Jacob Jacobowitz
There are a lot of aspects to working with code. Legacy code, a multitude of languages, how to iron out bugs and so on. These books take on the toughest issues programmers face. Our favorite is number 8, which tackles a very relatable problem. How do you focus on your coding if you keep getting interrupted?
These value to reading all these books, as they address issues you’re bound to encounter as a programmer. Get reading!
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#1 Working Effectively With Legacy Code by Michael Feathers
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Michael Feathers provides advice on how to handle the common pitfalls of working with “legacy (someone else’s cruft-laden, poorly-understood, yet-still-in-production-and-being-used) code: insufficient understanding, lack of regression tests and other safety harnesses, and the need to leave things better than you found them for long-term viability.
Feathers (reasonably) defines legacy code as code not under test, and introduces the concept of characterization tests, a simple and novel way to introduce covering tests for safety as you dig into any legacy code situation you come up against. Most professional programmers have worked with legacy code at some point in their career, and still do. Don’t let the age of this one fool you – this is a classic as timely today as ever.
Before buying a book make sure to compare price and outlet, we have included links below to several large book outlets for different regions in the world:
#2 Refactoring Databases: Evolutionary Database Design by Scott Ambler
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Relational databases are traditionally viewed as something that must be designed up front, with their schemas quickly locked-in for stability and data preservation, but the facts of the modern, agile world of software development demands that all aspects of an application be malleable. This classic provides a comprehensive set of patterns to refactor – that is, improve the internal workings without changing external behavior – to allow data professionals to improve their databases independent of application updates.
While various “No SQL” databases and platforms receive all the cool-kid press, most programmers are still dealing with a significant number of relational databases and Structured Query Language (SQL) in their day-to-day work – making this book invaluable to the modern-day programmer.
Refactoring patterns covered include areas of structure (merge tables, rename schema elements), data quality (introduce column constraints and lookup tables), referential integrity (add foreign key constraints, introduce soft deletes), architecture (encapsulate tables with views, migrate calculations from the database to the application), methods (reorder parameters, decompose conditionals), and data transformations(introducing new columns, updating data).
Before buying a book make sure to compare price and outlet, we have included links below to several large book outlets for different regions in the world:
#3 Building Evolutionary Architectures by Neal Ford
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Even outside the world of agile software delivery, the wise architect always knew that architecture must and will naturally adapt to changes in environment and needs – and this book provides a set of tools to be intentional and responsible with exactly that adaptation. The authors wisely navigate both the social and political aspects of architecture (in teams and organizations both large and small), and the technical aspects (including fitness functions, testing, deployment, loose coupling, data, greenfield vs. brownfield concerns, and common anti-patterns).
Before buying a book make sure to compare price and outlet, we have included links below to several large book outlets for different regions in the world:
#4 Code Complete by Steve McConnell
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This book has become classic. It’s a great book that every programmer should read. I like its simple and easy-to-understand style with a large number of examples in different programming languages. Yes, sometimes the book is too detailed and repetitive, but perhaps this is even better because deeper understanding and repetition lead to better remembering.
The first three chapters are more for architects, but in general, the book is about coding. It is hard to list all the topics covered because there are plenty of them – so you can use the book more like a reference and skip around different sections if you want. For each topic, there is a checklist that you can use to evaluate when making decisions in development. The book contains many references to other books, articles and scientific papers, which allows you to refer to the source if necessary.
Before buying a book make sure to compare price and outlet, we have included links below to several large book outlets for different regions in the world:
#5 Soft Skills: The software developer’s life manual by John Sonmez
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This isn’t actually about programming. It’s about life, written by a programmer. It covers all of the aspects of the life of a programmer that isn’t covered in our classes or our normal books like how to negotiate salary and create your resume. It attempts to prepare you for those events that have caught the rest of us off guard.
Before buying a book make sure to compare price and outlet, we have included links below to several large book outlets for different regions in the world:
#6 Driving Digital by Isaac Sacolick
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Will help programmers understand how to implement agile at scale, why becoming data-driven is critical to transforming organizations, and where to develop platforms and automation.
Before buying a book make sure to compare price and outlet, we have included links below to several large book outlets for different regions in the world:
#7 The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim
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An important read for programmers to better understand what happens when IT Operations and Business must support a fragile architecture.
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#8 Deep Work by Newport Cal
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Excellent programming requires focus and concentration.
If you are a software developer, you know, it takes an average time of 10-15 minutes to resume work after an interruption.
My workday is full of popups, voice notifications, and other distractions.
Deep Work teaches you some nifty hacks about how to stay focused in today’s distractive world.
Before buying a book make sure to compare price and outlet, we have included links below to several large book outlets for different regions in the world:
Viktor Lavrentyev from Orangesoft
Shayne Sherman from TechLoris
Isaac Sacolick from StarCIO LLC
Jenny Schneider from TWIK
