The Pragmatic Programmer
by Andy Hunt, Dave Thomas · first published 1999
60% recommend36% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Practical guide to the craft and habits of writing good code, from plain-text storage to applying its principles day to day; suits early-to-mid career developers who want a solid base alongside Code Complete.
Common criticism: Experienced developers may find its lessons already learned through practice
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The Pragmatic Programmer is one of those rare tech audiobooks you’ll listen, re-listen, and listen to again over the years. Whether you’re new to the field or an experienced practitioner, you’ll come away with fresh insights each and every time. Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt wrote the first edition of this influential book in 1999 to help their clients create better software and rediscover the joy of coding. These lessons have helped a generation of programmers examine the very essence of software development, independent of any particular language, framework, or methodology, and the Pragmatic
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…code and the compiled executable, along with results. It turned out the bug was caused by the order in which OS patches had been applied on the servers. One of the first rules in the marvelous book The Pragmatic Programmer is "Select() isn't broken". Yeah, but sometimes it is. And if a junior programmer came to me today reporting a bug in OS memory management, my first response would be "What's wrong with your code, really?"
on “Use mmap with care” ↗I really like: - Code Complete by Steve McConnell - The Effective Engineer by Edmond Lau - The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
on “Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?” ↗…available, The Engineering Handbook, Second Edition, CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, Ugly's Electrical Reference, The Pocket Reference by Thomas Glover, The Mythical Man-Month, K&R, The Pragmatic Programmer Pyzdek's guide to SPC - I'd like to find a nice short treatment of statistics and SPC, Pyzdek's is had to get hold of these days. Maybe there's a better one now. Some PG, Some Joel Spoolsky, ??? Anything…
on “Ask HN: What books for beginners in electronics and programming” ↗…dated now. DeMarco and Lister's "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams" is also a classic, and emphasizes interpersonal team dynamics as well as software project management. Hunt and Thomas's "The Pragmatic Programmer" is highly regarded and traces the progression of a software pro from being led to becoming leader. Mantle's "Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams"…
on “Ask HN: How to Be a Good Technical Lead?” ↗Three boks I'll recommend you read as soon as possible. 1) The Mythical Man month 3) The Pragmatic Programmer 3) Code Complete. The thing about these books, well atleast 1 and 3 is that when they were written they broke new ground. Or if that phrase bother you, they were the first mainstream publications that…
on “Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?” ↗There is a great chapter in The Pragmatic Programmer on why you should stick with text files for everything possible. Section 3 / Chapter 14 "The Power of Plain Text". It argues that as programmers, our base material as craftspeople isn't wood or metal,…
on “Why I love text files” ↗My take on some which I think should be atleast read once: 1) The unix programming environment 2) The design of the unix operating system 3) The Pragmatic Programmer 4) Programming Pearls 5) Computer Systems: A Programmers Prespective 6) K & R C 7) The art of Unix Programming. PS: I admit my bias towards systems.
on “Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?” ↗…https://vaughnvernon.co/?page_id=168 Steve McConnell, Code Complete: https://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Cons... 2 Clean coder: https://cleancoders.com/ videos Hunt and Thomas, The Pragmatic Programmer: https://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Maste... Hitchhiker's Guide to Python: https://docs.python-guide.org/ Dustin Boswell The Art of Readable Code: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Readable-Code-Practical-Technique...…
on “Ask HN: How to transition from academic programming to software engineering?” ↗…http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Computing-Systems-Building-Pr... http://www.amazon.com/Structure-Interpretation-Computer-Prog... http://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6del-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/... http://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master... Good luck!
on “Ask HN: What are the best programming books for someone in prison? ” ↗…interested (e.g.: Knuth's "Art of Computer Programming", Martin Fowler's "Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture", ...) To finish, 2 books people recommend a lot for beginning programmers: "The Pragmatic Programmer"- Hunt, Thomas: a very good book, with sound advice and very easy to read. The only bad side is that it became so influential that its ideas became vulgarized in thousands of blogs. "Code Complete" -…
on “Code Interview Reading List” ↗…Visualization for the Web Data Visualization with D3.js Cookbook A First Course in Probability Rails AntiPatterns - Best Practice Ruby on Rails Refactoring Bayesian Data Analysis Andrew Gelma The Pragmatic Programmer Code Complete Bishop - Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning O'Reilly Mining The Social Web
on “Please recommend a book to read. List for 2015” ↗…things I haven't read. My go to recommendations: http://www.amazon.com/Structure-Scientific-Revolutions-50th-... - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn, (1996) http://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master... - The Pragmatic Programmer, Andrew Hunt and David Thomas (1999) Things I've liked in the last 6 months: http://www.amazon.com/How-Measure-Anything-Intangibles-Busin... - How to…
on “Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?” ↗I didn't see any mention of in a quick look through the linked website, but the book "The Pragmatic Programmer" is one of the best resources you'll find for making the most out of text-based tools. PP goes a little beyond that, too, it's not the book's sole focus, but it's a major one, and the book is a classic:…
on “The Plain Text Project” ↗Some interesting books... 1. What would Machiavelli do 2. The Tao of Pooh 3. The Conquest of Bread On programming or engineering? 1. Pragmatic Programmer 2. Mr. Neighborlys Humble Little Ruby Book 3. Programming in Lua I feel put on the spot. I thought there would be more but I can't think of any at the moment. If you ever make a post asking for YouTube…
on “Ask HN: What books do you recommend?” ↗The Pragmatic Programmer https://pragprog.com/titles/tpp20/the-pragmatic-programmer-2... It's been a long, long time since I had access to the book; and much of it is internalized by now; but back then it changed everything…
on “Ask HN: What was a book that changed your life?” ↗