21–30 of 42 posts
Does anyone have any books they recommend for senior engineers (approx 10 years experience)?
Perhaps it's harder to recommend one book because by that time generalized knowledge should already have been absorbed.
I loved reading Steve McConnell's books when I was starting out, especially Code Complete and I feel that book made me a better programmer. Having read it a few times since I think it falls into the same group of books as Mythical Man Month, Peopleware, and the Pragmatic Programmer where the earlier in your career you read it, the more you'll get from it. Reading these books after 20 years of programming I found that…
Code Complete is a great book It is not overly opinionated, it is direct, it tries to support the statements it makes. It does not tell you a great story or tries to play you. It is what it is. And still it's a great reference. It's the anti-Uncle Bob, which tries to manipulate you and convince you of his way being the best way.
Instead, if I start with an opinion, I'm able to make immediate progress even if I end up refactoring down the road for some reason or another.
Of course there's no single write way to organize projects and write software. But one mediocre way that makes sense to me right now is often preferable to 10 better ways that I don't yet understand.
I loved reading Steve McConnell's books when I was starting out, especially Code Complete and I feel that book made me a better programmer. Having read it a few times since I think it falls into the same group of books as Mythical Man Month, Peopleware, and the Pragmatic Programmer where the earlier in your career you read it, the more you'll get from it. Reading these books after 20 years of programming I found that…
This seems a fairly common refrain in the comments. Am I the only one who forgets things? I have to reread things to keep the ideas crisp in my head.
Oh well!
I loved reading Steve McConnell's books when I was starting out, especially Code Complete and I feel that book made me a better programmer. Having read it a few times since I think it falls into the same group of books as Mythical Man Month, Peopleware, and the Pragmatic Programmer where the earlier in your career you read it, the more you'll get from it. Reading these books after 20 years of programming I found that…
Code Complete is a great book It is not overly opinionated, it is direct, it tries to support the statements it makes. It does not tell you a great story or tries to play you. It is what it is. And still it's a great reference. It's the anti-Uncle Bob, which tries to manipulate you and convince you of his way being the best way.
Clean Code has a narrative and is opinionated. It explains the experiences that formed those opinions. It is a better read.
Code Complete is dry, academic, and comprehensive for its scope. It references many studies and is well documented. It has opinions too of a sort. It is a better reference.
Thinking of function length - Clean Code says short functions are good. Code Complete references studies that say it is not long functions that are bad, it is functions using too many objects/variables that are bad. This of course has an indirect effect on function length. So I keep this in mind, and both books are helpful.
I read a bunch of Uncle Bob's books and usually don't mind him being opinionated, although I did think the opinions in Clean Coder got to be too much. Although not all of it. Recently I have been mulling the idea from that book that there should be zero regressions. I think there is something to that, if you start to accept there can be 2-3 regressions per sprint, then why not 5-7? Why not 10? I agree with him that acceptance of regressions is a problem.
I've been debating on getting my team of engineers a book as a gift, with Code Complete or Pragmatic Programmer as high on the list. Trouble is, as others noted, they're best when you're starting out and less helpful later in your career. Does anyone have any books they recommend for senior engineers (approx 10 years experience)? Perhaps it's harder to recommend one book because by that time generalized knowledge sho…
I loved reading Steve McConnell's books when I was starting out, especially Code Complete and I feel that book made me a better programmer. Having read it a few times since I think it falls into the same group of books as Mythical Man Month, Peopleware, and the Pragmatic Programmer where the earlier in your career you read it, the more you'll get from it. Reading these books after 20 years of programming I found that…
I loved code complete and it made me a better programmer and for a while everything was great. Then along came complicated frameworks, multiple languages, the chaotic HTML/JS/CSS world, k8s, yaml, dependency injection, functional and OO mixed together and it feels like Code Complete is too naive in this crazy new world. Most of the normal world seems terrible to me. I wonder what Steve would think of it. I didnt even…
You forgot 'SQL' (or broad 'data management and access'), as well as security and performance stuff in your list above.
I don't want to be a 'stick in the mud' but.. I also resist some of the newer/shinier things, precisely because they don't always stick around (and I've been burned). But also, I don't really have time/bandwidth to be an expert. Doing server mgt, security, etc half-assed, by just following a couple of readmes... that can lead to lots of trouble.
Are there any other author's similar to Steve McConnel? Someone who writes a book with pragmatic advice, based on real life research, focused on delivering projects quickly, on time, and with few defects? Instead it feels like almost all the writing in software is evangelizing.
I'd suggest anything and everything written by Gerald Weinberg, starting with what looks most appealing to you now.
'Making Software', edited by Wilson and Oram is chock-full of the latest research of its day (10 years ago.) It's dry, but it presents work of some top SE researchers. Following that group on twitter/Google scholar would bring you to the edge of what is studied in SE research.
Are there any other author's similar to Steve McConnel? Someone who writes a book with pragmatic advice, based on real life research, focused on delivering projects quickly, on time, and with few defects? Instead it feels like almost all the writing in software is evangelizing.
*I have no association with him whatsoever.
I loved reading Steve McConnell's books when I was starting out, especially Code Complete and I feel that book made me a better programmer. Having read it a few times since I think it falls into the same group of books as Mythical Man Month, Peopleware, and the Pragmatic Programmer where the earlier in your career you read it, the more you'll get from it. Reading these books after 20 years of programming I found that…
I believe this is the highest compliment a book can receive. When reading it the first time makes a big difference and the second time doesn't, it means it was so well written that you internalized it completely.