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The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master (Paperback)
by Andrew Hunt, David Thomas
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Software development, IT, Technology |
| Market price: ¥ 448.00
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¥ 428.00
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| MSL Pointer Review:
A classic reading on programming ranking with Code Complete and The Mythtical Man-Month. |
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Author: Andrew Hunt, David Thomas
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Pub. in: October, 1999
ISBN: 020161622X
Pages: 352
Measurements: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00532
Other information: 1st edition
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- MSL Picks -
Straight from the programming frenches, The Pragmatic Programmer cuts through the increasing specialization and technicalities of modern software development to examine the core process - taking a requirement and producing working, maintainable code that delights its users. It covers topics ranging from personal responsibility and career development to architectural techniques for keeping your code flexible and easy to adapt and reuse.
The book contains practical advice from experienced programmers that will help you become a more effective software developer. Unlike many books which dogmatically preach a specific methodology, this book focuses on (not-so-)common sense practices that are simple yet effective, as well as highlighting potential pitfalls to be avoided. Many of them can be applied to your own development process without requiring radical changes, while others will require team- or project-wide changes. Fortunately the nature of the recommended practices is such that you don't have to adopt all of them to be effective. You can pick and choose which ones are most appropriate and gradually incorporate them into your development process.
The range of topics covered is fairly broad, but the important themes are writing easy-to-maintain, reusable code, identifying and adjusting requirements quickly and effectively, managing large projects, and avoiding bad habits and developing good attitudes. Although I don't absolutely agree with everything the authors present, the justification they provide is thought stimulating and will probably change how you do things even if you don't consciously decide to adopt any of their practices.
In addition the exercises (and their accompanying solutions) scattered throughout the book are extremely useful in internalizing the principles being taught, as well as gauging how well I approach problem-solving. I'd highly recommend working through them as you read the book.
Finally, it's worth mentioning how enjoyable this book is to read. The authors' sense of humor and sprinkling of anecdotes make this an easy read without in any way detracting from the content.
If you're a brand new programmer, you probably won't appreciate many of the ideas presented in this book, but come back after you have a year or two of experience. Successful, experienced programmers will find that this book confirms many of the things you're already doing, while providing a lot of useful ideas to become even better. Even if you're not a programmer, but manage or otherwise work with programming teams, you'll find a lot of helpful information here. If there were one book I could require all of my coworkers to read, this would be it.
(From quoting David Astle)
Target readers:
Software developers, Software development project leaders and managers, Students of Computer Science and University teachers.
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Andy Hunt is an avid woodworker and musician, but, curiously, he is more in demand as a consultant. He has worked in telecommunications, banking, financial services, and utilities, as well as in more exotic fields, such as medical imaging, graphic arts, and Internet services. Andy specializes in blending tried-and-true techniques with leading-edge technologies, creating novel--but practical--solutions. Andy owns his own consulting business in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Dave Thomas likes to fly single-engine airplanes and pays for his habit by finding elegant solutions to difficult problems, consulting in areas as diverse as aerospace, banking, financial services, telecommunications, travel and transport, and the Internet. Before moving to the United States in 1994, Dave founded an ISO9001-certified English software company that delivered sophisticated, custom software projects throughout the world. Dave is now an independent consultant based in Dallas, Texas.
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From the Publisher:
If I'm putting together a project, it's the authors of this book that I want… And failing that I'd settle for people who've read their book. - Ward Cunningham
Straight from the programming trenches, The Pragmatic Programmer cuts through the increasing specialization and technicalities of modern software development to examine the core process - taking a requirement and producing working, maintainable code that delights its users. It covers topics ranging from personal responsibility and career development to architectural techniques for keeping your code flexible and easy to adapt and reuse. Read this book, and you'll learn how to
- Fight software rot;
- Avoid the trap of duplicating knowledge;
- Write flexible, dynamic, and adaptable code;
- Avoid programming by coincidence;
- Bullet-proof your code with contracts, assertions, and exceptions;
- Capture real requirements;
- Test ruthlessly and effectively;
- Delight your users;
- Build teams of pragmatic programmers; and
- Make your developments more precise with automation.
Written as a series of self-contained sections and filled with entertaining anecdotes, thoughtful examples, and interesting analogies, The Pragmatic Programmer illustrates the best practices and major pitfalls of many different aspects of software development. Whether you're a new coder, an experienced programmer, or a manager responsible for software projects, use these lessons daily, and you'll quickly see improve-ments in personal productivity, accuracy, and job satisfaction. You'll learn skills and develop habits and attitudes that form the foundation for long-term success in your career. You'll become a Pragmatic Programmer.
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As a reviewer I got an early opportunity to read the book you are holding. It was great, even in draft form. Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt have something to say, and they know how to say it. I saw what they were doing and I knew it would work. I asked to write this foreword so that I could explain why.
Simply put, this book tells you how to program in a way that you can follow. You wouldn't think that that would be a hard thing to do, but it is. Why? For one thing, not all programming books are written by programmers. Many are compiled by language designers, or the journalists who work with them to promote their creations. Those books tell you how to talk in a programming language - which is certainly important, but that is only a small part of what a programmer does.
What does a programmer do besides talk in programming language? Well, that is a deeper issue. Most programmers would have trouble explaining what they do. Programming is a job filled with details, and keeping track of those details requires focus. Hours drift by and the code appears. You look up and there are all of those statements. If you don't think carefully, you might think that programming is just typing statements in a programming language. You would be wrong, of course, but you wouldn't be able to tell by looking around the programming section of the bookstore.
In The Pragmatic Programmer Dave and Andy tell us how to program in a way that we can follow. How did they get so smart? Aren't they just as focused on details as other programmers? The answer is that they paid attention to what they were doing while they were doing it - and then they tried to do it better.
Imagine that you are sitting in a meeting. Maybe you are thinking that the meeting could go on forever and that you would rather be programming. Dave and Andy would be thinking about why they were having the meeting, and wondering if there is something else they could do that would take the place of the meeting, and deciding if that something could be automated so that the work of the meeting just happens in the future. Then they would do it.
That is just the way Dave and Andy think. That meeting wasn't something keeping them from programming. It was programming. And it was programming that could be improved. I know they think this way because it is tip number two: Think About Your Work.
So imagine that these guys are thinking this way for a few years. Pretty soon they would have a collection of solutions. Now imagine them using their solutions in their work for a few more years, and discarding the ones that are too hard or don't always produce results. Well, that approach just about defines pragmatic. Now imagine them taking a year or two more to write their solutions down. You might think, That information would be a gold mine. And you would be right.
The authors tell us how they program. And they tell us in a way that we can follow. But there is more to this second statement than you might think. Let me explain.
The authors have been careful to avoid proposing a theory of software development. This is fortunate, because if they had they would be obliged to warp each chapter to defend their theory. Such warping is the tradition in, say, the physical sciences, where theories eventually become laws or are quietly discarded. Programming on the other hand has few (if any) laws. So programming advice shaped around wanna-be laws may sound good in writing, but it fails to satisfy in practice. This is what goes wrong with so many methodology books.
I've studied this problem for a dozen years and found the most promise in a device called a pattern language. In short, a pattern is a solution, and a pattern language is a system of solutions that reinforce each other. A whole community has formed around the search for these systems.
This book is more than a collection of tips. It is a pattern language in sheep's clothing. I say that because each tip is drawn from experience, told as concrete advice, and related to others to form a system. These are the characteristics that allow us to learn and follow a pattern language. They work the same way here.
You can follow the advice in this book because it is concrete. You won't find vague abstractions. Dave and Andy write directly for you, as if each tip was a vital strategy for energizing your programming career. They make it simple, they tell a story, they use a light touch, and then they follow that up with answers to questions that will come up when you try.
And there is more. After you read ten or fifteen tips you will begin to see an extra dimension to the work. We sometimes call it QWAN, short for the quality without a name. The book has a philosophy that will ooze into your conscious- ness and mix with your own. It doesn't preach. It just tells what works. But in the telling more comes through. That's the beauty of the book: It embodies its philosophy, and it does so unpretentiously.
So here it is: an easy to read - and use - book about the whole practice of programming. I've gone on and on about why it works. You probably only care that it does work. It does. You will see. - Ward Cunningham
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This book will help you become a better programmer.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lone developer, a member of a large project team, or a consultant working with many clients at once. This book will help you, as an individual, to do better work. This book isn't theoretical - we concentrate on practical topics, on using your experience to make more informed decisions. The word pragmatic comes from the Latin pragmaticus - "skilled in business" - which itself is derived from a Greek word meaning "to do." This is a book about doing.
Programming is a craft. At its simplest, it comes down to getting a computer to do what you want it to do (or what your user wants it to do). As a programmer, you are part listener, part advisor, part interpreter, and part dictator. You try to capture elusive requirements and find a way of expressing them so that a mere machine can do them justice. You try to document your work so that others can understand it, and you try to engineer your work so that others can build on it. What's more, you try to do all this against the relentless ticking of the project clock. You work small miracles every day.
It's a difficult job.
There are many people offering you help. Tool vendors tout the miracles their products perform. Methodology gurus promise that their techniques guarantee results. Everyone claims that their programming language is the best, and every operating system is the answer to all conceivable ills.
Of course, none of this is true. There are no easy answers. There is no such thing as a best solution, be it a tool, a language, or an operating system. There can only be systems that are more appropriate in a particular set of circumstances.
This is where pragmatism comes in. You shouldn't be wedded to any particular technology, but have a broad enough background and experience base to allow you to choose good solutions in particular situations. Your background stems from an understanding of the basic principles of computer science, and your experience comes from a wide range of practical projects. Theory and practice combine to make you strong.
You adjust your approach to suit the current circumstances and environment. You judge the relative importance of all the factors affecting a project and use your experience to produce appropriate solutions. And you do this continuously as the work progresses. Pragmatic Programmers get the job done, and do it well.
Who Should Read This Book?
This book is aimed at people who want to become more effective and more productive programmers. Perhaps you feel frustrated that you don't seem to be achieving your potential. Perhaps you look at colleagues who seem to be using tools to make themselves more productive than you. Maybe your current job uses older technologies, and you want to know how newer ideas can be applied to what you do.
We don't pretend to have all (or even most) of the answers, nor are all of our ideas applicable in all situations. All we can say is that if you follow our approach, you'll gain experience rapidly, your productivity will increase, and you'll have a better understanding of the entire development process. And you'll write better software.
What Makes a Pragmatic Programmer?
Each developer is unique, with individual strengths and weaknesses, preferences and dislikes. Over time, each will craft his or her own personal environment. That environment will reflect the programmer's individuality just as forcefully as his or her hobbies, clothing, or haircut. However, if you're a Pragmatic Programmer, you'll share many of the following characteristics:
Early adopter/fast adapter. You have an instinct for technologies and techniques, and you love trying things out. When given something new, you can grasp it quickly and integrate it with the rest of your knowledge. Your confidence is born of experience. Inquisitive. You tend to ask questions. That's neat - how did you do that? Did you have problems with that library? What's this BeOS I've heard about? How are symbolic links implemented? You are a pack rat for little facts, each of which may affect some decision years from now. Critical thinker. You rarely take things as given without first getting the facts. When colleagues say "because that's the way it's done," or a vendor promises the solution to all your problems, you smell a challenge. Realistic. You try to understand the underlying nature of each problem you face. This realism gives you a good feel for how difficult things are, and how long things will take. Understanding for yourself that a process should be difficult or will take a while to complete gives you the stamina to keep at it. Jack of all trades. You try hard to be familiar with a broad range of technologies and environments, and you work to keep abreast of new developments. Although your current job may require you to be a specialist, you will always be able to move on to new areas and new challenges.
We've left the most basic characteristics until last. All Pragmatic Programmers share them. They're basic enough to state as tips:
Care About Your Craft
We feel that there is no point in developing software unless you care about doing it well.
Think! About Your Work
In order to be a Pragmatic Programmer, we're challenging you to think about what you're doing while you're doing it. This isn't a one-time audit of current practices - it's an ongoing critical appraisal of every decision you make, every day, and on every development. Never run on auto-pilot. Constantly be thinking, critiquing your work in real time. The old IBM corporate motto, THINK!, is the Pragmatic Programmer's mantra.
If this sounds like hard work to you, then you're exhibiting the realistic characteristic. This is going to take up some of your valuable time - time that is probably already under tremendous pressure. The reward is a more active involvement with a job you love, a feeling of mastery over an increasing range of subjects, and pleasure in a feeling of continuous improvement. Over the long term, your time investment will be repaid as you and your team become more efficient, write code that's easier to maintain, and spend less time in meetings. Individual Pragmatists, Large Teams
Some people feel that there is no room for individuality on large teams or complex projects. "Software construction is an engineering discipline," they say, "that breaks down if individual team members make decisions for themselves."
We disagree.
The construction of software should be an engineering discipline. However, this doesn't preclude individual craftsmanship. Think about the large cathedrals built in Europe during the Middle Ages. Each took thousands of person-years of effort, spread over many decades. Lessons learned were passed down to the next set of builders, who advanced the state of structural engineering with their accomplishments. But the carpenters, stonecutters, carvers, and glass workers were all craftspeople, interpreting the engineering requirements to produce a whole that transcended the purely mechanical side of the construction. It was their belief in their individual contributions that sustained the projects: We who cut mere stones must always be envisioning cathedrals.
- Quarry worker's creed:
Within the overall structure of a project there is always room for individuality and craftsmanship. This is particularly true given the current state of software engineering. One hundred years from now, our engineering may seem as archaic as the techniques used by medieval cathedral builders seem to today's civil engineers, while our craftsmanship will still be honored. It's a Continuous Process
A tourist visiting England's Eton College asked the gardener how he got the lawns so perfect. "That's easy," he replied, "You just brush off the dew every morning, mow them every other day, and roll them once a week."
"Is that all?" asked the tourist.
"Absolutely," replied the gardener. "Do that for 500 years and you'll have a nice lawn, too."
Great lawns need small amounts of daily care, and so do great programmers. Management consultants like to drop the word kaizen in conversations. "Kaizen" is a Japanese term that captures the concept of continuously making many small improvements. It was considered to be one of the main reasons for the dramatic gains in productivity and quality in Japanese manufacturing and was widely copied throughout the world. Kaizen applies to individuals, too. Every day, work to refine the skills you have and to add new tools to your repertoire. Unlike the Eton lawns, you'll start seeing results in a matter of days. Over the years, you'll be amazed at how your experience has blossomed and your skills have grown. How the Book Is Organized
This book is written as a collection of short sections. Each section is self-contained, and addresses a particular topic. You'll find numerous cross references, which help put each topic in context. Feel free to read the sections in any order - this isn't a book you need to read front-to-back.
Occasionally you'll come across a box labeled Tip nn (such as Tip 1, "Care About Your Craft" on xix). As well as emphasizing points in the text, we feel the tips have a life of their own - we live by them daily. You'll find a summary of all the tips on a pull-out card inside the back cover.
Appendix A contains a set of resources: the book's bibliography, a list of URLs to Web resources, and a list of recommended periodicals, books, and professional organizations. Throughout the book you'll find references to the bibliography and to the list of URLs.
We've included exercises and challenges where appropriate. Exercises normally have relatively straightforward answers, while the challenges are more open-ended. To give you an idea of our thinking, we've included our answers to the exercises in Appendix B, but very few have a single correct solution. The challenges might form the basis of group discussions or essay work in advanced programming courses.
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| View all 16 comments |
Kent Beck (author of Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change) (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
The cool thing about this book is that it’s great for keeping the programming process fresh. The book helps you to continue to grow and clearly comes from people who have been there. |
Martin Fowler (author of Refactoring and UML Distilled) (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
I found this book to be a great mix of solid advice and wonderful analogies! |
John Lakos (author of Large-Scale C++ Software Design) (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
The wisdom and practical experience of the authors is obvious. The topics presented are relevant and useful... By far its greatest strength for me has been the outstanding analogies - tracer bullets, broken windows, and the fabulous helicopter-based explanation of the need for orthogonality, especially in a crisis situation. I have little doubt that this book will eventually become an excellent source of useful information for journeymen programmers and expert mentors alike. |
Daniel Schreiber (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
Andrew Hunt and Dave Thomas present what are humbly referred to as `tips' towards better software development. In principal, these two guys present a well put together argument that software development is a craft meant to be honed by craftsman (thus the secondary title, `from journeyman to master'). Truly, these two understand what it is to be an egoless developer destined for greatness and have captured the essence in a concise set of rules to follow.
Most notably is the DRY axiom (don't repeat yourself) which, although simple, encompasses so much that is bad in software projects on many levels that it leads the book off as a key tip (and is referenced further in as well). Others including understanding orthogonal code and ubiquitous automation are equally as pivotal. These authors clearly understand their terrain and think the way you want your developers to think.
On rare occasion, one of the tips provided seemed oddly out of the realm of what I would consider "key, generally applicable advice." An example was the blackboard or clue bag concept seemed a little off base for a book on programming and didn't provide me with enough concrete strings back to the rest of the tips to make me understand why it was included.
The book includes helpful cross-references allow similar subjects to be quickly found when there is topic crossover (happens a lot). The pull out in the back with the tips quickly provided for reference re-enforce how simple it really is and reminds one that we can all improve. Also, there are lots of references to other good material as a launching point for anyone choosing to make software development their profession.
Overall, a must-have book for the professional developer regardless of domain or technology. Ranks up there with The Mythical Man-Month and Code Complete as a classic. |
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