Textbooks

Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen
Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen

Review:Could a book about grammar be funny, highly informative -- and a hard to put down page turner? The answer is "yes" if it is this one written by Mary Norris. Anyone who has ever written anything more formal than an email or a grocery list will find that all those little things they've puzzled over have been puzzles to Ms. Norris as well which she discusses in a narrative style so engaging you hardly realize you're learning a great deal along the way. I particularly like her account of how she end... Read more

Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture
Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

Review:Cover is hard and protective, pages are floppy and easily turned, doesn't require too much muscle power to get to the next page. Could use more pictures of kittens. All in all, it does everything I expect a book to do. Read more

Designing Fine-Grained Systems - Building Microservices
Designing Fine-Grained Systems - Building Microservices

Review:Reading it through gives you a complete picture of building microservices. I have already had experiences with restful service design, cloud computing and so on. Microservice is just one step ahead. Good to see the author listing various software to use for each aspect and his judgement on them. Very helpful! Read more

A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers - The Clean Coder
A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers - The Clean Coder

Review:In popular culture, computer programmers, sometimes confused with sysadmins, are often described as teenage punks, sitting in a dark, lit only by the glow of their monitor, empty cartons of pizza and Mountain Dew bottles scattered strategically around, frantically hacking away on their keyboard.

What does it mean to be a professional programmer? Is it wearing a suit and tie to work? Is it having certifications or diplomas decorating the walls of your office? Is it working hard, sometimes ... Read more

A Practical Handbook of Software Construction - Second Edition
A Practical Handbook of Software Construction - Second Edition

Review:My first (rash) reaction to this book was unfairly negative, because of the word "code" in its title. I teach software design to technicians, and so they already know how to code. The problem I have is getting them to think about design and its importance. This book, despite its title, contains a lot of useful information regarding design. The electronic (Kindle) version was helpful to find the areas where it is. Read more

Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition) - Essays on Software Engineering
Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition) - Essays on Software Engineering

Review:The only thing that stopped me from giving this book a top rating was the author's solemn observation that no executive was likely to work with a terminal in his own office. After all, the executive had far too much paperwork to manage. Right. Well, it was the 1970's. Apart from that and the mysterious absence of female programmers, the book has timeless advice for the management of software projects and team members. Read more

A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship - Clean Code
A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship - Clean Code

Review:As mentioned in other reviews, the book itself is low quality. The cover image is blurry, there is no print on the binding, and there are pointlessly large margins surrounding all of the text. On top of that, the printed font is grainy and difficult to read.

I would rather track down a proper printing of this product, than try to trudge through reading this. As a comparison, Code Complete is three times longer than this book. However, I was able to easily hold and read that book. This ve... Read more

Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software - Design Patterns
Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software - Design Patterns

Review:Some books really don't need ratings, this is one such book. Any experienced software developer should own a copy of this book and should have studied this book. Beginners are recommended to maybe also buy Alan Shalloway's book titled Design Patterns Explained as companion read or as a primer. Read more

Head First Design Patterns: A Brain-Friendly Guide
Head First Design Patterns: A Brain-Friendly Guide

Review:A wonderful book to introduce and explain some of the key design patterns. The Java examples are well explained and clear. It's not an exhaustive definition, nor does it claim to be. It is, however, a very approachable guide. I reopen it to review the examples almost weekly. Well done Head First! Read more

More information