Comments for michael eaton

Comment on The 2012 KalamazooX Conference by Dew Drop – February 17, 2012 (#1,268) | Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew

Dew Drop – February 17, 2012 (#1,268) | Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:45:50 +0000

[...] The 2012 KalamazooX Conference (Michael J. Eaton) [...]

Comment on indieconf – want to go? by Upcoming events | the blog of michael eaton

Upcoming events | the blog of michael eaton — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:42:01 +0000

[...] a ticket OR learn how to win a free pass! January 9-10, 2012 – XAML: In Depth – This is a 2-day training course I’m doing [...]

Comment on indieconf – want to go? by Dew Drop – October 24, 2011 | Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew

Dew Drop – October 24, 2011 | Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:34:05 +0000

[...] indieconf – want to go? (Michael Eaton) [...]

Comment on Key books every developer / designer should read by Jamie

Jamie — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:37:36 +0000

Getting Real – 37Signals (http://gettingreal.37signals.com)

I agree with Pragmatic Programmer, Don’t Make me Think, and Hackers and Painters

Comment on Key books every developer / designer should read by Justin Kohnen

Justin Kohnen — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:28:58 +0000

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson and John Vlissides) OR Head First Design Patterns (Freeman & Freeman) +1 on The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master (Hunt & Thomas) Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition (Steve Krug) Any of the Effective C# Series series from Bill Wagner

Comment on Key books every developer / designer should read by Alan Stevens

Alan Stevens — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:13:24 +0000

The Mythical Man Month – Fred Brooks
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen R. Covey
Don’t Make Me Think – Steve Krug
Joel On Software – Joel Spolsky
I’m also a huge fan of The Pragmatic Programmer and Peopleware.

++Alan

Comment on Key books every developer / designer should read by tim

tim — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:26:56 +0000

Second on The Pragmatic Programmer. So much in there that I still use every day.

Also a fan of “Practices of an Agile Developer” by Venkat Subramaniam. Quick read, lots of good info in it.

Comment on Key books every developer / designer should read by ncloud

ncloud — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:31:39 +0000

I really like “Hackers and Painters” by Paul Graham. It’s basically a collection of essays from his website that cover topics ranging from Lisp, to education, to art, etc. They are full of poignant insights, and his prose is just fun to read.

A few good biographies are “iWoz” by Steve Wozniak, “Free as in Freedom” by Richard Stallman (not a biography per se), and “Just for Fun” by Linus Torvalds.

For new developers, or developers who are rusty on OOP principles, I recommend “The Object Oriented Thought Process” by Matt Weisfeld. It’s pretty short, but does a great job explaining encapsulation, inheritance, and composition. I’ve loaned this book to a number of people and, without exception, they all said they wished they had read it when they started programming in OOP languages.

“Agile Software Development, Principles, Patterns, and Practices” by Bob Martin is a tremendous book for developers who want to learn about the *design* of software, not just how to bang out code. It is *very* meaty, but entirely worth the effort.

A great book on the origins and philosophy of open source software is “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” by Eric Raymond. His thesis that “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow” has certainly contributed to the tone and direction of the OSS community.

One word about Ayn Rand: if you are serious about understanding her ideas, you must read her non-fiction as well as her novels. Whether you ultimately agree with her politics or ethics, her philosophy of man as a “heroic being” is a powerful idea.

Comment on Key books every developer / designer should read by mjeaton

mjeaton — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:30:07 +0000

D’oh! I can’t believe I forgot Carnegie! How to Win Friends is definitely on my short list!

Comment on Key books every developer / designer should read by Scott Banwart

Scott Banwart — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:24:39 +0000

I would echo Peopleware and add Waltzing with Bears also by DeMarco and Lister. The rest of my short list would include Code Complete and Software Estimation by Steve McConnell, Getting Things Done by David Allen and Getting to Yes by Fisher, Ury and Patton.