Author Description

Finding bugs and understanding what is really happening within code is a lostart. Only truly good programmers are able to emulate the processor in theirown mind (e.g. read the code and understand how it might work without goingto the trouble of running it). Adam Barr wonders how programmers aresupposed to build better programs if they do not know what is going on incode. The true pursuit of most software programmers is not creatingapplications from scratch; the reality of their day-to-day work is that theyusually have to deal with inherited code. This code, likely written by someoneelse, must be optimized, tweaked, and improved. Therefore, programmers whoare adept at reading, understanding, and improving code are in hot demand.These skills are drawn to the forefront with the help of this new book.This book is language-independent. The author borrows from his extensiveexperience at Microsoft Corporation and as an independent consultant to showhow programming skills can be honed by going through the exercise of findingthe bugs in existing code. By teaching programmers how to troubleshoot, it isthe author's belief that programmers will learn how to think like a programmer,and ultimately produce better software in a more timely fashion.