The Pragmatic Programmer

The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master

by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
Published by Addison-Wesley, Oct 1999
ISBN: 020161622X

About This Book

Straight from the programming trenches, The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master 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, easy to adapt, and reuse.

Read this book, and you’ll learn how to:

Fight software rot.
Catalyze change.
Avoid the trap of duplicating knowledge.
Write flexible, dynamic and adaptable code.
Harness the power of basic tools.
Avoid programming by coincidence.
Bullet-proof your code with contracts, assertions and exceptions.

Capture real requirements.
Keep formal tools in their place.
Test ruthlessly and effectively.
Delight your users.
Build teams of pragmatic programmers.
Take responsibility for your work and career.
Make your developments more precise with automation.

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Reader Comments

The best thing about this book is that it lets you know “You aren’t alone, and you might just be right.”

Eric C. Newton, SWComplete, Inc.

I have never seen the really important ideas behind programming so clearly defined in such a small space, and I was thrilled at the ability to pass that book around to budding programmers before they got the wrong ideas and learned bad habits.

Luke Kanies, Reductive, LLC

The Pragmatic Programmer is more than useful, it’s inspiring

Andy King, WebReference

The BEST book on the practice of programming that I have ever read (and after 20+ years, that’s a lot of books) is The Pragmatic Programmer. Buy this book—it will be the best investment in your education and career you will make this year. The authors, Andrew Hunt and David Thomas, have done their time in the trenches, and it shows. Over the course of the years, I have learned many of the lessons they teach, but I would never have been able to express those lessons as clearly and eloquently as they have in this book.