Adam Tornhill - Your Code as a Crime Scene: Use Forensic Techniques to Arrest Defects, Bottlenecks, and Bad Design in Your Programs

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Its easy to look at code and think that there is nothing more than what we see. When we look at it, we see operators, identifiers, and other language structure, but that is all surface. We forget the depth. We spend so much time looking at the current state of the code that we forget its history and all of the forces that influenced it along its path toward the present.

We pay for this myopia. Many code changes are incredibly shortsighted, both in terms of our vision of what the code will be in the future, and the way that it got to be the way that it is.

Years ago, I was struck by the fact that we use version-control systems to keep track of our projects histories, but we hardly ever revert to previous versions. Those versions exist as an insurance policy, and were lucky when we never have to file a claim. Its easy, then, to look at that record of changes and see it as waste. Do we really need more than the last few versions? The naive answer is no, but we have a real opportunity when we enthusiastically say yeswe can mine our source code history to learn more about us, our environment, and how we work. That information is real power.

I think that we are at the beginning of a new era of awareness about how software changes. Were abandoning the static view of code and seeing it as a verba constantly changing medium that reacts to its immediate and extended environment. Your Code as a Crime Scene is the first book Ive encountered that takes that view and runs with it. Adam presents tools, techniques, and insight that will change the way you develop software. You cant unread this information, and you will see software differently.

Dig in.

My writing experience has been fun, challenging, and rewarding. I owe that to all the amazing people who helped me out.

First of all, Id like to thank the Pragmatic Bookshelf for this opportunity. In particular, Id like to thank my editor, Fahmida Y. Rashid, who made this a much better book than what I couldve done on my own. Thanks, Fahmida!

Id also like to thank all my reviewers: John Cater, Nell Shamrell, Rod Hilton, Gunther Schmidl, Dan Shiovitz, Lief Eric Fredheim, Jeremy Frens, Kevin Beam, and Andy Lester. Thanks a lot for all your feedback and ideas!

Special thanks to Jonas Lundberg and James Bach for their deep insights and helpful suggestions.

As always, I could count on my great colleagues at Webstep to help out: Patrik Falk, Mattias Larsson, Jimmy Rosenskog, Bjrn Granvik, and Mikael Pahmp. Thanks for all your encouragement and technical expertise! I would also like to thank Martin Stenlund for being an amazing manager and a true leader.

Ive always been a big fan of Michael Feathers work. Thats why Im extra proud to include his foreword. Thanks, Michaelyoure an inspiration!