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More Joel on Software: Further Thoughts on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, ... or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity

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If you're a fan of the website Joel On Software, you will enjoy having so many of his postings in a single volume. More Joel on Software: Further Thoughts on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and ... Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity by Joel Spolsky takes a number of his blog postings over the last six years and presents in a context that was unavailable as they unfold over time. This aspect of book over blog allows him to consolidate thoughts or explain the evolution of concepts that he's experienced as one of the A-list bloggers in the tech community.

Contents:
Part 1 - Managing People: My first BillG Review; Finding Great Developers; A Field Guide to Developers; Three Management Methods (Introduction); The Command and Control Management Method; The Econ 101 Management Method; The Identity Management Method
Part 2 - Advice to Potential Programmers: The Perils of JavaSchools; Talk at Yale; Advice for Computer Science College Students
Part 3 - The Impact of Design: Font Smoothing, Anti-Aliasing, and Subpixel Rendering; A Game of Inches; The Big Picture; Choices = Headaches; It's Not Just Usability; Building Communities with Software
Part 4 - Managing Large Projects: Martian Headsets; Why Are the Microsoft Office File Formats So Complicated? (And Some Workarounds); Where There's Muck, There's Brass
Part 5 - Programming Advice: Evidence-Based Scheduling; Strategy Letter VI; Can Your Programming Language Do This?; Making Wrong Code Look Wrong
Part 6 - Starting a Software Business: Forward to Eric Sink on the Business of Software; Forward to Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality; Hitting the High Notes
Part 7 - Running a Software Business: Bionic Office; Up the Tata Without a Tutu; Simplicity; Rub a Dub Dub; Top Twelve Tips for Running a Beta Test; Seven Steps to Remarkable Customer Service
Part 8 - Releasing Software: Picking a Ship Date; Camels and Rubber Duckies
Part 9 - Revising Software: Five Whys; Set Your Priorities
Index

The thing that either resonates with or infuriates you about Spolsky is that he has very strong opinions that don't always mesh with the "common practice" of our industry. For instance, he has some extremely defined ideas about what all programmers should be able to do, and most of them are only possible as the result of a computer science degree. He only wants "great developers", and these developers are only going to come out of high-end college programs. While he might only hire those who fall into that classification, the reality is that the industry is far more populated with solid and competent developers who don't work on code for software products that are designed to be released as saleable products. He would consider a development job in a regular company a life of hell. On the other hand, some of us like it. :)

But not all the topics are controversial. Some articles shed light on common industry problems, like "Martian Headsets" (backward compatibility) and "Why Are The Microsoft Office File Formats So Complicated?". It's easy to bash Microsoft for bloated and buggy software, but you start to understand a bit more after reading that last one. With popularity comes legacy, and with legacy comes compatibility and general nastiness. "Martian Headsets" also explains the "no win" situation Microsoft is in when it comes to IE8 and "standards". They're raked for not supporting strict standards, yet most existing sites would fail to render under a browser that adhered to strict standards. So do you bow to reality and accommodate quirks, or do you stick to ideals and break sites? It's not an easy argument...

More Joel on Software is a book that will challenge you on a few things that you thought you probably already knew. You won't agree with him on everything, but it's always good to be forced to think...

"More Joel on Software" is exactly what it says. It's a follow-up on "Joel on Software", a collection of blog posts from Joel Spolskys well-known blog "Joel on Software". I thoroughly enjoyed the first collection of Joels posts and thus was looking forward to this. And... I was disappointed. It IS good, Joel is an excellent and funny author and his posts are interesting, but... it was not as good as the first collection of posts :) Is he running out of ideas? We'll see in "Even More Joel on Software" which ought to be ready in four years...

Slight disappointment, but still enjoyed Joels latest collection of posts. Let me point out a few of his posts to give an idea what he covers.

The first post "My First BillG review" was a great story in which Joel tells his experience with Bill Gates reviewing his spec for MS Excel (many years ago) and how Bill reacted to the spec and what impression it led to him. It's a nice post and gives an insight to the working of MS during that time.

"The Perils of JavaSchools" criticized the universities that uses Java as main languages for teaching computer science. Joel argues that developers do not learn "the hard parts" about programming when using a language like Java.

In "Why are the MS Office File Formats So Complicated" Joel takes a look at the insanely large file format spec for Office files and explains why they became the way they are. Then he gives some advise on what to do when you want to read Office files (not write it yourself)

In "Hitting the High Notes", Joel explores the productivity difference between developers from many different perspectives and argues that great developers are absolutely essential for great products. This was his main idea behind setting up his own business. He looks at productivity and quality from different perspectives.

All in all, More Joel contains 300 pages with Joel blog posts. It's worth reading and I enjoyed it a lot. Joel has an "interesting perspective" on certain topics. Worth reading, but if you haven't read "Joel on Software" then I'd recommend to read that first.

I loved the 2nd book in the serious: "Joel On Software" and wonder what can he possible say this time. Apparently, Spolsky did a good job. I read it cover to cover and couldn't stop laughing when reading 'Camels and Rubber Duckies'. Just for this I gave it 4 starts.

Having said that (or writing that); he did paraphrase from his previous book. But the bottom line is this: if you are a programmer/software-entrepreneur or a student in the computer-science world, take this book and read it. It has some great tips. I would surly use his interview questions the next time I need to hire someone...

Dror Guzman

Since I've been reading joelonsoftware for the past two years, a lot of this was already familiar to me, but it was well worth rereading. Some of the essays were old enough and I hadn't come by links to them so they were new to me, but not many. Most of the first part Managing People was already published in Joel's Smart and Gets Things Done.

Anyone even considering working on shrink-wrap software, especially in a small company, should read this book. (Anyone considering consultingware should especially read the last chapter; it will convince you not to, unless you are a masochist.)

As soon as I joined my MS program in UAB, one of my senior student recommended this series of Joel to me. I read the first and the second one with passion. Lot of information and I like most of them. One of the highlights I remember from this book is Part 1 that explains Managing people. I am following his recommendations for getting the right resource to do the job. And it is hard to get the right people always.

Also he describes about the 3 management methods, which shed some light for me in managing my team.

The one main thing I want to talk about Joel is his ease of expression. While reading the books that he wrote, I never felt bored.

Looking for more works from you Joel.

Thank you

Like its predecessor, "More Joel on Software", by Joel Spolsky, is a collection of essays that had been published in the "Joel on Software" blog. The quality of these essays is more uneven than in the first book, but there are nonetheless some true gems. In particular, Joel's essay that details a method for prioritizing candidate features for a new software release is by itself worth the price of the book. I also enjoyed his essay on the differences between custom software, consultant-ware, and shrink-wrap software, in part because it validated my opinion that working on shrink-wrap software is more demanding, more fun, and potentially more lucrative that any other software gigs.

Good book, but not as great as the first. But still it has a ton of good information, and its written very well.

More Joel on Software continues where the first left off - great advice on software development from an in the trenches practioner. You wont agree with all of it, but you'll spend a lot of time thinking, and that's the first step.

in short... Joel on Software and More Joel on Software are essential for every software developer. When I interview a software developer from now on I will ask if he or she read these books and if not ... you know!

This is cut and paste from the Joel on Software Blog.
I just finished reading "Smart and Gets Things Done" by the same author and about a quarter of that book is in here.
What a waste of money! If you think this guy has good ideas, save your money and read the blog instead.
I felt ripped off buying this book after just reading "Smart and Gets Thinks Done" as it's a cut and paste from that book into this one.