Book Review: The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
Posted by Jon Lee in Reviews, Web Development, tags: book, pragmatic, programming, review
The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master is written by the pragmatic programmers themselves (the same people behind Agile Web Development on Rails). This book is often cited as one of the two “must-haves” for any programmer. The other must-have is Code Complete which I haven’t read yet.
This book does not teach a particular language or a particular framework; instead, it is advocating a philosophy of programming — a programmer’s bible in a way. The pragmatic way of programming is a smarter way to program that covers important aspects of programming in much more detail than other books such as:
- Prototyping
- Tuning Algorithm and Optimizing Speeds
- Choosing an appropriate language for a project
- Choosing appropriate tools (Text editor etc.)
- Automation
- Commenting/Documentation
- Robust Code Testing
- Debugging
- Handling Exceptions
As you can see, the range of topics covered is huge — everything from pre-planning to maintenance. As a result, one doesn’t need to read the book from front to back. Most chapters are independent so you can skip to any section that interests you and dismiss entire sections that don’t.
Personal Opinion – Borrow it, don’t buy it
The book is a great read. It teaches and advocates so much that just isn’t taught in schools or covered in other books. I would recommend it to programmers but I would not recommend buying it. If possible, borrow a copy from a library or from a friend. I didn’t find much in that book that was worth keeping as a reference. Most of these things become habit and second nature once you begin doing it (if you don’t already).
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