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Books for Software Engineers in 2023

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Re: Books for Software Engineers in 2023

#41

Post by rramadass »

User23 wrote: post #22

A Discipline of Programming by Edsger Dijkstra. It’s an approachable introduction to a frankly under-taught approach to programming. Being able to apply mathematical reasoning to programming is perhaps the main reason to use a functional approach. But mathematical reasoning isn’t restricted to functional style programs! All imperative programs can be described by purely functional mappings between points in a program…

>All imperative programs can be described by purely functional mappings between points in a program state space with each in scope variable naming a dimension.

... Using Predicate Calculus.

I said the same thing here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34206888

We Dijkstra fans have to stick together :-)

Re: Books for Software Engineers in 2023

#42

Post by Jtsummers »

kamaal wrote: post #39
CalChris wrote: post #35

SICP shouldn’t be on this list. Few people actually read it and most just worship it unread like a bible. It was Hilfinger’s assigned text in 61A at Berkeley but without any assigned readings. On the other hand, The Little Schemer which has a lot of the important ideas from SICP might be on a list such as this. But it’s too accessible to warrant much respect.

THIS PLACE IS RESERVED FOR JELLY BEAN STAINS . . . . . The whole The Little|Seasoned|Reasoned Schemer plus its other variants The Little ML'er|Java|Prover|Typer are some of the most mind bending books that you will ever read ever. And it is not the just the end result. Reading these books well will teach you socratic method of teaching/learning, which is great in itself. And will help you teach yourself a wide variet…

Why are people downvoting and flagging this comment? The top and bottom are literal quotes from The Little Schemer and the rest is just a short review of the books and an honest assessment of the trouble with the Socratic method (it doesn't work for everyone).

Re: Books for Software Engineers in 2023

#43

Post by trentnix »

llimllib wrote: post #23

A Philosophy of Software Design is excellent, I dislike almost all programming books but that one is great.

It's one of my favorites. I've read it a few times and always find it insightful and motivating. It's an easy, quick read that I recommend to anyone that wants to build better software.

Re: Books for Software Engineers in 2023

#44

Post by jxf »

Waterluvian wrote: post #29

“This book is a must-read for any serious software engineer.” This isn’t necessarily wrong but it always reminds me of the era when I had severe impostor syndrome. I haven’t read any of these books and I’m doing very well. I guess I’m just not serious enough. :)

I tend to interpret these as not "if you don't read this, you're not a serious software engineer", but rather "if you're a software engineer, you are more likely to enjoy this book".

Re: Books for Software Engineers in 2023

#47

Post by rr808 »

"Vert.x in Action" Julien Ponge (2020). I've been reading it for a new job I'm in that uses Vertx. Best framework and textbook I've seen in years. So refreshing to write Java without Spring magic. I'm not loving reactive everything, but its powerful.

Its more than just about Vertx though as it has a great simple demo project that uses Mongo, Postgres, Zookeeper, Kafka, Artemis in containers, which is some other components I've been trying to make use of too.

Re: Books for Software Engineers in 2023

#48

Post by smadge »

friedman23 wrote: post #34
danielmarkbruce wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many things move at snails pace because when you generate 10's of billions of $$ every qtr, the first thing you want to do is not screw that up. Google's reality is basically not like any other company (except maybe 2-3). Google's engineering culture, at least a few years back, was insanely good given that reality.

I feel like that's a terrible use of their capital if all they are trying to do is just not screw things up. I'm not a shareholder but if I were I'd rather have my money returned to me than have it spent on a bunch of projects that will get nowhere because the goal is avoid risk taking.

It’s not only “don’t screw things up.” They still develop features, they just go through a gauntlet of design review, experimentation, and then launch review.

Re: Books for Software Engineers in 2023

#49

Post by Apocryphon »

Sytten wrote: post #37
Waterluvian wrote: post #29

“This book is a must-read for any serious software engineer.” This isn’t necessarily wrong but it always reminds me of the era when I had severe impostor syndrome. I haven’t read any of these books and I’m doing very well. I guess I’m just not serious enough. :)

Those comments always come off as extremely pretentious to me. There is not a single way to be “serious" and anybody telling otherwise just has a big ego...

Not only pretentious, woefully unhip. SICP was popular on HN for as long as the site has been around, everyone knows it's worth reading. pg wrote an Amazon review about it in 2000.

Re: Books for Software Engineers in 2023

#50

Post by xedrac »

Waterluvian wrote: post #29

“This book is a must-read for any serious software engineer.” This isn’t necessarily wrong but it always reminds me of the era when I had severe impostor syndrome. I haven’t read any of these books and I’m doing very well. I guess I’m just not serious enough. :)

I have worked through much of the SICP book, and loved it. I think the author is just trying to emphasize that it's a really great book. Not that it's some sort of initiation that you must go through before you're a "real" software engineer.
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