The Pragmatic Programmer

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Andrew Hunt, David Thomas

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Pages: 352 (Paperback)

ISBN: 020161622X

Pub: Addison Wesley

Pub date: 1999-11-24

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 6350

Editorial Review:

Programmers are craftspeople. They are trained to use a certain set of tools(editors, object mangers, version trackers) to generate a certain kind of product (programs) that will operate in some environment (operating systems on hardware assemblies). Like any other craft, computer programming has spawned a body of wisdom, most of which isn't taught at universities or in certification classes. Rather, most programmers arrive at the so-called tricks of the trade over time, by independent experimentation. In ThePragmatic Programmer, Andrew Hunt and David Thomas codify many of the truths they've discovered during their respective careers as designers of software and writers of code.
Some of the authors' nuggets of pragmatism are concrete, and the path to their implementation is clear. They advise readers to learn one text editor, for example, and use it for everything. They recommend the use of version-tracking software for even the smallest projects, and promote the merits of learning regular expression syntax and a text-manipulation language. Other (perhaps more valuable) advice is softer. The authors note in their section on debugging, "if you see hoof prints think horses, notzebras". That is, suspect everything, but start looking for problems in the most obvious places. They offer some advice on making estimates of time and expense, and on integrating testing into the development process. You'll want a copy of The Pragmatic Programmer for two reasons: It displays your own accumulated wisdom more cleanly than you ever bothered to state it and it introduces you to methods of work that you may not yet have considered. Working programmers will enjoy this book.

Topics covered: A workmanlike approach to software design and construction that allows for efficient, profitable development of high-quality products. Elements of the approach include specification development, customer relations, team management, design practices, development tools, and testing procedures. The authors present their approach with the help of anecdotes and technical problems. --DavidWall, amazon.com

Reader Reviews:

Great book - essential for anyone who wants to become a talented programmer (2/2 people found this helpful)

I first read this book after about a year coding in industry and it was by far and away the most useful book I read. What you have in this book is the condensed experience of very talented programmers, it will leapfrog you forward and stop you from having to learn how to do things right the hard way.

Pls, pls don't listen to the negative reviews given here, most of the negative reviews seem to be written by either academics or project managers/BAs. The comment about this not being relevant for anyone using Microsoft technology is utterly, utterly wrong and is a reflection of the lack of experience of the reviewer. This book has nothing at all to do with the technology/language you are using.

Good common sense. Useful more for Java UNIX bods though (3/4 people found this helpful)

As a Java UNIX bod I quite liked this book. The authors clearly come from an "Open Source is Best" background, but much of what they say applies to all languages.

It does have quite a lot of common sense in it, but as other reviews have said it helps you to think about them. My gut feeling is its a book worth borrowing, but possibly not worth buying as you are unlikely to refer to it often.

Programming Philosophy By Analogy (8/9 people found this helpful)

This is a refreshingly different book which uses a lot of real-life analogies that relate to the software development paradigm. For instance the "Broken Windows" analogy for "Zero Tolerance Construction" was very useful; they just had to explain the analogy and I could already see how it related to software engineering practice.

In most of the cases their philosophy reinforced the ideas I had developed myself over the years, such as witnessing design patterns being used inappropriately.

I didn't agree with all of their advice, for instance they suggest learning new programming languages, when really they should suggest to just continue learning and keep up-to-date on industry trends.

The ability to explain software engineering principles with real-world analogies helps with communicating them to laypersons (end-users) who, after all, don't understand UML notation. Much of the book is "obvious" but it helps to take a step back from time to time and be refreshed.

"Don't Repeat Yourself"...repeatedly (21/22 people found this helpful)

I liked the book. It's light reading and has sensible advice. But my enthusiasm wore off slightly from the middle onwards. I found it somewhat repetitious. It does help to have the same ideas reinforced (particularly "Tracer bullets", "Stone soup" and "DRY: Don't repeat yourself") but after a few different applications of the same points, I got the idea, and I found the book laboured.

It's a good book though and worth buying for a regular reality check. I think reading it solidly cover to cover once over may not be the best way to use it. To get the most from it, it's probably best to skim over quite quickly, to get to know where the information is, then kept on your desk to dip into regularly when you have ten minutes or so to spare.

Good One (impressed to some extend) (2/24 people found this helpful)

Pragmatism in software is something everyone develops over the time and there is no one down there you can refer being Mr Best-Right. The Authors does convey this message but with reference to the set of tools of their choice. This book is a wonderful software immotional reviver for a bloc who is programming for say few years and lost the basics overtime!! (may be programming as a curse) or a newbie to the industry fresh from college, helps where to look and how to think in each situation he is. References to various tools and languages was very helpful. I wont say its a must read, but a good one to read and defenitely helps to some extend.

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