The Best Software Writing I
by Joel Spolsky · first published 2005
36% recommend64% neutral
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…of maintaining an online community, do it now ( http://www.shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html and http://www.shirky.com/writings/group_user.html ). Actually, read all the source articles in Spolsky's Best Software Writing I ( http://brevity.org/misc/bestswi.html ) Every online community, from the very beginning, has faced its own crisis of identity as it scales. Perpetual September is as inevitable as the second law of…
on “If you're really upset about having topics you personally don't like on HN...” ↗…Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity 2. The Best Software Writing I 3. Hackers and Painters I always wish Joel would come out with a second volume of #2, or to start his blog up again. I've yet to find something that equals his quality since he stopped writing.
on “Ask HN: What's the best development book you've read?” ↗Awhile back Joel Spolsky compiled Best Software Writing I, a collection of online tech writings from other people. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BestSoftwareWriting.h... It seems similar to the format you're imagining and was definitely successful…
on “Ask YC: A Magazine That Publishes Blogs. Startup Potential?” ↗I have a different choice -- I really liked Joel's Best Software Writing I. Maybe that's just me... but that collection opened my eyes to the "bigger picture" and inspired me to think of my programming as an art/craft.
on “The Ultimate List of Programming Books” ↗There's an essay in the book The Best Software Writing I (edited by Joel Spolsky) that talks about how social networking represents an inherently poor model of real human social networks. Here's an online link: http://www.danah.org/papers/Supernova2004.html…
on “Ask HN: Are social networks inherently shitty?” ↗…Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity * The Best Software Writing I * Behind Closed Doors * Managing Humans * The Mythical Man-Month * Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams * The Non-Designers Design Book * Founders at Work * Good to Great * Dreaming in Code…
on “Ask YC (and PG): What books do you have on your bookshelf? ” ↗I have a suggestion for what to read: the posts that make up Joel Spolsky's Introduction to Best Software Writing I. [http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BestSoftwareWriting.h...] Most of the entries included in the book are solid articles, but most tend to merely skim the surface of the topic at hand, and I would…
on “Ask YC: Let's start a Hacker News book club” ↗…games rather than corporate infrastructure (although I can't deny that building corporate infrastructure has its moments) Joel Spolsky talks about using the compiler to catch errors on p. 68 of "The Best Software Writing I" https://books.google.com/books?id=vPvhzDqZlaAC&pg=PA68&lpg=P...
on “Wizards and warriors, part five” ↗I've been reading "The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky", which contains some pretty interesting, well-written essays from the early 2000s. What are your recommendations of modern, 2010~2020 era software/tech essays?
on “Ask HN: Good Software Writing” ↗…type checking, some proponents of dynamic type checking claim that static type checking is not needed [3]." and the reference: [3] J. Spolsky and B. Eckel, “Strong Typing vs. Strong Testing,” in The Best Software Writing I. Apress, pp. 67–77, 2005. I do agree that development time is an important factor and one that I didn't address simply because that would require a different type experiment. I hope that researchers…
on “Linewise translating unit-tested Python to Haskell to compare defects caught an” ↗And here are the links to essays in Best Software Writing I: http://brevity.org/misc/bestswi.html
on “Starbucks Does Not Use Two-Phase Commit” ↗