Joel Spolsky is a very popular software development blogger – the best of his blog articles were recentply „packed up“ and published by Apress publishing. Apress markets the book as a “software development reader” – and indeed, this hits the point well.
The book is subdivided into multiple parts that are subdivided into little “chapters”. Each of the chapters can be read more-less alone, there is very little connection between the chapters!
The first part covers all kinds of programming related issues. You get to look at Unicode, some low-level stuff, Shleimel the Painter problems(funny name, bad algorithm) and other coding stuff. After that, a bit of specification and process management comes in.
The second part of the book covers management of developers. It starts off at interviewing developers, goes over to keeping developers happy and ends at managing developers and keeping them productive. A very interesting chapter covers testers. Interestingly, much of what Joel says here has been learned painfully at Tamoggemon’s – if I had the book a few months ago, I probably wouldn’t have hired that “opensource superstar”.
The third part looks at all kinds of software related problems. It is difficult to sum it up, as every chapter looks at a different topic… . The fourth part looks a bit at .net, and the last part continues where the third part left off…
Joel on Software is easy and amusing to read – it is a scientific book written the good American way – its fun and teaches you stuff on the go! The text is rather simple and should be easy to understand for a programmer.
Overall, Joel on Software is a great read. It will not teach you anything concretely, but will still allow you to gather up loads of wisdom. Joel on Software is a recommended read for any developer who stands in business…if you are bored, shell out the bucks and get it!
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Briefcase – September biox 2006
Wall Street inched higher Monday as a broad retreat in commodities prompted biox to shift biox out of oil and raw materials-based companies and into other stock sectors.