41–50 of 92 posts
The book that got me hooked on computers many years ago: "Soul Of A New Machine" http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-A-New-Machine/dp/0316491977
I am sorry, but for me that book was a no. It just felt like a self help book, but for programmers, which is kind of ok if you are feeling any sort of personal trouble in the field. Not that this is not already told on the back cover, but no, I would not call this book the best development book. I did not buy it, instead, it was the result of participating in a local dev Google something, but it really surprised me h…
Have you (or anyone else) read Code Complete? If so, how do you feel about it? I started reading it because everyone recommended it, but I stopped at page 100 or so, because I felt it was getting no where.
Generally, for a programmer, I'd say skip it. Or pick it up in a library and skim over it, and you'll get 90% of the benefit. And yeah, the whole thing could be condensed into a large blog post / small handbook and it would be immensely improved.
The book that got me hooked on computers many years ago: "Soul Of A New Machine" http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-A-New-Machine/dp/0316491977
Still one of the best books out there about getting a product out the door. (Showstopper--about the development of Windows NT--is another.) Of course, I may be biased :-) I worked at Data General for about 13 years. I started a few years after the events of the book but knew many of the people portrayed in it, including Tom West.
I am sorry, but for me that book was a no. It just felt like a self help book, but for programmers, which is kind of ok if you are feeling any sort of personal trouble in the field. Not that this is not already told on the back cover, but no, I would not call this book the best development book. I did not buy it, instead, it was the result of participating in a local dev Google something, but it really surprised me h…
Have you (or anyone else) read Code Complete? If so, how do you feel about it? I started reading it because everyone recommended it, but I stopped at page 100 or so, because I felt it was getting no where.
I read Code Complete 2 after developing software for maybe 6-7 years in an environment like this. Much of it was obvious, but the rest was a revelation. Same with The Pragmatic Programmer.
Several years later I read a book called "The Passionate Programmer", which was like the book described in this article - soft, career development skills. That was probably the most important book I've ever read. In fact it's how I found out about Hacker News in addition to a whole bunch of different books. It lit a fire in me.
4 years later, I have a career that is so dramatically different I don't even know where to begin. On the same token, I reread that book (Passionate Programmer) recently and it does seem like common sense I would absorbed over time from things I read on HN.
I am sorry, but for me that book was a no. It just felt like a self help book, but for programmers, which is kind of ok if you are feeling any sort of personal trouble in the field. Not that this is not already told on the back cover, but no, I would not call this book the best development book. I did not buy it, instead, it was the result of participating in a local dev Google something, but it really surprised me h…
Have you (or anyone else) read Code Complete? If so, how do you feel about it? I started reading it because everyone recommended it, but I stopped at page 100 or so, because I felt it was getting no where.
That said, it has a lot of solid advice. It also has some less than solid advice which is more of an opinion.
I would still recommend people read it. I also recommend they read the references. I also recommend they talk with other people, look at their experiences, and try to figure things out for themselves.
Adding another thought here:
Some things have to be learnt through experience. You can read a really great book about swimming but it probably won't make you a good swimmer. So that's one thing.
The other thing is that I found the book trying to be very rigorous about subjects where it's simply impossible to do so. There are so many different ways to approach different problems and things like cost vary hugely between different businesses. Sometimes doing things one way makes sense in a given context and not in another. What we need is for people to develop that understanding rather than simply learn some rules.
best development book I ever read was called "Antifragile" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
Also Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, although a bit dated and often dismissed as hippy pseudo-philosophy, has some very practical aspects about mental approach to technical problems, dealing with "gumption traps" etc.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you (or anyone else) read Code Complete? If so, how do you feel about it? I started reading it because everyone recommended it, but I stopped at page 100 or so, because I felt it was getting no where.
Code Complete was overwhelmingly the most influential programming book I've ever read. But it's been around for 20 years, and much of the material has now been rehashed in many other books, videos, forums, blog posts, etc. I think that's what other posters are getting at when they say it's just common sense: this kind of thing is everywhere now. Much of the book is spent making arguments for and providing evidence fo…
I'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.
best development book I ever read was called "Antifragile" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.