Coders at Work by Peter Siebel ISBN 978-1-4302-1948-4 Published by Apress price £23.00 or £16.79 from www.compman.co.uk
Hmmmmm - mixed feelings about this one.
On the positive side it’s a great read for anyone who’s spent any time writing computer programs and there’s always something you can learn from coders of the undoubted quality of the bunch interviewed by Seibel.
These include......
On the positive side it’s a great read for anyone who’s spent any time writing computer programs and there’s always something you can learn from coders of the undoubted quality of the bunch interviewed by Seibel.
These include......
Ken Thompson - one of the creators of Unix
Douglas Crockford - architect of Javascript
Brendan Eich - creator of same Javascript
Donald Knuth - author of the foundation work The Art of Programming
Douglas Crockford -
Brendan Eich -
Donald Knuth -
...... and so on.
A common question Seibel starts with is “When did you learn to program ? ” and the sort of answer you get is
Eich - “early 80’s”
Crockford “ 71-72”
Donald Knuth “1956”
Ken Thompson “early 60’s”
Crockford “ 71-
Donald Knuth “1956”
Ken Thompson “early 60’s”
Even Joshua Bloch who’s currently the chief Java architect at Google answers 1971 when he learned FORTRAN.
Now all of these guys are world class programmers but, for a book following in the style of Susan Lammers’ 1986 Programmers at Work, I’m disappointed that there are no interviews with anyone working on current or cutting edge projects. Or anyone using or creating the latest languages. Or anyone working on mainstream Microsoft stuff.
But that apart it’s fine. If you’re not a programmer (how many Shopper readers can make that claim) there’s still stuff you can learn from a book like this - in particular how people faced with complex problems work their way through to a workable conclusion.
For a more detailed description of the contents see either.......
But that apart it’s fine. If you’re not a programmer (how many Shopper readers can make that claim) there’s still stuff you can learn from a book like this -
For a more detailed description of the contents see either.......
Or
I just can’t help thinking that this book was a bit of an opportunity missed -
