The Elements of Programming Style: Difference between revisions

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{{review}}

[[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 seminal book in the study of [[programming style]], advocating the notion that computer programs should be written not only to satisfy the compiler, but rather also with human readers in mind.

A particular strength of the book is that it is built on examples taken from actual, published programs. The book's advice is therefore delivered not in an academic or pedagogical vacuum, but rather in the context of examples which are believably realistic, sometimes uncomfortably so. The authors are diplomatic and generally sympathetic in their criticisms, and unabashedly honest as well, in that some of the examples which they find fault with and seek to improve in the second edition were taken from their own first edition.