Just received notice that my book review was published in the Feb. 2011 issue of CHOICE. For those who don’t have ready access to a copy, here is a reprint.
97 things every programmer should know: collective wisdom from the experts, ed. by Kevlin Henney. O’Reilly, 2010. 229p index ISBN 9780596809485 pbk, $29.99
“Write code as if you had to support it for the rest of your life.” This is just one of many nuggets of wisdom offered in this book. Instead of focusing on a specific technology, the work contains a wide range of insights from numerous authors. Each author has two pages to state his/her thesis. The book is not filled with acronyms or technical jargon (although some is scattered throughout). There are a few code snippets, but one does not need to know the specific language to garner the larger message. Interspersed are many interesting tidbits of programming lore. For example, a software bug in the Apollo 11 lunar module should have made the lander unstable. However, another bug compensated for the first, and the software was used for both Apollo 11 and 12 moon landings before it was fixed. Although this reviewer, who has worked with computers and done some programming for many years, does not agree with all the opinions and insights, many are quite valuable (and typically only learned after many bad experiences). Read this book and heed the advice; one will become a better programmer for doing so. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Academic, two-year technical program, and professional audiences, all levels.
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