Re: Timeless Classics of Software Engineering

stevejohnson1972_at_yahoo.com (Steve Johnson) wrote in news:949ec44a.0407280704.12141129_at_posting.google.com:

> 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.

In my personal experience Kernighan&Plaugher's "Software Tools" is a good book. It's a perfect book to read after you've learned the basics of your language of choice, and are sick of writing glorified "hello world" programs.
Advanced users will, of course, find next to nothing new in it. But for beginning programmers it does bridge the gap between the shit do-nothing programs you write in beginning programming classes and useful applications.
Ratfor is damn hard to understand, though. I wish they'd rewrite it for C or C++ like they did for Pascal.

                                                            -==Kensu==- Received on Wed Jul 28 2004 - 23:46:48 CEST