Customer Reviews

The Zen of Programming

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A collection of made-up parables and tales about coding, Zen style. Great fun to read, still full of deep wisdom. A fantastic gift to anyone working with computers.

With the other two books in this series, James does an excellent job of conveying many of the lessons of large software project management and software design in a series of short, accessible anecdotes which can be easily digested by someone who is just coming to the field, or who doesn't have the time and focus to really digest Brooks ("The Mythical Man-month") or Demarco/Lister ("Peopleware"). This set is concise and to-the-point, and a must have for the new project manager or project lead.

I bought this book back in 1990 when I was working on my BSCS. I read it while reading the Mythical Man Month, and saw quite a few correlations between the two. It has sat within reach for 12 years. The parables and pearls of wisdom are timeless. I have frequently read from this book and identified things that are going on in my company. I'm sure Scott Adams has read this book.

I bought this slim volume many years ago. It is not for the literal-minded, or the folks who are so grounded in the world that they cannot raise their eyes above the earth to consider a greater reality.

I found it to be full of amusing, thoughtful parables, not only about programming, but about business as well. I find myself referring back to it year after year.

The Zen-like Koans, quotes, and stories will have you contemplating the nature of the environment that you work in (if you work in Corporate America) and will probably provoke a chuckle or a wry grin many times through your read.

You can read it in certainly less than an hour, and it is very well worth that expenditure of effort.

It may also open your eyes a little wider when the universe unfolds in a particularly pleasing or expected manner...

The sequel to "The Tao of programming"....proved to be more of the read a line .. think about it for the next day or so type. It had awesome words of wisdom...it tells you stuff like....there is something called "ultimate" in programming too and to reach there...you should have a,b,c.
Overall...the author starts off good...but starts racing towards the end...more in a hurry to complete the book. The funny paret is that when the author tries to race towards the end, he shoots of awesome quotes...that are really worth to remember while using them in everyday life.

This book basically collects a list of wisdom from previous so-called "Master" Programmers and put into one book.
But what I loved the most is the Introduction

If you are looking for a way or a method for better programming this is NOT the book you want, get Zen and the Art of System Analysis. There is no approach here or method. Its just list of past "stories" collected in a book as I said.

Its fun to read, I wouldn't say a piece of junk though

I love this book. However, you have to have lived through a certain era to understand it well. If you are reading this like a text looking for the lost wisdom of the masters- forget it!

For all of us who mastered more than three assembly languages and learned to code as well as understand the peripheral registers- this is the darned best book about the way it all was. If you ever sat at the trade show as the beanie guy with the propeller while the marketers sang and the demo dollies danced, then the whole crew hushed when a visitor knew enough to ask you a simple tech question-- you are going to love this book. If you read a chapther and laugh, and imagine when you or your friend so_and_so did exactly what was described, then you are the audience. If you pick it up and just don't start smiling or laughing, put it back down and walk away. It is like a full length location joke: you had to be there.

If you think there are no differences between programming languages, you are not enlightened.

If you are not a believer, use COBOL to implement black and red trees.

If you don't understand what was just said, you belong with management.

Buddha be praised.

This book is not what I expected and certainly not worth $10. The stuff in the book is not even funny or insightful. Big block letter to fill up 100 pages of paper. What a waste of paper. There is nothing here other than stuff I already know like there is no difference between programming languages, etc. I decided to return it.