There are hundreds of Java books on the market that discuss the APIs of various packages, discuss patterns and introduce the developer to the Java language. This book will do none of those things. Instead the book will focus on the core of the Java language and the APIs that come in the JDK itself. This book will introduce professional developers to the 9 principles of maintainable code and demonstrate how those principles can be applied with 120 individual tips that can be used to improve the maintainability of code. Written for the professional developer, this book takes a practical approach to the sometimes monumental task of repairing code in a working business. The book starts with the statement level, providing tips on how to improve individual statements in a program. This gives every reader the ability to immediately apply maintainability techniques. As the book progresses, the complexity of tips and commitment to refactoring gradually increase until we reach the architectural level. The developer that masters the tips in this book will be an A-player and the organization that enforces these rules will find their software quality rise dramatically. Even though professional developers encounter millions of lines of horrible code, it is rare that they are able to simply throw away the existing system and start over. The capital investment and return for the business usually preclude such radical steps. At the same time, sitting by and doing nothing will only guarantee the problem gets worse. Unfortunately most companies throw people and technologies at the problem with little success. This book will prove to the working professional that all that is needed to improve the maintainability of their code is to use the actual Java language itself. In the process the developer will be introduced to some very advanced techniques and concepts that few in the Java industry have really mastered. By the end of the book, the reader will have an extremely deep understanding of not only the Java language but the work of the professional, practical software developer. The techniques and knowledge in this book have been developed over 16 years of professional Java development on two continents, in 14 industries and over 30 companies. Even the most advanced developer should find worthwhile material that can immediately improve their lives.
