Pragmatic programmer - from journeyman to master Page
Pragmatic Programmer - From Journeyman to Master
Return to Software Engineering Bibliography, IT Bibliography
The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master is a book about computer programming and software engineering, written by Andy Hunt (author)|Andrew Hunt and Dave Thomas (programmer)|David Thomas and published in October 1999.((https://www.bgosoftware.com/blog/8-most-influential-books-on-programming-and-computer-science-of-all-time - 8 Most Influential Books on Programming of All Time))((https://web.archive.org/web/20180916202712/http://www.aioptify.com:80/top-software-books.php, Top 40 Software Engineering Books))((https://jasonroell.com/2015/03/16/12-most-infuential-books-every-software-engineer-needs-to-read, 12 Most Influential Books Every Software Engineer Needs to Read))
It is used as a textbook in related university courses.[{{cite web|url=https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse331/17sp/syllabus.html|title=CSE 331 17sp Software Design & Implementation: Information and Syllabus}}] It was the first in a series of books under the label The Pragmatic Bookshelf. A second edition, The Pragmatic Programmer: Your Journey to Mastery was released in 2019 for the book's 20th anniversary, with major revisions and new material reflecting changes in the industry over the last twenty years.
The book does not present a systematic theory, but rather a collection of tips to improve the development process in a pragmatic way. The main qualities of what the authors refer to as a pragmatic programmer are being an early adopter (marketing)|early adopter, to have fast adaptation, inquisitiveness and critical thinking, realism, and being a jack-of-all-trades.[Hunt and Thomas, pp. xviii–xix.]
The book uses analogies and short stories to present development methodologies and caveats, for example the broken windows theory, the story of the stone soup, or the boiling frog.[Hunt and Thomas, pp. 7-9.] Some concepts were named or popularised in the book, such as Kata (programming)|code katas, small exercises to practice programming skills,[{{cite book|title=Pro TypeScript: Application-Scale JavaScript Development|author=Steve Fenton|publisher=Apress|year=2014|isbn=1430267909|p=209}}] and rubber duck debugging, a method of debugging whose name is a reference to a story in the book.[{{cite book|title=Becoming a Better Programmer: A Handbook for People Who Care About Code|author=Pete Goodliffe|publisher=O'Reilly Media|year=2014|isbn=1491905581|p=82}}]
Andy Hunt and David Thomas gave a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taCNjiiusRk&feature=youtu.be&list=PLEx5khR4g7PJbSLmADahf0LOpTLifiCra GOTO Book Club interview] celebrating the 20th anniversary release of the book, covering their journey to writing the book, how the content has evolved since the first release and what's remained unchanged in the last two decades.
References
* Andrew Hunt and David Thomas, The Pragmatic Programmer, Addison-Wesley, 2000.
* David Thomas and Andrew Hunt, The Pragmatic Programmer, 20th Anniversary Edition, Addison-Wesley, 2020.
External links
* Official website: https://pragprog.com/book/tpp20]]
* [http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2004/10/a-pragmatic-quick-reference.html Pragmatic Programmer on CodingHorror]
wp>Pragmatic Programmer