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rodhilton's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked this book but also was a bit disappointed by it. I'm a huge fan of Robert Martin's work, I've read his previous books and I love Clean Code and The Clean Coder. Based on the title and artwork I had kind of assumed that this was just the next step of the Clean Trilogy, this time focusing on architectural concerns.
It is kind of that, but it's mostly not quite that. Really, this book is a lot of background information to understand the "meat" of the book, and the meat of the book is Martin presenting his Clean Architecture pattern, which he proposed in 2012 and has been presenting and training a lot on: https://8thlight.com/blog/uncle-bob/2012/08/13/the-clean-architecture.html
In that way, this book feels much more specific than Clean Code or The Clean Coder. While those two books are general advice for software professionals, this comes off more as an extended design pattern book that only covers one singular pattern. It's presented as The Only Right Way, and while I personally agree with Martin's perspective and his loathing for framework-heavy architectures, it was a bit disappointing that the book was mostly a very deep dive on a blog post from five years ago.
The "buildup" stuff is actually more interesting. It's about applying SOLID principles to architecture and I really enjoyed this section of the book, I felt like I finally grokked dependency inversion at a component level, and there's a lot to apply to architectural problems I face. That section of the book feels very general, though like most of Martin's work it's yet another rehash of SOLID and talking about FitNesse, two things he's gotten a stunning amount of mileage out of to a point where you kind of wonder if he's ever done anything else (he has, but boy does he return to these wells a lot).
In a way this is two shorter books smashed together. One is Clean Architecture, a book about building clean architecture using SOLID principles (and a few new ones). The other is a book about the Clean Architecture Pattern, a particular way to architect systems that shares a lot with Allistair Cockburn's Hexagonal Architecture pattern. These two concepts use the exact same name to, I think, intentionally get readers to conflate the two concepts as one and come away feeling like Martin's proposal is the only possible way to architect a system in a way that is clean. But one of these things is "clean architecture" and the other is "Clean Architecture", and it's often hard to see what is what. This is by design, I think.
In any case, the book is really good and I got a lot of out of it, though it wasn't what I was expecting really. The first half (or so) of the book feels like 80% rehash of stuff I've seen from Martin before, with 20% extremely good and useful new stuff. Then the second half of the book is a completely different topic presented as the same topic, which I enjoyed but I can see a lot of readers being turned off by. I still would recommend the book and I think it's worth reading for anyone who feels like "architecture" is part of their job.
It is kind of that, but it's mostly not quite that. Really, this book is a lot of background information to understand the "meat" of the book, and the meat of the book is Martin presenting his Clean Architecture pattern, which he proposed in 2012 and has been presenting and training a lot on: https://8thlight.com/blog/uncle-bob/2012/08/13/the-clean-architecture.html
In that way, this book feels much more specific than Clean Code or The Clean Coder. While those two books are general advice for software professionals, this comes off more as an extended design pattern book that only covers one singular pattern. It's presented as The Only Right Way, and while I personally agree with Martin's perspective and his loathing for framework-heavy architectures, it was a bit disappointing that the book was mostly a very deep dive on a blog post from five years ago.
The "buildup" stuff is actually more interesting. It's about applying SOLID principles to architecture and I really enjoyed this section of the book, I felt like I finally grokked dependency inversion at a component level, and there's a lot to apply to architectural problems I face. That section of the book feels very general, though like most of Martin's work it's yet another rehash of SOLID and talking about FitNesse, two things he's gotten a stunning amount of mileage out of to a point where you kind of wonder if he's ever done anything else (he has, but boy does he return to these wells a lot).
In a way this is two shorter books smashed together. One is Clean Architecture, a book about building clean architecture using SOLID principles (and a few new ones). The other is a book about the Clean Architecture Pattern, a particular way to architect systems that shares a lot with Allistair Cockburn's Hexagonal Architecture pattern. These two concepts use the exact same name to, I think, intentionally get readers to conflate the two concepts as one and come away feeling like Martin's proposal is the only possible way to architect a system in a way that is clean. But one of these things is "clean architecture" and the other is "Clean Architecture", and it's often hard to see what is what. This is by design, I think.
In any case, the book is really good and I got a lot of out of it, though it wasn't what I was expecting really. The first half (or so) of the book feels like 80% rehash of stuff I've seen from Martin before, with 20% extremely good and useful new stuff. Then the second half of the book is a completely different topic presented as the same topic, which I enjoyed but I can see a lot of readers being turned off by. I still would recommend the book and I think it's worth reading for anyone who feels like "architecture" is part of their job.
tikitechie's review
4.0
Another great and easily digestible book from “uncle bob:” a collection of architecture principles from low level components to high level system components, and how to effectively isolate them to make change less painful. Nothing here is new or particularly groundbreaking— but it is great to have everything pulled together, in one place, lucidly explained, and with simple real life examples from uncle Bob’s own career experiences. This would be a great textbook or high-level overview for anyone looking for an introduction to software architecture.
etopiei's review
4.0
This was a well written book and I learned quite a bit about architecturing software effectively. Some of this stuff felt like revision of things I learned in Uni but overall it was an enjoyable read and gave names to concepts I'd encountered at work before. I would recommend to anyone working on software projects regularly.
amartos's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
An excellent book.
The author goes through a series of design principles to apply at different levels of software architecture. Uncle Bob (R.C. Martin's nickname) has a way to explain things that makes them both understandable and very interesting. The last chapters are Uncle Bob's partial biography, in which he describes interesting situations, their context, and designs of software architectures he encountered and/or worked on. These chapters give some real-life context to the books' principles, serving as great examples.
The author goes through a series of design principles to apply at different levels of software architecture. Uncle Bob (R.C. Martin's nickname) has a way to explain things that makes them both understandable and very interesting. The last chapters are Uncle Bob's partial biography, in which he describes interesting situations, their context, and designs of software architectures he encountered and/or worked on. These chapters give some real-life context to the books' principles, serving as great examples.
heymacarena's review
informative
medium-paced
4.0
A good software book for more experienced developers trying to up their architecture game
henrik_w's review
3.0
Clean Architecture is basically one idea repeated over and over for 30 chapters. The idea is that the business logic should be self-contained. It should not depend on the database or sockets or frameworks or GUI. It is a really, really good idea, and it is not easy to actually follow. However, the idea could have been explained in a lot less than 300 pages.
At the end there is a 50-pages appendix where Robert Martin describes many of the projects he worked on, from the early 1970s to the 1990s. Many of the problems from those projects are interesting case studies that you can learn from - I quite enjoyed reading those stories (somewhat to my own surprise).
At the end there is a 50-pages appendix where Robert Martin describes many of the projects he worked on, from the early 1970s to the 1990s. Many of the problems from those projects are interesting case studies that you can learn from - I quite enjoyed reading those stories (somewhat to my own surprise).