Great tips so far, helps provide a solid framework within which to think about your code and architecture

Steve McConnell's Code Complete is absolutely essential to every software developer. The lessons contained in Code Complete are based on solid, time-tested principles. The time spent reading Code Complete is time spent bettering your career as a developer.

I should've read this ten years ago

I'm ten, eleven years into my professional career now. Add to that another ten years of coding as a hobby. During this time I've picked up most of what is written in this book naturally or through colleagues, mentors and other sources. However, it has still served as a good reference and reminder of all the non obvious things that are important in program. That it matters not just what we write but how we write it.

It was however, a rather tedious read if I'm to be honest. It's a bit dated and though it's aged fairly well it's simply a very big book making it tough to consume.

I think at this point we may have other sources such as Clean Coder or similar that are easier to get through in smaller bite sizes. Still, I'm happy i read this and I would recommend it to get the full picture.

This is the must read book for every programmer who want to start their very first career. Steve talks about how to write clean and readable code that will distinguish the good and bad programmer.

McConnell uses personal experience along with hard data from many other researchers in industry and academia to show the reader how to write code quickly, efficiently, effectively, and bug-free.

Well, it's definitely long. If you've been programming for a while, and haven't read this (like me), then you'll find it to be a good structured outline of what you're doing already, with quite a few new things sprinkled in.

For a recent grad, I think this book will be filled with lots of information that can help the new grad avoid the gotchas that had to be learned the hard way by other people.

I think Steve McConnell takes a fairly pragmatic approach in this book, in that he's for the most part strictly covering processes/conventions that any developer at any size shop should be following.

I think this is a must read for any professional programmer.

The format and verbosity of this book really hurts. I'm glad that there are technical books like O'Reilly's Head First series out there. Or the Pragmatic Bookshelf. I must say tho, there are a lot of good points in Code Complete. But the way they are presented... Makes it difficult to enjoy.

Detailed explanation with good examples, thoughtful quotes just in-place, pointers to relevant literature, actionable check-lists and key points. It's one of the must-reads.

Every day I code, I apply a lesson I learnt from this book. It has helped a lot.

A lot of books will tell you how to code. This is one of the few that backs its advice with research and statistics. Part of the essential developer bookshelf, right next to The Pragmatic Programmer.

It's not bad book. It's good book, a lot of effort was spent to write it. But it's so... old school. Too bloated. Every idea is discussed according to some statistics and based on some computer science article. I don't like this "complete" approach very much. I prefer strong focus on topic and clear opinons based on real experience. If you like reading a dictionary, add another two stars.

This is a solid overview of the practice of software design at a low level: not how to solve problems with logical architecture, but how to organize code (or what the author calls "construction"). As of time of reading, I've been programming for fifteen years. For me, much of this was tread ground but I think reading this book would be as good as a year or two of practical experience, at the least, for a beginning programmer. It would certainly set them off on the right foot. If I'd read it a decade or so ago it would have saved me a lot of unnecessarily painful learning experiences and teachable moments.

Even as an experienced programmer, I still picked up a few concepts from this book. Beyond that I picked up a lot of useful metaphors and documented research which I plan to employ in the future when explaining concepts to other professionals.

Code Complete is a bit dry, but it's also well-organized so the reader can easily skip to the sections most relevant to their interests. There's also a fantastic extended reading list at the end which I'm now planning to dive into.