A minor quibble. He claims that "no-elses" are prone to side-effects and "error-prone junk". However, "no-elses" are in my opinion as flagrant a crime as "no-braces" following if statements (which appears to be his style). The author says that he prefers the ternary operator (a > b ? a : b) to "no-elses"; however, its use is definitely more error-prone!