Wow, a use Perl journal.
So three years ago, I worked at a smallish company with an impressive bookshelf. My manager encouraged us code monkeys to spend some time reading and improving ourselves — we were even given two (paid) hours a week for "research". Anyways, the bookshelf held the first edition of Code Complete, and – having heard good things about it – I picked it up.
I didn't like it.
I don't remember exactly why any more. I do remember that I didn't get more than a third of the way through it before setting it down and doing something else. Then I forgot about it.
Recently, though, I've seen the shiny silver second-edition on bookstore shelves, and I've noticed a few people on Perl Monks say good things about it. So, since my stock of unread software-engineering books has run dry and my bank account is unaccountably comfortable, I picked up a copy. I thought I'd write a review of it.
First impression: That's a cute dog in the cartoons.
Second impression: That's a big damn book. (And that's a bug, not a feature.) There's no way that I'll be able to write a full review of Code Complete 2 after reading the whole thing. So, my plan is to write an incremental review, starting with this journal entry.
