Programming Guidelines

I was rather fortunate to spend my first two years as a commercial programmer working for a (long since demised) video games startup in Nottingham, under the guidance of Dr. Jerry Swan.

Getting to grips with game design, AI, bit-blitting and immovable monthly publisher deliverables (and, as a recent graduate, actually having to work for a living) was something of a trial by fire, but I learned more about programming, object-oriented design and writing solid code in those years than any of the years spent programming before and, arguably, after, such was the intensity of learning during that time.

It turns out that Dr. S recently produced a set of C++ programming guidelines for Stirling University. You might argue that C++ is to today’s modern dynamic languages what early modern English is to text-speak but the rules and standards of solid programming are universal and timeless. These guidelines are proof of that.

If you’re an eager aspiring programmer, or indeed even an experienced or rather cynical one, spending an hour studying these 33 pages would be an extremely valuable exercise. Future you will be thankful.

Defensive C++: Programming Guidelines for those who dislike Debugging