The Pragmatic Programmer: Your Journey to Mastery
Andy and Dave wrote this influential, classic book to help their clients create better computer software and rediscover the joy of coding. Almost twenty years later, its advice is still spot on, and the Pragmatic philosophy has spawned hundreds of books, screencasts, and audio books, as well as thousands of careers and success stories.
This new edition examines the core of modern software development—understanding what is wanted 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
- learn continuously
- Avoid the trap of duplicating knowledge
- Write flexible, dynamic, and adaptable code
- Harness the power of basic tools
- Avoid computer programming by coincidence
- Learn real requirements
- Solve the underlying problems of concurrent code
- Guard against security vulnerabilities
- Build teams of pragmatic programmers
- Take responsibility for your work and career
- Test ruthlessly and effectively, including Property-based testing
- Implement the Pragmatic Starter Kit
- Delight your users
Written as a series of self-contained sections and filled with classic and fresh anecdotes, thoughtful examples, and interesting analogies, The Pragmatic Programmer illustrates the best approaches 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 improvements 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.
— The Pragmatic Programmer, 20th Anniversary Edition