Software Engineering at Google

#1

Post by thedance » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 8:15 PM UTC

Software Engineering at Google
books.google.com

Re: Software Engineering at Google

#2

Post by KerryJones » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 9:06 PM UTC

I see a lot of upvotes -- has anyone read this? Is it actually good?

Re: Software Engineering at Google

#3

Post by gowld » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 9:16 PM UTC

KerryJones wrote: post #2

I see a lot of upvotes -- has anyone read this? Is it actually good?

The book was published today.

Re: Software Engineering at Google

#4

Post by est31 » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 9:17 PM UTC

Note that this is a book, it's not, as you'd initially assume, the paper of the same title. https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.01715

Re: Software Engineering at Google

#5

Post by akavel » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 9:22 PM UTC

KerryJones wrote: post #2

I see a lot of upvotes -- has anyone read this? Is it actually good?

I think in such cases it's because people probably use upvotes as bookmarks to "read later" (...some day, for sure!)

Re: Software Engineering at Google

#6

Post by m_a_g » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 9:23 PM UTC

KerryJones wrote: post #2

I see a lot of upvotes -- has anyone read this? Is it actually good?

Upvotes are not for the book, but the newsworthiness of the book.

Re: Software Engineering at Google

#7

Post by frank_nitti » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 9:25 PM UTC

KerryJones wrote: post #2

I see a lot of upvotes -- has anyone read this? Is it actually good?

I've listened to a few interviews with Titus Winters on CppCast and gained a tremendous amount of insight on C++ systems development and software engineering in general (as well as Google's approach, obviously). IIRC he is a fundamental part of the Abseil project and hence has a deep involvement in Google's interaction with the broader open source and C++ communities.

If those quick talks were any indication, there will be a lot of value in this book for experienced developers.

Re: Software Engineering at Google

#8

Post by kgraves » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 9:26 PM UTC

KerryJones wrote: post #2

I see a lot of upvotes -- has anyone read this? Is it actually good?

Not read it, but because it's Google I upvoted it.

Re: Software Engineering at Google

#9

Post by kortilla » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 9:27 PM UTC

If you’re interested in becoming a software engineer or are junior, do not read this and cargo cult it because many of these things will not be good practices for 99.99% of the industry.

Google has custom tooling, custom kernels, custom hardware, etc and legions of support at every layer of the stack. Complexity is not eschewed but it is rather embraced if it means some slight improvement in utilization or better looking latency distribution.

Those goals are not sustainable in normal businesses, even tech ones.

Google places very little emphasis on things like code readability and testability because it’s easy for them to do rewrites or just run tests on 1 million cores to shake out race conditions and locks.

Read this for entertainment but don’t try to blindly apply it to your work environment. Most of it will make you a bad engineer for non-FAANG envs.

Re: Software Engineering at Google

#10

Post by getmeoutofhere » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 9:29 PM UTC

kortilla wrote: post #9

If you’re interested in becoming a software engineer or are junior, do not read this and cargo cult it because many of these things will not be good practices for 99.99% of the industry. Google has custom tooling, custom kernels, custom hardware, etc and legions of support at every layer of the stack. Complexity is not eschewed but it is rather embraced if it means some slight improvement in utilization or better loo…

Are you saying this as an ex-Googler / current Googler? Otherwise, please give some citations for some of your claims.