day terms.
Not presumptuously assuming that the reader is following at all times.
Analogies and Graphics are really welcome esp. if it is explaining something.
Defines What the book is about and more important what the book is NOT about.
Tone of the author - friendly, condescending, academic, repetitive.
Sentence construction - compound sentences a para long.
Good Index is essential in Most good books.
Quality of printing ie. cheap paper, binding, readability all have an impact.
I've found reading from some better made books more interesting than the cheaper versions.


Fiction:
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Thoughts which expose you to off-the-beaten-track stuff.
Thoughts which give a different angle on everyday things.
Thoughts which don't relate to your hum-drum life (Alice-in-wonderland)