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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great bathroom or bus commute reading for programming beginners, March 22, 2010
This review is from: 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts (Paperback)
I have read programming books for years. There was a time when I could write a "Hello World" program in each of seven or eight languages. That time has passed, mainly because I haven't been intimately involved in any specific software project for many years. Still, I have this habit of reading programming books and enjoying them, perhaps in the hope or expectation that one of these days I'll find myself with a project in front of me, time to work on it, and motivation to learn a new language or tool to make the project's vision a reality. Well, here's the newest book of programming foundational tips that I have read.
97 Things Every Programmer Should Know is a collection of short, two page essays, each by an experienced programmer. The book is a collection of tips and tricks for writing code that works, that is maintainable both by the author and by others, and that will best fit the situation. While the book doesn't measure up to some of my all time favorites in the genre like The Art of Unix Programming or The Pragmatic Programmer, it wasn't meant to. This is not an in depth guide to underlying philosophies of coding practices and standards, but quick hit and run articles that would be easy to fully grasp and absorb in short five minute bursts, such as during work or study breaks (which is how I read the book).
Some of the topics included in this book will seem obvious such as "Don't Ignore That Error" and "Comment Only What The Code Cannot Say," and some tips are going to serve only as reminders to best practices that are sometimes ignored (to our own peril) like "Check Your Code First Before Looking To Blame Others" and "Make Interfaces Easy To Use Correctly And Difficult To Use Incorrectly," there are some real gems in the book that aren't so obvious like one author's instruction to "Read the Humanities" because they are a great tool to help programmers learn to effectively interact with people and not just software and the advice that says "Don't Just Learn the Language, Understand Its Culture" so that you will write effectively and idiomatically within each language, rather than writing the same thing using different words.
I can't say that this is a must-have book for experienced programmers, but anyone at the novice to intermediate levels would certainly benefit from what the book contains. I've enjoyed reading it.
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39 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Abstract and aphoristic, February 21, 2010
This review is from: 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts (Paperback)
If you're just entering the programming world, this collection of 2-page essays might be a useful resource. But if you've been reading programmer blogs for a while, or you've worked on a couple of projects, then there's little of value here. Very few of the essayists choose to tell stories; instead, they say things like "Remember that humans always make mistakes," "Read other people's code" and "Always leave the campground cleaner than you found it."
Speaking of which, where is the code? A book on programming without code is like a day without sunshine! To give one example: The second essay, "Apply Functional Programming Principles" by Edward Garson, assures you that you'll write cleaner, clearer code after working with a functional programming language, but his assurances feel awfully airy without any examples. Maybe this is inevitable in a book that's language-agnostic. Books like Code Complete and Clean Code are hopping with code samples (in C++ and Java, respectively); as a result, they do a far better job of engaging the reader and making abstract concepts stick.
A notable exception is "Code in the Language of the Domain" by Dan North, which uses code to illustrate a concept and uses it well. You might want to read that one, but you don't need to buy the book to do so: All of the essays in this book are Creative Commons-licensed and can be read on the book's official website.
Here is why Joel Spolsky's books are so good: He tells stories. He gives examples. He restrains himself from bombarding the reader with familiar aphorisms. You're imbibing his experiences, not just listening to him ramble. If you haven't already read Joel on Software and More Joel on Software, definitely do so. Also check out the deep interview collection Coders at Work. It's the 98th thing every programmer should know.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Starting Point For Your Conversations, March 17, 2010
This review is from: 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts (Paperback)
This book is a compilation of short essays ranging on topics as diverse as Bugs, Error Handling, Customers, Refactoring, and Expertise. The purpose of the short essay is not to answer all your questions or be a definitive guide to programming. Rather the purpose is to provide a starting point for a conversation. To this end, I think a practical way to use this book whether in academia or a development team would be to assign groups of essays to be read ahead of time to stimulate classroom or team meeting discussions. Read my full review of the book here,
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