The Elements of Programming Style: Difference between revisions

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[[Image:The Elements of Programming Style.jpg|200px|thumb|Cover of the second edition]]

'''''The Elements of Programming Style''''', by [[Brian W. Kernighan]] and [[P. J. Plauger]], is a study of [[programming style]], advocating the notion that computer programs should be written not only to satisfy the compiler or personal programming "style", but also withfor human"readability" readersby inhumans, mind (especiallyspecifically [[software maintenance]] engineers), programmers and technical writers.

The book pays explicit homage, in title and tone, to ''[[The Elements of Style]]'', by [[William Strunk Jr.|Strunk]] & [[E. B. White|White]] and considered a practical template promoting [[Edsger Dijkstra|Edsger Dijkstra's]] [[structured programming]] discussions.

The book is built on short examples from actual, published programs in programming textbooks. Its advice is therefore delivered not in an academic or pedagogical vacuum, but rather in the context of examples which are believable and realistic, sometimes uncomfortably so. The style is diplomatic and generally sympathetic in its criticism, and unabashedly honest as well— some of the examples with which it finds fault are from the authors' own work (one example in the second edition is from the first edition).