Hello everyone.

I'm catching a bad tendency about my code. Short after the piece of software grow at 20-25+ files the code seems to be hard to follow and understand. But with proper comments I can remove the last statement "understand".

I'm trying to use some kind of patterns to achive better code however everything end up a big mess at the end.

So... I fail to hide the complexity in my code. However I don't know how to google about books on the subject. I'm not native english speaker and I canno find good keywords.

My question is: Can you recommend me a good book that can help me write good code?

Well, I my problem is that I cannot find a good book, because I don't know what keywords to use to the search engine, for example.

I don't have problem understanding english tech literature.

I've already read game coding complete. The guys seem to know what are they talking about. And still many of the stuff is not suitable for real world code.

Game Engine Architecture - Thats was my next choice after GCC. Well, I guess most of the stuff were already coverted in GCC and it was really easy book. The only thing that I didn't know about was the character animation.

Currently I'm reading a random book on design patterns hoping it will help me produce good code.

P.S. If everything I need is experience then thats good. I already coded one engine(completely refactored/rewritten 3 times) and I guess I'm getting better and better. I was just looking for a way to speed up the process.

From my point of view: Code can always be better. Even after I have passed the stage "everything should be perfect" I still have the feeling I miss something.

I agree with the "you'll get it through experience" opinion, but I have one piece of advice to share.

One thing that helps me a lot is paying attention to interfaces between parts of the software. If you write a library of some sort (especially one that other people will use), you'll have to provide a good interface for the user: It needs to be clean and consistent, and it needs to hide the messy parts of how things are implemented. Once you are used to this mindset, you can let it permeate your entire code, and then it will be understandable in smaller chunks.

More generally, you need to program with other people. You need to annoy them with your bad code and you need to be annoyed by theirs. That's the best way I know to learn that code needs to be clear, and what clear enough means.

I spent about 10 years taking care of a complicated production system for a financial firm, and sometimes I had to fix things quickly, or we would lose tons of money. A co-worker described "clear-enough code" this way: You need to be able to get up at 3am when it breaks, read it, fix it, and wake up in the morning without remembering anything.

Keep writing code. Eventually you get to the point where you can restructure in a way that it will look much nicer than it was before.

As a side note: avoid duplicated code which involves restructuring the code until you get to the point where you do not see the duplication.

Book are nice as references but programming is a skill that comes with experiencing it everyday.

P.S. If everything I need is experience then thats good. I already coded one engine(completely refactored/rewritten 3 times) and I guess I'm getting better and better. I was just looking for a way to speed up the process.

http://www.mainewingchunkungfu.com/article6.htm A story that was passed on to me a long time ago, whose message I've never really forgotten.