Reference and Selective Reading
Semester 0 does not assign Clean Code front-to-back. Start with the concept and practice pages, then open a source chapter only to resolve a specific gap.
Current Semester 0 Scope
| Concept | Best source if stuck |
|---|---|
| Clean Code Is a Change Strategy | Chapter 1: Bad Code and change cost |
| Names Carry Design Intent | Chapter 2: Meaningful Names |
| Comments Are a Last Resort | Chapter 4: Comments |
| Formatting Shapes How Code Is Read | Chapter 5: Formatting |
| Functions Should Do One Thing | Chapter 3: Functions |
| Arguments and Side Effects Must Be Honest | Chapter 3: Functions |
| Tests Enable Design Change | Chapter 9: Keeping Tests Clean |
| Tests Should Read Like Explanations | Chapter 9: Clean Tests |
Deliberately Deferred
Do not treat the following as missing Semester 0 work:
- error-handling and third-party boundary design
- objects versus data structures, class design, cohesion, and SOLID
- system construction, dependency injection, and cross-cutting concerns
- simple-design rules, large refactoring case studies, and smell catalogs
- concurrency and appendices
Those topics belong to Semester 3: Software Design & Patterns. Full-book learners read the complete book there according to the Full-Book Degree.
Source Roles
Primary teaching source: the Semester 0 concept and practice pagesSelective reference: the six linked Clean Code chapter groups aboveFull-book reading: Stage 3 only