General subject is correct: the more code is pasted in the book - the lesser value it usually is. These 1,200 page overpriced heavy monsters in a bookstore are usually sheer waste of paper.
Best development book I've read, has no code in it
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Re: Best development book I've read, has no code in it
#12Coders at Work is probably a much better book with no code in it.
Seconded! All-star programmers talking about both technically deep topics and general reflections of good work practices and viewpoints on life. A great book for programmers of any skill or type.
Here's a list of highlights that Kindle users have made:
https://kindle.amazon.com/work/coders-work-reflections-craft...
Re: Best development book I've read, has no code in it
#13The techniques you mentioned isn't true for just programming, it is true everywhere. Awesome !
Re: Best development book I've read, has no code in it
#14I was thinking of doing the exact opposite of this book, writing a book in C code that has to be compiled first.
Re: Best development book I've read, has no code in it
#15I've found woodworking to be an incredible analogy (and also contrast) to software dev. The guy at http://woodgears.ca/ was formerly a software engineer, and I find it interesting how this influences he approaches woodworking.
Re: Best development book I've read, has no code in it
#16Coders at Work is probably a much better book with no code in it.
Coders at Work is great - easy to read (but long), with a lot of interesting information. Some sample questions the author asks:
"How do you design code?", "What is the worst bug you've ever had to track down?", "What's your preferred debugging techniques and tools? Print statements? Symbolic debuggers? Formal proofs?" and "As a programmer, do you consider yourself a scientist, an engineer, an artist, or a craftsman?". I think these are all excellent questions, and I learned a lot by reading all the different answers.
My full review of it: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2OV0TG7MJGXGL/
Re: Best development book I've read, has no code in it
#17I've found woodworking to be an incredible analogy (and also contrast) to software dev. The guy at http://woodgears.ca/ was formerly a software engineer, and I find it interesting how this influences he approaches woodworking.
There was a talk at Clojure/conj by Tim Ewald on just that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShEez0JkOFw
"Programming with hand tools"
Lots of conference reviews nominated it in their favourite talks too.
Re: Best development book I've read, has no code in it
#18I was thinking of doing the exact opposite of this book, writing a book in C code that has to be compiled first.
Did you mean literate programming? Something like "A Retargetable C Compiler" maybe?
Re: Best development book I've read, has no code in it
#19Try "Peopleware" from DeMarco and Lister: http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Teams-3...
Re: Best development book I've read, has no code in it
#20I first read the few quotes and they made sense. I thought this is good.
Then I went to HN and saw the cynicism. It is one of the moments when am thankful for the cynicism. I should waste my time on something more specialised. It's worrying how naive sometimes one gets until one gets another POV.