4 replies to this topic

[quiescere]

Hello----

I'm looking for well-written books on sound programming practices. Most books I have found are designed either to teach a language and basic programming (this is a variable, this is how you declare it in C) or to impart rather math-heavy programming theory, such as the Knuth books.

In short, I don't need to be told how to use an "if" statement, nor do I care that my sort algorithm is O(n log n) and why. Surely there is a happy middle ground out there somewhere that will give me a practical approach to writing efficient and secure programs?

In general, I am most concerned with C and PHP, but a good overview of more OO oriented practices would be welcome, too.

thanks----
quiescere

[WingedPanther]

There are several good books out there. One of my favorites is The Elements of C++ style, which talks about the importance of variable names, indentation, and certain techniques that will make your programs work better and be easier to debug.
There are also a ton of books about Test Driven Development, Agile Development, and [insert favorite buzzword] Development. These all tend to deal with techniques for writing robust, maintainable code.

[ZipOnTrousers]

I don't know how well this fits your needs, but has anyone read "Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs" by Niklaus Wirth? I'm trying to read and work through it now as I feel I'm weak in maths and that by reading through this and making notes, taking time to look up definitions of the mathematical terms used and how they are used, I would be able to improve my programming by getting into good practices from the start. However the book is from the 70s and is quite formally written, so in some areas I'm guessing it'll be quite dated and it can definitely take quite a lot of time to decipher the meaning of a page or even paragraph. Are there any more modern books like this that are maybe more accessible?

[WingedPanther]

Some of Knuth's books on programming are getting old, yet the core concepts in them are just as relevant now as when they were written.

[Alex1304]

Windows Server 2008 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies

The Developer's Guide to Debugging

Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services

C# 3.0 Unleashed: With the .NET Framework 3.5

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