Customer Reviews

The Psychology of Computer Programming: Silver Anniversary Edition

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The silver anniversary edition is an updated version of the classic work originally published in 1971. How can this still be relevant? Easy: people haven't really changed.

Weinberg did something courageous in his updated text. Instead of whitewashing history, he let his original text stand, unedited, and simply commented on each chapter separately. The approach worked for me, making an already entertaining text a joy to read.

What is all this about? Weinberg writes "This book has only one major purpose--to trigger the beginning of a new field of study: computer programming as a human activity, or, in short, the psychology of computer programming. All other goals are subservient to that one." Indeed there has been much study of computer programming as an art and as a discipline for individuals and for groups. This book may represent the beginning of that noble effort.

Don't be put off by the technology Weinberg occasionally uses within the text. At the time of this book's writing, FORTRAN, PL/1, and APL were in common use and OS/360 was the defacto standard. If echoes of the past bother you, ignore them! Instead, concentrate on Weinberg's main topic: the people who develop software systems. For example, consider the following: "...the average programming manager would prefer that a project be estimated at twelve months and take twelve than the same project be estimated at six months and take nine. This is an area where psychological study could be rewarding, but there are indications from other situations that it is not the mean length of estimated time that annoys people, but, rather, the standard deviation in actual time taken." Of course this notion applies as much today as it did then. Weinberg provides numerous, powerful insights throughout the text that have stood the test of time. He got it right then--and it is still right.

The book is well researched and contains many stories. All ring true and some made me laugh out loud. If you don't see a little of yourself in this book, you aren't a computer professional. Buy it, read it, and then leave it on your manager's chair. It will do both of you a world of good.

What prompted me to buy and read this book was Steve McConnel's recommendation in Code Complete. After reading Psychology from cover to cover, I have become a Weinberg fan!

The book is a true jewel - not deficient, not redundant. Every sentence means a lot, and carries insight and pure wisdom. The book demands your utmost attention. Weinberg speaks with precision, simplicity, grace, and wisdom. I found myself quoting him very often! The anecdotes are memorable and relevant - you'll find yourself narrating them to others!

Things I liked most: The entire section on "Egoless Programming". The first three parts of the book are amazingly relevant, although the book has been written over 25 years back (I didn't even exist back then!)

Things I liked least: The last part "Programming Tools" seems to be the only part that's dated. It may be more meaningful to someoone who has experienced such tools and languages.

Now I look forward to reading Weinberg's other books, including "Becoming a Technical Leader", "The Secrets of Consulting", and the "Quality Software Management" series.

One of the growing movements in software development is the use of patterns. Based on the work of Christopher Alexander as described in his books, A Pattern Language, Oxford University Press, 1977 and The Timeless Way of Building, Oxford University Press, 1979, it entered the computing field with the publication of the classic book Design Patterns by Gamma et. al., Addison-Wesley, 1994. A design pattern is a reusable meta-design that can be applied in many different contexts.
The timeless adjective can also be applied to this book by Weinberg. Originally written in 1971, the only parts that are dated are the descriptions of the hardware. All points dealing with the human elements of software creation are just as valid today as they were twenty five years ago. Furthermore, as long as the human psyche stays as it is, they will continue to be valid. Despite all of our technical and physical advances, there is no reason to believe that human nature has changed in the last three thousand years. As so many writers point out, the high failure rate of software projects is not due to technical factors but human ones. Weinberg deals with many of these points and offers simple advice on how to solve the psychological problems of software development. In many ways, his solutions can be considered patterns as well.
I listed this book as one of the best books of the year in my annual column published in the September, 1999 issue of Journal of Object-Oriented Programming and could probably do so again in an other twenty five years.

This book has a wealth of information on how programmers work when in groups, and is a useful read for both managers and individual contributors alike. Many of the fuzzier, less-quantifiable people issues that affect programmers are covered well.

However, it really suffers in three ways:
- All of the examples and technology details are dated to the point of distraction.
- The typography appears to be photocopies of the original text, and really looks terrible. Couldn't they have reset it?

- Not a lot of concrete advice.

If you need to inspire creative, independent people to work together, you'll learn a lot from this book. Smart, sensible, and non-obvious desc riptions of what makes a good team.

The book's present-day relevance was amazing. The similarities in the behavior and interaction of the programmers of today and the programmers of old provides a unique perspective. This perspective highlights what makes some individual programmers and programming teams succeed regardless of the techology or decade they're working in.

Because of my background in psychology and my more recently acquired expertise in programming, this book quickly found a special resonance with me. Weinberg's grasp on both programmer attitudes and the psychological framework make this book one-of-a-kind.

Some younger programmers may get impatient with the Weinberg's references to obsolete activities, such as keypunching and submitting a debugging run, but they shouldn't stop reading. Nearly every page of this book conveys valuable insights into the nature of programming. The book is readable and entertaining, a professional book you'll read for pleasure and re-read. Weinberg adds no new chapters, nor does he edit obsolete content. Even the pagination is the same as in the original. Instead the Silver Anniversary Edition appends to each chapter a "Comments on the chapter" section in which the author relates the content you've just read to the world of today.

The book was first written in 1971. However, what are written is still fresh and includes lots of things to think about not only when programming, but also, when to do something.

I bought this for my son, who is following in my footsteps as a computer programmer, sort of: Instead of machine languages, assembly languages, Fortran, Cobol, and report generators, he uses newer languages such as Pearl, Ruby, and Java. But he still found this book very interesting and well worth reading, as I did years before I first met his mother.

watziznaym@gmail.com

Recently I was working with a group of professors who were rethinking the programming curriculum for Japanese computer science students. They knew what they wanted their students to learn, but they struggled in knowing just how to accomplish the skill instruction. I understood their problem, but only minimally. They should have recommended Weinberg's book because it really captures the tensions that are played out for teachers, students involved with programming, and it would have helped me make more informed colleague. As one interested in education and designing learning environments, I learned a whole lot about the complexity of studying/developing programming and programmers, and Weinberg increased my empathy for my computer science colleagues and their students. This book gives a view from a experienced programmer and instructor and depicts the challenges that programmers face. Chapter 12 on the principles for programming language design would have been helpful for our group; and this book covers many other related areas like group work, the variation of challenges, problem solving, instruction and more. Weinberg's great contribution however, is to highlight how the human factors such as personality and intelligence influence how programmers go about their tasks. I was turned on to this book through Gause and Weinberg's other book, "Are you lights on!" Both books are highly recommended. I have come to understand my programming friends a whole lot more because of reading this book, and am able to be more sensitive to my colleagues and engineering students are struggling with master this skill. When programming instructors, friends or students have bad days writing code, or keeping their sanity, I can suspend judgment, knowing a bit more of the problems he/she is working with. I recommend it for these reasons.