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Overview
Frustrated by the lack of well-written essays on software engineering, Joel Spolsky (of www.joelonsoftware.com fame) has put together a collection of his favorite writings on the topic.
With a nod to both the serious and funny sides of technical writing, The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky is an entertaining read and a guide to the technical writing literati.
The Best Software Writing I contains writings from:
- Ken Arnold
- Leon Bambrick
- Michael Bean
- Rory Blyth
- Adam Bosworth
- danah boyd
- Raymond Chen
- Kevin Cheng and Tom Chi
- Cory Doctorow
- ea_spouse
- Bruce Eckel
- Paul Ford
- Paul Graham
- John Gruber
- Gregor Hohpe
- Ron Jeffries
- Eric Johnson
- Eric Lippert
- Michael Lopp
- Larry Osterman
- Mary Poppendieck
- Rick Schaut
- Aaron Swartz
- Clay Shirky
- Eric Sink
- why the lucky stiff
Synopsis
Seeking to encourage better writing about software, the editor has selected 29 pieces written in 2003 and 2004 as examples of clear, engaging, and occasionally funny writing about software composition and use. Contributions include Paul Graham's "Great Hackers," Adam Bosworth's talk from ICSOC04, Mary Poppendieck's "Team Compensation," and "A Quick (and Hopefully Painless) Ride Through Ruby (with Cartoon Foxes)" by the programmer known as "why the lucky stiff." Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewThere’s been a flowering of great writing about software: deep thinking, and flat-out funny stuff, too. The legendary Joel Spolsky has compiled the best of it, and his comments are as priceless as the writing.
Here are Cory Doctorow and Paul Graham, Clay Shirky and Aaron Swartz. Here’s Michael Bean on the pitfalls of outsourcing design...and Leon Bambrick’s hilarious trashing of Windows Search. Here’s Ken Arnold on why coding style should be enforced by compilers...and Rory Blyth wondering how marketers get all that malformatted data into Excel. Here’s Danah Boyd explaining why “social software” smacks of autism...and Bruce Eckel on why strong typing ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.
It’ll make you think. Sometimes laugh. And, in the case of “ea_spouse” ’s chilling essay on life at Electronic Arts, maybe even shed a tear or two. Bill Camarda, from the August 2005 Read Only