The industry’s most outspoken and insightful critic explains how the software industry REALLY works. In Great Software Debates, Al Davis, shares what he has learned about the difference between the theory and the realities of business and encourages you to question and think about software engineering in ways that will help you succeed where others fail. In short, provocative essays, Davis fearlessly reveals the truth about process improvement, productivity, software quality, metrics, agile development, requirements documentation, modeling, software marketing and sales, empiricism, start-up financing, software research, requirements triage, software estimation, and entrepreneurship. He will get you thinking about: The danger of following trends and becoming a ‘software lemming’ Is software development art or engineering? How to survive management mistakes The bizarre world of software estimation How to succeed as software entrepreneur How to resolve incompatible schedules and requirements If you are in the software industry and do not know which way to turn, Great Software Debates provides valuable and insightful advice. Whether you are a software developer, software manager, software executive, entrepreneur, requirements writer, architect, designer, or tester, you will find no shortage of sound, palatable advice.

"This book addresses the topic of software design: how to decompose complex software systems into modules (such as classes and methods) that can be implemented relatively independently. The book first introduces the fundamental problem in software design, which is managing complexity. It then discusses philosophical issues about how to approach the software design process and it presents a collection of design principles to apply during software design. The book also introduces a set of red flags that identify design problems. You can apply the ideas in this book to minimize the complexity of large software systems, so that you can write software more quickly and cheaply."--Amazon.

Widely considered one of the best practical guides to programming, Steve McConnell’s original CODE COMPLETE has been helping developers write better software for more than a decade. Now this classic book has been fully updated and revised with leading-edge practices—and hundreds of new code samples—illustrating the art and science of software construction. Capturing the body of knowledge available from research, academia, and everyday commercial practice, McConnell synthesizes the most effective techniques and must-know principles into clear, pragmatic guidance. No matter what your experience level, development environment, or project size, this book will inform and stimulate your thinking—and help you build the highest quality code. Discover the timeless techniques and strategies that help you: Design for minimum complexity and maximum creativity Reap the benefits of collaborative development Apply defensive programming techniques to reduce and flush out errors Exploit opportunities to refactor—or evolve—code, and do it safely Use construction practices that are right-weight for your project Debug problems quickly and effectively Resolve critical construction issues early and correctly Build quality into the beginning, middle, and end of your project

Most programmers' fear of user interface (UI) programming comes from their fear of doing UI design. They think that UI design is like graphic design—the mysterious process by which creative, latte-drinking, all-black-wearing people produce cool-looking, artistic pieces. Most programmers see themselves as analytic, logical thinkers instead—strong at reasoning, weak on artistic judgment, and incapable of doing UI design. In this brilliantly readable book, author Joel Spolsky proposes simple, logical rules that can be applied without any artistic talent to improve any user interface, from traditional GUI applications to websites to consumer electronics. Spolsky's primary axiom, the importance of bringing the program model in line with the user model, is both rational and simple. In a fun and entertaining way, Spolky makes user interface design easy for programmers to grasp. After reading User Interface Design for Programmers, you'll know how to design interfaces with the user in mind. You'll learn the important principles that underlie all good UI design, and you'll learn how to perform usability testing that works.

In Great Software Debates, Al Davis shares what he has learned about the difference between the theory and the realities of business and encourages you to question and think about software engineering in ways that will help you succeed where others fail.--[book cover].

The award-winning author of The Net Delusion shows how the radical transparency we've become accustomed to online may threaten the spirit of real-life democracy

Effective techniques and experienced insights to maximize your C# 6 and 7 programming skills Key Features Written by C# legend and top StackOverflow contributor Jon Skeet Unlock the new features of C# 6 and 7 Insights on the future of the C# language Master asynchronous functions, interpolated strings, tuples, and more Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. ”An excellent overview of C# with helpful and realistic examples that make learning the newest features of C# easy.” —Meredith Godar About The Book C# is the foundation of .NET development. New features added in C# 6 and 7 make it easier to take on big data applications, cloud-centric web development, and cross-platform software using .NET Core. Packed with deep insight from C# guru Jon Skeet, this book takes you deep into concepts and features other C# books ignore. C# in Depth, Fourth Edition is an authoritative and engaging guide that reveals the full potential of the language, including the new features of C# 6 and 7. It combines deep dives into the C# language with practical techniques for enterprise development, web applications, and systems programming. As you absorb the wisdom and techniques in this book, you’ll write better code, and become an exceptional troubleshooter and problem solver. What You Will Learn Comprehensive guidance on the new features of C# 6 and 7 Important legacies and greatest hits of C# 2–5 Expression-bodied members Extended pass-by-reference functionality Writing asynchronous C# code String interpolation Composition with tuples Decomposition and pattern matching This Book Is Written For For intermediate C# developers. About The Author Jon Skeet is a senior software engineer at Google. He studied mathematics and computer science at Cambridge, is a recognized authority in Java and C#, and maintains the position of top contributor to Stack Overflow. Table of Contents 1. Survival of the sharpest 2. C# 2 3. C# 3: LINQ and everything that comes with it 4. C# 4: Improving interoperability 5. Writing asynchronous code 6. Async implementation 7. C# 5 bonus features 8. Super-sleek properties and expression-bodied members 9. Stringy features 10. A smörgåsbord of features for concise code 11. Composition using tuples 12. Deconstruction and pattern matching 13. Improving efficiency with more pass by reference 14. Concise code in C# 7 15. C# 8 and beyond PART 1 C# IN CONTEXT PART 2 C# 2–5 PART 3 C# 6 PART 4 C# 7 AND BEYOND

Get more out of your legacy systems: more performance, functionality, reliability, and manageability Is your code easy to change? Can you get nearly instantaneous feedback when you do change it? Do you understand it? If the answer to any of these questions is no, you have legacy code, and it is draining time and money away from your development efforts. In this book, Michael Feathers offers start-to-finish strategies for working more effectively with large, untested legacy code bases. This book draws on material Michael created for his renowned Object Mentor seminars: techniques Michael has used in mentoring to help hundreds of developers, technical managers, and testers bring their legacy systems under control. The topics covered include Understanding the mechanics of software change: adding features, fixing bugs, improving design, optimizing performance Getting legacy code into a test harness Writing tests that protect you against introducing new problems Techniques that can be used with any language or platform—with examples in Java, C++, C, and C# Accurately identifying where code changes need to be made Coping with legacy systems that aren't object-oriented Handling applications that don't seem to have any structure This book also includes a catalog of twenty-four dependency-breaking techniques that help you work with program elements in isolation and make safer changes.

Today, software engineers need to know not only how to program effectively but also how to develop proper engineering practices to make their codebase sustainable and healthy. This book emphasizes this difference between programming and software engineering. How can software engineers manage a living codebase that evolves and responds to changing requirements and demands over the length of its life? Based on their experience at Google, software engineers Titus Winters and Hyrum Wright, along with technical writer Tom Manshreck, present a candid and insightful look at how some of the worldâ??s leading practitioners construct and maintain software. This book covers Googleâ??s unique engineering culture, processes, and tools and how these aspects contribute to the effectiveness of an engineering organization. Youâ??ll explore three fundamental principles that software organizations should keep in mind when designing, architecting, writing, and maintaining code: How time affects the sustainability of software and how to make your code resilient over time How scale affects the viability of software practices within an engineering organization What trade-offs a typical engineer needs to make when evaluating design and development decisions

In the course of their 20+-year engineering careers, authors Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman have picked up a treasure trove of wisdom and anecdotes about how successful teams work together. Their conclusion? Even among people who have spent decades learning the technical side of their jobs, most haven’t really focused on the human component. Learning to collaborate is just as important to success. If you invest in the "soft skills" of your job, you can have a much greater impact for the same amount of effort. The authors share their insights on how to lead a team effectively, navigate an organization, and build a healthy relationship with the users of your software. This is valuable information from two respected software engineers whose popular series of talks—including "Working with Poisonous People"—has attracted hundreds of thousands of followers.