Category: Software-Technology

History Software-Technology

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering

By Scott J. Pearson | by Scott J. Pearson

by Frederick P. BrooksCopyright (c) 1995 What is relevant about a book, in its second edition, that was originally written a generation or two ago about managing computer projects? The author Brooks led the management of the project for IBM decades ago. The answer to this question is simple and is evident in the title. Scaling software projects from smaller-to-larger does not scale linearly. In case you don’t know what this means, scaling non-linearly means…

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Software-Technology

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code

By Scott J. Pearson | by Scott J. Pearson

by Martin FolwerCopyright (c) 1999 I picked up this book at the wrong time. The book was so successful that a second edition is due out on November 30, 2018 (less than two weeks from now). On the other hand, I picked up this book at the right time. At work, my project is in the midst of a refactoring project. I am in the middle of changing PHP code from modular functions to object-orientation.…

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Management-Business Software-Technology

The Psychology of Computer Programming: Silver Anniversary Edition

By Scott J. Pearson | by Scott J. Pearson

by Gerald M. WeinbergCopyright (c) 1998, 1971 This book is misnamed, as the author admits. It should be named “The Anthropology of Computer Programming.” It studies the culture of computer programming rather than the psychology of the practice. Fortunately, despite being written over forty years ago, it succeeds at its task for the reader today as well as for the original reader. If you can move past the references to dated languages and programming practices,…

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Software-Technology Visualization

Information Dashboard Design: Displaying data for at-a-glance monitoring

By Scott J. Pearson | by Scott J. Pearson

by Stephen Few(c) Copyright 2013. Dashboards are a hot topic in our information-laden world. They are imagined by those in the design world (often very poorly) and implemented by programmers who do not take their imagination any further. This book, written by an acknowledged expert in the field of visualization, describes how to design dashboards that communicate essential data to users, mostly business-people. As such, its audience consists of designers, not programmers. Although I am…

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Software-Technology

Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction

By Scott J. Pearson | by Scott J. Pearson

by Steve McConnellCopyright (c) 2004 Code Complete is a 850-page tome which might serve as Computer Science guru-author Steve McConnell’s magnum opus. His presentation addresses an audience that spans programmers at the beginning level, intermediate level, and advanced level. With its wide-ranging scope, it fills in  any computer scientist’s holes of knowledge. Units are filled with a handful of chapters each and consist of foundations, producing high-quality code, variables, statements, improvements, systemic issues, and craftsmanship. McConnell…

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Books Software-Technology

Resources to Explore: Software

By Scott J. Pearson | by Scott J. Pearson

Programming on Purpose: Essays on Software Design by P.J. Plauger How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method by G. Polya Effective C++: 55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs by Scott Meyers How to Solve It: Modern Heuristics by Zbigniew Michalewicz and David B. Fogel More Effective C++: 25 New Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs by Scott Meyers Object-Oriented Design Heuristics by Arthur J. Riel Writing Secure Code by Michael Howard and David LeBlanc Customer…

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