Software Construction (6.005)

Principles for software that lasts

This is an archived MIT course on how to write software that is without avoidable bugs, easy to understand and able to absorb change. Those three goals run through every topic, which makes the course a useful test of whether a codebase is built to last.

Topics

• Specifications and invariants, and how to state what code promises
• Testing and abstract data types
• Object-oriented design patterns
• Concurrent programming and functional programming

How it is run

Problem sets and a final project are part of the design, so it is built around doing rather than only reading. The listing points to an earlier semester's OpenCourseWare materials, so some logistics will differ from a current run. The content on specifications and invariants is the most transferable to everyday work.