Re: Timeless Classics of Software Engineering
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 13:50:52 +0200
Message-ID: <m3k6wnxc9v.fsf_at_averell.firstfloor.org>
stevejohnson1972_at_yahoo.com (Steve Johnson) writes:
> I'd like to hear thoughts on what books, in your opinion, are true
> classics in the field of software engineering. I read a lot on the
> topic - at least a book a month for many years. There are many good
> authors, however, the only book on making software that is truly
> timeless, in my opinion, is "Mythical Man Month" by Brooks. It never
> ceases to amaze me that something written over 20 years ago would be
> so relevant.
I always liked "Debugging C" from Robert Ward.
It is the only in-deep practical text I know about one of the most time consuming things in programming: debugging. A lot of the details in there are outdated (it mentions CP/M and MS-DOS), but the basic description of debugging methology in there still applies well to today's system.
Most of the other programming books seem to assume that all your programs work on the first try.
It's long out of print unfortunately, but will be imho a timeless classic as long as C exists.
-Andi Received on Thu Jul 29 2004 - 13:50:52 CEST