Pragmatic Programmer, The

Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt are internationally recognized as leading voices in the software development community. They consult and speak around the world. Together, they founded the Pragmatic Bookshelf, publishing award-winning, leading-edge books for software developers. They were two of the authors of the Agile Manifesto. Dave currently teaches college, turns wood, and plays with new technology and paradigms. Andy writes science fiction, is an active musician, and loves to tinker with technology. But, most of all, they’re both driven to keep learning.

"To participate in the next generation of professional product delivery you have to be pragmatic but disciplined. Otherwise, you are fated to be ungrounded dreamers whose products endanger people and whose ideas never become successfully integrated into the world. Andy and Dave described a pragmatic but disciplined approach which is a key step towards professionalism."–Ken Schwaber, co-creator of Scrum and founder of Scrum.org, agile manifesto signatory, and author of Software in 30 Days."Picking adjectives is hard work. In The Pragmatic Programmer, Dave and Andy set the tone for their work–thoughtful, expert, aspirational, and full of care for themselves and those they touch through their programs. From its publication, this was the book to read if you wanted to work to improve."–Kent Beck, Gusto, author of Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, Test-Driven Development: By Example, and The Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns "Some say that with The Pragmatic Programmer, Andy and Dave captured lightning in a bottle; that it’s unlikely anyone will soon write a book that can move an entire industry as it did. Sometimes, though, lightning does strike twice, and this book is proof. The updated content ensures that it will stay at the top of “best books in software development” lists for another 20 years, right where it belongs." —VM (Vicky) Brasseur, Director of Open Source Strategy, Juniper Networks "If you want your software to be easy to modernize and maintain, keep a copy of The Pragmatic Programmer close. It’s filled with practical advice, both technical and professional, that will serve you and your projects well for years to come." —Andrea Goulet, CEO, Corgibytes; Founder, LegacyCode.Rocks " The Pragmatic Programmer is the one book I can point to that completely dislodged the existing trajectory of my career in software and pointed me in the direction of success. Reading it opened my mind to the possibilities of being a craftsman, not just a cog in a big machine. One of the most significant books in my life." —Obie Fernandez, Author, The Rails Way "First-time readers can look forward to an enthralling induction into the modern world of software practice, a world that the first edition played a major role in shaping. Readers of the first edition will rediscover here the insights and practical wisdom that made the book so significant in the first place, expertly curated and updated, along with much that’s new." —David A. Black, Author, The Well-Grounded Rubyist "I have an old paper copy of the original Pragmatic Programmer on my bookshelf. It has been read and re-read and a long time ago it changed everything about how I approached my job as a programmer. In the new edition everything and nothing has changed: I now read it on my iPad and the code examples use modern programming languages—but the underlying concepts, ideas, and attitudes are timeless and universally applicable. Twenty years later, the book is as relevant as ever. It makes me happy to know that current and future developers will have the same opportunity to learn from Andy and Dave’s profound insights as I did back in the day." —Sandy Mamoli, Agile coach; Author of How Self-Selection Lets People Excel

• Foreword xiPreface to the Second Edition xvFrom the Preface to the First Edition xix Chapter 1: A Pragmatic Philosophy 1 Topic 1. It's Your Life 2 Topic 2. The Cat Ate My Source Code 3 Topic 3. Software Entropy 6 Topic 4. Stone Soup and Boiled Frogs 8 Topic 5. Good-Enough Software 11 Topic 6. Your Knowledge Portfolio 14 Topic 7. Communicate! 20 Chapter 2: A Pragmatic Approach 27 Topic 8. The Essence of Good Design 28 Topic 9. DRY–The Evils of Duplication 30 Topic 10. Orthogonality 39 Topic 11. Reversibility 47 Topic 12. Tracer Bullets 51 Topic 13. Prototypes and Post-it Notes 56 Topic 14. Domain Languages 60 Topic 15. Estimating 66 Chapter 3: The Basic Tools 73 Topic 16. The Power of Plain Text 74 Topic 17. Shell Games 78 Topic 18. Power Editing 81 Topic 19. Version Control 84 Topic 20. Debugging 88 Topic 21. Text Manipulation 97 Topic 22. Engineering Daybooks 100 Chapter 4: Pragmatic Paranoia 103 Topic 23. Design by Contract 104 Topic 24. Dead Programs Tell No Lies 112 Topic 25. Assertive Programming 115 Topic 26. How to Balance Resources 118 Topic 27. Don’t Outrun Your Headlights 125 Chapter 5: Bend, or Break 129 Topic 28. Decoupling 130 Topic 29. Juggling the Real World 137 Topic 30. Transforming Programming 147 Topic 31. Inheritance Tax 159 Topic 32. Configuration 167 Chapter 6: Concurrency 171 Topic 33. Breaking Temporal Coupling 172 Topic 34. Shared State Is Incorrect State 176 Topic 35. Actors and Processes 183 Topic 36. Blackboards 189 Chapter 7: While You Are Coding 195 Topic 37. Listen to Your Lizard Brain 196 Topic 38. Programming by Coincidence 201 Topic 39. Algorithm Speed 207 Topic 40. Refactoring 213 Topic 41. Test to Code 218 Topic 42. Property-Based Testing 228 Topic 43. Stay Safe Out There 235 Topic 44. Naming Things 242 Chapter 8: Before the Project 249 Topic 45. The Requirements Pit 250 Topic 46. Solving Impossible Puzzles 258 Topic 47. Working Together 262 Topic 48. The Essence of Agility 265 Chapter 9: Pragmatic Projects 269 Topic 49. Pragmatic Teams 270 Topic 50. Coconuts Don’t Cut It 276 Topic 51. Pragmatic Starter Kit 280 Topic 52. Delight Your Users 287 Topic 53. Pride and Prejudice 288 Postface 291 Bibliography 295Possible Answers to the Exercises 299Index 313