Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality Bob Walsh Apress, 2006. This is not the sort of book I would normally read. I’m usually more interested in the technical side of software than the business side. I found this book to be particularly difficult going partly for that reason. But, before I get into what I didn’t… Read More »
Perl Best Practices Damian Conway O’Reilly, 2005 This book is hard to summarize. There is much good advice in this book. Unfortunately, there’s also some advice that I found questionable. Conway covers some of important Perl programming and general programming best practices, including consistent formatting, use of strict and warnings, and the use of version… Read More »
Waltzing with Bears Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister Dorset House Publishing, 2003 The authors of Peopleware are back to tackle the topic of risk management. Given their earlier works, you would expect DeMarco and Lister to provide good insights into the topic and clear explanations. In that, you will not be disappointed with this book.… Read More »
Secure Coding in C and C++ Robert C. Seacord Addison-Wesley, 2006 One very real problem in software today is the rise in security exploits of one kind or another. Gone are the days when we can just assume that no user of our software will try to break it, or use the software to compromise… Read More »
Perl Testing: A Developer’s Notebook Ian Langworth and chromatic O’Reilly, 2005 This is the first book I have read from the new O’Reilly Developer’s Notebook series. Although the style of these books probably won’t work for every topic, it works particularly well for a book on testing. Each chapter is organized as a set of… Read More »
Beyond the C++ Standard Library Bjorn Karlsson Addison-Wesley, 2006 If you’ve been programming in C++ in the past few years you’ve probably heard of the Boost library. Boost is a large peer-reviewed set of classes and libraries designed to augment the C++ standard library. Beyond the C++ Standard Library serves as an introduction to some… Read More »
Code Reading Diomidis Spinellis Addison-Wesley, 2003 I have had this book on my list of books to read for some time. Although I have been reading code for years, everything I had heard about this book suggested that it would help improve my reading skills. Unfortunately, halfway through the book I was mostly disappointed. This… Read More »
The Best Software Writing I Joel Spolsky (editor) Apress, 2005 Despite plenty of examples to the contrary, there is actually some good writing out there on various software subjects. Even though most of what you can read on the subject (on and off the web) is not particularly well-written, there are some gems out there.… Read More »
C++ Common Knowledge Stephen C. Dewhurst Addison-Wesley, 2005 The subtitle of this book sums it up nicely, Essential Intermediate Programming. If someone has not mastered, or at least understood, the material in this book, he or she is still a junior C++ programmer. Although this material is necessary, it is not sufficient to make someone… Read More »
Exceptional C++ Style Herb Sutter Addison-Wesley, 2005. Once again, Herb Sutter provides us with a set of problems that teach important lessons about the C++ programming language. Each problem in the book covers some problem that a C++ programmer might see in a particular program or design. As Sutter solves each problem, he gives insight… Read More »