A Philosophy of Software Design

by John Ousterhout

There are two general approaches to fighting complexity, both of which will be discussed in this book. The first approach is to eliminate complexity by making code simpler and more obvious.

The second approach to complexity is to encapsulate it, so that programmers can work on a system without being exposed to all of its complexity at once.

One of the best ways to improve your design skills is to learn to recognize red flags: signs that a piece of code is probably more complicated than it needs to be.

Complexity is anything related to the structure of a software system that makes it hard to understand and modify the system.

Isolating complexity in a place where it will never be seen is almost as good as eliminating the complexity entirely.

Complexity is caused by two things: dependencies and obscurity.