Book Review: Coders at Work - Reflections on the Craft of Programming by Peter Seibel

Book Review: Coders at Work - Reflections on the Craft of Programming by Peter Seibel: Publisher- Apress: ISBN- 13: 978-1-4302-1949-1

I was trying to grab Coders at Work since last quarter or so because it was recommended by one of my friend. And certainly after reading the book I delighted. I must say, excellent book. Every programmer experienced or green horn must read to get insight into thoughts of today’s software founding fathers.

Instead of giving traditional review of the book, I will list few of the insight points mentioned by Zawinski, Fitzpatrick, Crockford, Eich, Bloch, Armstrong, Peyton Jones, Norvig, Steele, Ingalls, Peter Deutsch, Ken Thompson, Fran Allen, Cosell, and Donald Knuth.

1. Think Before Code
2. Quality vs. Shipment date. Shipment date wins.
3. Code is like prose. Must be readable.
4. The more things you learn and younger you learn, the better off you are.
5. It is easier to optimize correct code then to correct optimize code.
6. Variable names must be very clear and dissimilar. Choose listOfPersons over personNames if personName already exist.
7. For complex problems, document first and then code.
8. Code shows what it does not that what is supposed to do.
9. In pair programming, both programmers must be of same skill level.
10. Joe’s Law of Debugging: All errors will be plus/minus three statements of the place you last changed the program.
11. Test is a way of correcting errors rather than as a way of design.
12. Launch early and often (if application/system/service is free).


Disclaimer: I did not get paid to review this book, and I do not stand to gain anything if you buy the book. I have no relationship with the publisher or the author.


Further reading: A competing book is Masterminds of Programming edited by Biancuzzi and Shane Warden http://www.amazon.com/Masterminds-Programming-Conversations-Creators-Languages/dp/0596515170

One can get more information about book and related topics from:

1. Book’s web presence http://www.codersatwork.com/
2. Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Coders-at-Work-Peter-Seibel/dp/1430219483
3. Publisher -- Apress http://apress.com/book/view/1430219483
4. Flipkart http://www.flipkart.com/coders-work-peter-seibel-book-1430219483
5. Book Review at Slashdot http://books.slashdot.org/story/09/09/02/1331233/Coders-At-Work
6. Book Review at Lambda the Ultimate http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/3613
7. Another Review http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-4302-1948-3.html
8. Review by Simon Peyton Jones http://gimbo.org.uk/blog/2009/10/01/coders-at-work-simon-peyton-jones/
9. Review at Dfectuoso.com http://dfectuoso.com/?p=246