Efficient Linux at the Command Line Daniel J. Barrett O’Reilly, 2022 I’ve worked in Linux for over 2 decades, read dozens of articles and several books on using Linux, and this book still taught me of things I didn’t know (or remember). Unlike many N cool things you can do with Linux or X things… Read More »
The Art of Readable Code Dustin Boswell and Trevor Foucher O’Reilly Media, Inc., 2012 When I saw this book, it seemed like a great idea. I’ve spent my entire career with legacy codebases, trying to make them better. A book that covers ways to make code more readable, and therefore, more maintainable is a wonderful… Read More »
Release It! Michael T. Nygard Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2007 I’ve had this book on my shelf for a few years, and finally got some time to start reading it. I should not have waited. Nygard takes the position that the life of a piece of software actually only begins when it is released. He spends a… Read More »
The Productive Programmer Neal Ford O’Reilly, 2008 When I found out about this book, I knew I had to read it. I have been a programmer for a long time and I’m always on the lookout for tips about how to become more productive. I expected a list of tricks that would make individual development… Read More »
Beautiful Code Edited by Andy Oram & Greg Wilson O’Reilly, 2007 Although I was really looking forward to reading Beautiful Code when I first heard it was coming out, I found myself a bit disappointed by the reality of the book. Each chapter is written by a different master coders, giving their views on what… Read More »
Software Configuration Management Patterns Stephen P. Berczuk and Brad Appleton Addison-Wesley, 2003 The first three chapters define the problem space. We get a solid description of Software Configuration Management (SCM) and an introduction to patterns and pattern languages. This section of the book sets up the context that you will need to understand the rest.… Read More »
Information Dashboard Design Stephen Few O’Reilly, 2006 This book covers a growing trend in user interfaces, the dashboard. The purpose of a dashboard is to display important information clearly and concisely. The author makes a point of stating that a dashboard must convey information you need to act on. This generates a shift in viewpoint… Read More »
Managing Humans Michael Lopp Apress, 2007 Michael Lopp (also known as Rands) describes his take on managing software people. This book is very different from the few other management books I’ve read. Part of the difference is that Lopp writes all of his examples as fiction. He admits this at the beginning. Rather than tell… Read More »
Smart & Gets Things Done Joel Spolsky Apress, 2007 This book represents Joel Spolsky’s approach to hiring programmers. Smart & Gets Things Done is based on Spolsky’s weblog, like his previous book, Joel on Software. In this book, Joel brings together his various writings on hiring software developers. Not surprisingly, Joel bucks traditional wisdom on… Read More »
Learn to Program Chris Pine Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2006 Every now and then most programmers get asked the question, How do I get into programming? I am usually on the lookout for beginning books on programming, specifically for this reason. When I first saw Learn to Program from the Pragmatic Bookshelf, I thought it was probably… Read More »