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WingedPanther

Book Review: The Pragmatic Programmer

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WingedPanther
, 09-20-2009 at 05:33 PM (1307 Views)
In the course of becoming a programmer, you reach a point where you feel like your problem isn't with knowing the language. This is where a book like this comes in. It's a list of practical tips for improving how you approach the process of programming.

It includes a list of 70 tips (such as learn a code editor well). These are organized around several major techniques. Prototyping is one, incremental development is another. If some of these techniques seem contradictory, they explain when to use them, not just what they are.

There is also a healthy cynicism towards fad techniques. There was a time when procedural programming was supposed to solve all coding issues. The same was claimed of OOP. They believe in taking the best, but not assuming any fad technique will solve all your woes.

Finally, there is an extensive list of resources on the web as well as recommended books. For me, the biggest recommendation I can offer is that it is copywrited 2000, but still feels highly relevant. In addition, it also makes references to other books that I highly respect, including The Art of Computer Programming and Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software.

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Comments

  1. ArekBulski's Avatar
    I wish there was a free version for online reading. I won't find resources to buy a paper copy.
  2. Jordan's Avatar
    Sounds like an excellent book. $23.16 used on Amazon.com, not bad. I may pick it up.

    BTW, have you thought of using an e-reader like the Amazon Kindle?
  3. WingedPanther's Avatar
    I have an innate distrust of Kindle, especially after they deleted 1984 from people's readers. That, and it won't display .pdf format. To me, an e-book should be less expensive than the hard-copy equivalent. Unfortunately, I'm not really seeing that. Worse, e-readers are pretty expensive themselves. I looked briefly at the e-reader software from Barnes & Noble, but it doesn't support Linux yet, and I don't feel like installing wine to try it out.

    So, are there any good, reasonably priced, DRM-free e-readers out there?
  4. Jordan's Avatar
    The DX version of the kindle supports PDFs in native format but it is way overpriced at $450ish. The older versions support PDF if you pay to send them through some email conversion which is why I never bought one of the older ones. I took a look at the Sony e-reader once, it was nice but slow. Turning a page took 5-10 seconds which would of gotten very annoying.

    What reason did they give for removing 1984?
  5. Hignar's Avatar
    I picked up a Sony PRS-500 for £80 ($130). PDF support is pretty poor but I believe they improved it on later models. There's also a program that converts PDFs to the Sony's native format that works well. It's only available for windows, but works flawlessly under wine.

    I agree that ebooks should be cheaper than the hard copy. I've bought some off O'Reilly where they are slightly cheaper but not so much that I would have considered buying an ebooker reader to take advantage of the saving.
  6. Jordan's Avatar
    For me, the appeal of getting an eBook reader is saving book space. I have so many books right now.... Also, having access to all of my books everywhere sounds very nice.
  7. WingedPanther's Avatar
    Amazon had offered 1984 by mistake and "unbought" it for people to comply with licensing rights.