I understand that the people that follow Clean Code religiously are annoying, but the author seems to be doing the same thing in reverse: because some advice is nuanced or doesn't apply all the time then we should stop recommending the book and forget it altogether.
Its not just that it doesn't always apply. Its that the absracted rules are not useful as stand alone guides to developing code, although they are presented as such. Its the entire purpose of the book isn't it? The argument against this book isn't that books about code style and rules are bad. Its that this one is bad. And its often recommended as core reading material to new developers (several examples of that in this thread). I've read several code style / guide books over the last decade. This is one of the few I put down fairly early on because it just didn't seem very good.
I understand that the people that follow Clean Code religiously are annoying, but the author seems to be doing the same thing in reverse: because some advice is nuanced or doesn't apply all the time then we should stop recommending the book and forget it altogether.
Its not just that it doesn't always apply. Its that the absracted rules are not useful as stand alone guides to developing code, although they are presented as such. Its the entire purpose of the book isn't it? The argument against this book isn't that books about code style and rules are bad. Its that this one is bad. And its often recommended as core reading material to new developers (several examples of that in this thread). I've read several code style / guide books over the last decade. This is one of the few I put down fairly early on because it just didn't seem very good.
Sure, but it doesn't mean the book itself is bad. It's that beginners should be aware that what's "right" differs from project to project.