I'm going to buy a new tech book soon, and I wanted to know if anyone has any recommendations at all. Actually, for any type of book... I love to read a good book. ;-)
I was thinking about reading Code Complete by Steve Mcconnell. It's supposed to be one of those "timeless" books, but I'm not sure that I want to spend 50+$ on a book that may be out of date wrt a more agile dev env. I don't really want to read anything specific for any language if I can help it.
Anyone have any suggestions?
If you get Code Complete, make sure you get the 2nd Edition (June, 2004).
ReplyDeleteI'm reading Cryptonomicon right now. It's kind of a tech book, in that probably only a techie would enjoy it. It's a long book, and i'm not even half way through it yet. A lot of stuff in the book, although set back in world war II, would still apply today. There are certain things that remain true, no matter how the tools change. Things like good comments, and proper indentation of code to make it understandable. Also very important, don't single functions that are 2000 lines long. Breaking up code into smaller sections makes it less likely that things will go wrong.
ReplyDeleteI have Code Complete, 2nd Edition. Don't be mistaken: it's all about code, and is a bit sparse in the overall software or process areas. Steve does recognize the benefits of agile programming, but doesn't go into great detail about it. If writing better *code* is what you're looking for, this book is for you.
ReplyDeleteIf you're more interested in general software development, Joel Spolsky's new book might be better: Joel on Software. I haven't read this book, but I like his site (http://www.joelonsoftware.com) and that's where the essays are from.
Steve McConnel wrote another book called Rapid Development (1996), that might be more up your alley. It's a bit dated now, and preceeds the mainstream agile push, but it might give you a better appreciation of the software development status quo (always a good thing). I read this book at Corel in 2002 and it helped me put myself into the shoes of a lot of the people there and how they worked.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with going to the library is that they don't usually have "up to date" tech books. They DO have "Code Complete", but it's the 1993 edition. I think that the world of software has changed greatly since then. "Best practices" keep on being redefined, and I'd like to keep up with current ideas of what is "best". ;-P
ReplyDeleteAnd why do so many people not leave their names? I'm not going to bite! Your suggestion was a good / valid one...
Whatever you do, make sure it isn't by Jesse Liberty.
ReplyDelete(WORST AUTHOR EVER!!!)
(Based on one book of his that I had no other option but to buy, and another (absolutely useless) book that had a 4.5 rating on Amazon which doesn't even function as a decent paper-weight because the cover is shiny/slippery)
You must be kidding me? I'm currently reading Programming C#. Is that the book you're talking about? I think it's really good in terms of teaching you the language. I must say, it can't be used a reference book. It doesn't have enough 'reference' material. It does have a small amount of windows programming material. I'll need to buy another book to concentrate on Windows GUI programming.
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