Status Updates From Code Complete: A Practical ...

“Traditionally, programming books wax mathematical when they arrive at the topic of abstract data types. They tend to make statements like “One can think of an abstract data type as a mathematical model with a collection of operations defined on it.” Such books make it seem as if you’d never actually use an abstract data type except as a sleep aid.”

“Voltaire said that a book is finished not when nothing more can be added, but when nothing more can be taken away. In software, this is especially true because extra code has to be developed, reviewed, tested, and considered when the other code is modified.

Future versions of the software must remain backward-compatible with the extra code. The fatal question is: It’s easy, so what will be hurt by putting it in?”