Below are a few notes on books I've found useful.
-
Code Complete, 2nd ed. by Steve McConnell. Vital info on moving from
design to construction to testing. Mandatory for your bookshelf if you give a
hoot about being in the 20% of software projects which succeed instead of in
the 80% which don't.
-
Writing Secure Code, 2nd ed. by Michael Howard and David LeBlanc.
Detailed discussion of critical security issues in design, implementation and
maintenance. Gotta have it if you want to walk the walk.
-
Mastering Regular Expressions by Jeffrey Friedl. A top-notch software
engineer pointed me to this six years ago and it opened up a whole new range of
skills for me.
-
Secure Coding: Principles & Practices by Mark G. Graff and Kenneth
R. van Wyk. It's been awhile since I read this, but I remember it having some
great background and technical detail. It also is another good book for tossing
cold water in the face of developers, leads, and managers who ignore the
necessity of addressing security from the start. (Even if it's a risk
assessment which shows a minimal need for security.)
-
Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael C. Feathers. I
mentioned this
in another post, but needed to document it on this list. Critical
reading if you're working with legacy code.
-
The Practice of Programming, by Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike. The
cover graphic says it all about the book's ideas on constructing software:
"Simplicity, Clarity, Generality". Way good reading.
-
Writing Solid Code,by Steve Maguire. I read this back in 1993 when I
was finishing up night school classes. Concepts I read in the book stuck with
me even though I didn't get into software development for another several
years.
-
Software Survival Guide by Steve McConnell. There's a lot of material
duplicated between this and Code Complete, but some gems are unique to
this book. Scheduling and estimating are hit much harder in this book, along
with some great coverage on schedule reestimation -- not slips.
I've also written a few reviews on Slashdot covering books I thought were very
worthwhile:
While it's not a computer geek book, I must also recommend:
-
The Chicago Manual Of Style, University of Chicago Press. Need to
understand why you should write certain things a certain way? Need backup for
making your case with "helpers" hacking up your well-written document? Look no
further.