The Art of Readable Code


Dustin Boswell - 2010
    Over the past five years, authors Dustin Boswell and Trevor Foucher have analyzed hundreds of examples of "bad code" (much of it their own) to determine why they’re bad and how they could be improved. Their conclusion? You need to write code that minimizes the time it would take someone else to understand it—even if that someone else is you.This book focuses on basic principles and practical techniques you can apply every time you write code. Using easy-to-digest code examples from different languages, each chapter dives into a different aspect of coding, and demonstrates how you can make your code easy to understand.Simplify naming, commenting, and formatting with tips that apply to every line of codeRefine your program’s loops, logic, and variables to reduce complexity and confusionAttack problems at the function level, such as reorganizing blocks of code to do one task at a timeWrite effective test code that is thorough and concise—as well as readable"Being aware of how the code you create affects those who look at it later is an important part of developing software. The authors did a great job in taking you through the different aspects of this challenge, explaining the details with instructive examples." —Michael Hunger, passionate Software Developer

Seven Concurrency Models in Seven Weeks: When Threads Unravel


Paul Butcher - 2014
    Concurrency and parallelism are the keys, and Seven Concurrency Models in Seven Weeks equips you for this new world. See how emerging technologies such as actors and functional programming address issues with traditional threads and locks development. Learn how to exploit the parallelism in your computer's GPU and leverage clusters of machines with MapReduce and Stream Processing. And do it all with the confidence that comes from using tools that help you write crystal clear, high-quality code. This book will show you how to exploit different parallel architectures to improve your code's performance, scalability, and resilience. Learn about the perils of traditional threads and locks programming and how to overcome them through careful design and by working with the standard library. See how actors enable software running on geographically distributed computers to collaborate, handle failure, and create systems that stay up 24/7/365. Understand why shared mutable state is the enemy of robust concurrent code, and see how functional programming together with technologies such as Software Transactional Memory (STM) and automatic parallelism help you tame it. You'll learn about the untapped potential within every GPU and how GPGPU software can unleash it. You'll see how to use MapReduce to harness massive clusters to solve previously intractible problems, and how, in concert with Stream Processing, big data can be tamed. With an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each of the different models and hardware architectures, you'll be empowered to tackle any problem with confidence.What You Need: The example code can be compiled and executed on *nix, OS X, or Windows. Instructions on how to download the supporting build systems are given in each chapter.

Architecting for Scale: High Availability for Your Growing Applications


Lee Atchison - 2016
    As traffic volume and data demands increase, these applications become more complicated and brittle, exposing risks and compromising availability. This practical guide shows IT, devops, and system reliability managers how to prevent an application from becoming slow, inconsistent, or downright unavailable as it grows.Scaling isn't just about handling more users; it's also about managing risk and ensuring availability. Author Lee Atchison provides basic techniques for building applications that can handle huge quantities of traffic, data, and demand without affecting the quality your customers expect.In five parts, this book explores:Availability: learn techniques for building highly available applications, and for tracking and improving availability going forwardRisk management: identify, mitigate, and manage risks in your application, test your recovery/disaster plans, and build out systems that contain fewer risksServices and microservices: understand the value of services for building complicated applications that need to operate at higher scaleScaling applications: assign services to specific teams, label the criticalness of each service, and devise failure scenarios and recovery plansCloud services: understand the structure of cloud-based services, resource allocation, and service distribution

CSS Secrets: Better Solutions to Everyday Web Design Problems


Lea Verou - 2014
    Based on two popular talks from author Lea Verou--including "CSS3 Secrets: 10 things you may not know about CSS"--this practical guide provides intermediate to advanced CSS developers with more than 40 undocumented techniques and tips for using CSS3 to create better websites.The talks that spawned this book have been top-rated by attendees in every conference they were presented, and praised in industry media such as ."net" magazine.Get information you won't find in any other bookLearn through small, easily digestible chaptersHelps you understand CSS more deeply so you can improve your own solutionsApply Lea's techniques to practically every CSS problem you faceGain tips from a rockstar author who serves as an Invited Expert in W3C's CSS Working Group

I Heart Logs: Event Data, Stream Processing, and Data Integration


Jay Kreps - 2014
    Even though most engineers don't think much about them, this short book shows you why logs are worthy of your attention.Based on his popular blog posts, LinkedIn principal engineer Jay Kreps shows you how logs work in distributed systems, and then delivers practical applications of these concepts in a variety of common uses--data integration, enterprise architecture, real-time stream processing, data system design, and abstract computing models.Go ahead and take the plunge with logs; you're going love them.Learn how logs are used for programmatic access in databases and distributed systemsDiscover solutions to the huge data integration problem when more data of more varieties meet more systemsUnderstand why logs are at the heart of real-time stream processingLearn the role of a log in the internals of online data systemsExplore how Jay Kreps applies these ideas to his own work on data infrastructure systems at LinkedIn

Grokking Algorithms An Illustrated Guide For Programmers and Other Curious People


Aditya Y. Bhargava - 2015
    The algorithms you'll use most often as a programmer have already been discovered, tested, and proven. If you want to take a hard pass on Knuth's brilliant but impenetrable theories and the dense multi-page proofs you'll find in most textbooks, this is the book for you. This fully-illustrated and engaging guide makes it easy for you to learn how to use algorithms effectively in your own programs.Grokking Algorithms is a disarming take on a core computer science topic. In it, you'll learn how to apply common algorithms to the practical problems you face in day-to-day life as a programmer. You'll start with problems like sorting and searching. As you build up your skills in thinking algorithmically, you'll tackle more complex concerns such as data compression or artificial intelligence. Whether you're writing business software, video games, mobile apps, or system utilities, you'll learn algorithmic techniques for solving problems that you thought were out of your grasp. For example, you'll be able to:Write a spell checker using graph algorithmsUnderstand how data compression works using Huffman codingIdentify problems that take too long to solve with naive algorithms, and attack them with algorithms that give you an approximate answer insteadEach carefully-presented example includes helpful diagrams and fully-annotated code samples in Python. By the end of this book, you will know some of the most widely applicable algorithms as well as how and when to use them.

The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary


Eric S. Raymond - 1999
    According to the August Forrester Report, 56 percent of IT managers interviewed at Global 2,500 companies are already using some type of open source software in their infrastructure and another 6 percent will install it in the next two years. This revolutionary model for collaborative software development is being embraced and studied by many of the biggest players in the high-tech industry, from Sun Microsystems to IBM to Intel.The Cathedral & the Bazaar is a must for anyone who cares about the future of the computer industry or the dynamics of the information economy. Already, billions of dollars have been made and lost based on the ideas in this book. Its conclusions will be studied, debated, and implemented for years to come. According to Bob Young, "This is Eric Raymond's great contribution to the success of the open source revolution, to the adoption of Linux-based operating systems, and to the success of open source users and the companies that supply them."The interest in open source software development has grown enormously in the past year. This revised and expanded paperback edition includes new material on open source developments in 1999 and 2000. Raymond's clear and effective writing style accurately describing the benefits of open source software has been key to its success. With major vendors creating acceptance for open source within companies, independent vendors will become the open source story in 2001.

Making Software: What Really Works, and Why We Believe It


Andy Oram - 2010
    But which claims are verifiable, and which are merely wishful thinking? In this book, leading thinkers such as Steve McConnell, Barry Boehm, and Barbara Kitchenham offer essays that uncover the truth and unmask myths commonly held among the software development community. Their insights may surprise you.Are some programmers really ten times more productive than others?Does writing tests first help you develop better code faster?Can code metrics predict the number of bugs in a piece of software?Do design patterns actually make better software?What effect does personality have on pair programming?What matters more: how far apart people are geographically, or how far apart they are in the org chart?Contributors include:Jorge Aranda Tom Ball Victor R. Basili Andrew Begel Christian Bird Barry Boehm Marcelo Cataldo Steven Clarke Jason Cohen Robert DeLine Madeline Diep Hakan Erdogmus Michael Godfrey Mark Guzdial Jo E. Hannay Ahmed E. Hassan Israel Herraiz Kim Sebastian Herzig Cory Kapser Barbara Kitchenham Andrew Ko Lucas Layman Steve McConnell Tim Menzies Gail Murphy Nachi Nagappan Thomas J. Ostrand Dewayne Perry Marian Petre Lutz Prechelt Rahul Premraj Forrest Shull Beth Simon Diomidis Spinellis Neil Thomas Walter Tichy Burak Turhan Elaine J. Weyuker Michele A. Whitecraft Laurie Williams Wendy M. Williams Andreas Zeller Thomas Zimmermann

Real World Haskell: Code You Can Believe In


Bryan O'Sullivan - 2008
    You'll learn how to use Haskell in a variety of practical ways, from short scripts to large and demanding applications. Real World Haskell takes you through the basics of functional programming at a brisk pace, and then helps you increase your understanding of Haskell in real-world issues like I/O, performance, dealing with data, concurrency, and more as you move through each chapter. With this book, you will:Understand the differences between procedural and functional programming Learn the features of Haskell, and how to use it to develop useful programs Interact with filesystems, databases, and network services Write solid code with automated tests, code coverage, and error handling Harness the power of multicore systems via concurrent and parallel programming You'll find plenty of hands-on exercises, along with examples of real Haskell programs that you can modify, compile, and run. Whether or not you've used a functional language before, if you want to understand why Haskell is coming into its own as a practical language in so many major organizations, Real World Haskell is the best place to start.

BDD in Action: Behavior-driven development for the whole software lifecycle


John Ferguson Smart - 2014
    First you'll learn how to apply BDD to requirements analysis to define features that focus your development efforts on underlying business goals. Then, you'll discover how to automate acceptance criteria and use tests to guide and report on the development process. Along the way, you'll apply BDD principles at the coding level to write more maintainable and better documented code.Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.About the TechnologyYou can't write good software if you don't understand what it's supposed to do. Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) encourages teams to use conversation and concrete examples to build up a shared understanding of how an application should work and which features really matter. With an emerging body of best practices and sophisticated new tools that assist in requirement analysis and test automation, BDD has become a hot, mainstream practice.About the BookBDD in Action teaches you BDD principles and practices and shows you how to integrate them into your existing development process, no matter what language you use. First, you'll apply BDD to requirements analysis so you can focus your development efforts on underlying business goals. Then, you'll discover how to automate acceptance criteria and use tests to guide and report on the development process. Along the way, you'll apply BDD principles at the coding level to write more maintainable and better documented code. No prior experience with BDD is required.What's InsideBDD theory and practiceHow BDD will affect your teamBDD for acceptance, integration, and unit testingExamples in Java, .NET, JavaScript, and moreReporting and living documentationAbout the AuthorJohn Ferguson Smart is a specialist in BDD, automated testing, and software lifecycle development optimization. Table of ContentsPART 1: FIRST STEPSBuilding software that makes a differenceBDD—the whirlwind tourPART 2: WHAT DO I WANT? DEFINING REQUIREMENTS USING BDDUnderstanding the business goals: Feature Injection and related techniquesDefining and illustrating featuresFrom examples to executable specificationsAutomating the scenariosPART 3: HOW DO I BUILD IT? CODING THE BDD WAYFrom executable specifications to rock-solid automated acceptance testsAutomating acceptance criteria for the UI layerAutomating acceptance criteria for non-UI requirementsBDD and unit testingPART 4: TAKING BDD FURTHERLiving Documentation: reporting and project managementBDD in the build process

Scala for the Impatient


Cay S. Horstmann - 2012
    Using Scala, you can write programs more concisely than in Java, as well as leverage the full power of concurrency. Since Scala runs on the JVM, it can access any Java library and is interoperable with Java frameworks. Scala for the Impatient concisely shows developers what Scala can do and how to do it. In this book, Cay Horstmann, the principal author of the international best-selling Core Java(TM), offers a rapid, code-based introduction that's completely practical. Horstmann introduces Scala concepts and techniques in "blog-sized" chunks that you can quickly master and apply. Hands-on activities guide you through well-defined stages of competency, from basic to expert. Coverage includes Getting started quickly with Scala's interpreter, syntax, tools, and unique idioms Mastering core language features: functions, arrays, maps, tuples, packages, imports, exception handling, and more Becoming familiar with object-oriented programming in Scala: classes, inheritance, and traits Using Scala for real-world programming tasks: working with files, regular expressions, and XML Working with higher-order functions and the powerful Scala collections library Leveraging Scala's powerful pattern matching and case classes Creating concurrent programs with Scala actors Implementing domain-specific languages Understanding the Scala type system Applying advanced "power tools" such as annotations, implicits, and delimited continuations Scala is rapidly reaching a tipping point that will reshape the experience of programming. This book will help object-oriented programmers build on their existing skills, allowing them to immediately construct useful applications as they gradually master advanced programming techniques.

Big Data: Principles and best practices of scalable realtime data systems


Nathan Marz - 2012
    As scale and demand increase, so does Complexity. Fortunately, scalability and simplicity are not mutually exclusive—rather than using some trendy technology, a different approach is needed. Big data systems use many machines working in parallel to store and process data, which introduces fundamental challenges unfamiliar to most developers.Big Data shows how to build these systems using an architecture that takes advantage of clustered hardware along with new tools designed specifically to capture and analyze web-scale data. It describes a scalable, easy to understand approach to big data systems that can be built and run by a small team. Following a realistic example, this book guides readers through the theory of big data systems, how to use them in practice, and how to deploy and operate them once they're built.Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.

Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams


Lisa Crispin - 2008
    The widespread adoption of agile methods has brought the need for effective testing into the limelight, and agile projects have transformed the role of testers. Much of a tester's function, however, remains largely misunderstood. What is the true role of a tester? Do agile teams actually need members with QA backgrounds? What does it really mean to be an "agile tester?"Two of the industry's most experienced agile testing practitioners and consultants, Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory, have teamed up to bring you the definitive answers to these questions and many others. In Agile Testing, Crispin and Gregory define agile testing and illustrate the tester's role with examples from real agile teams. They teach you how to use the agile testing quadrants to identify what testing is needed, who should do it, and what tools might help. The book chronicles an agile software development iteration from the viewpoint of a tester and explains the seven key success factors of agile testing.Readers will come away from this book understanding- How to get testers engaged in agile development- Where testers and QA managers fit on an agile team- What to look for when hiring an agile tester- How to transition from a traditional cycle to agile development- How to complete testing activities in short iterations- How to use tests to successfully guide development- How to overcome barriers to test automationThis book is a must for agile testers, agile teams, their managers, and their customers.

The Well-Grounded Rubyist


David A. Black - 2008
    It's a beautifully written tutorial that begins with the basic steps to get your first Ruby program up and running and goes on to explore sophisticated topics like callable objects, reflection, and threading. Whether the topic is simple or tough, the book's easy-to-follow examples and explanations will give you immediate confidence as you build your Ruby programming skills.The Well-Grounded Rubyist is a thoroughly revised and updated edition of the best-selling Ruby for Rails. In this new book, expert author David A. Black moves beyond Rails and presents a broader view of Ruby. It covers Ruby 1.9, and keeps the same sharp focus and clear writing that made Ruby for Rails stand out.Starting with the basics, The Well-Grounded Rubyist explains Ruby objects and their interactions from the ground up. In the middle chapters, the book turns to an examination of Ruby's built-in, core classes, showing the reader how to manipulate strings, numbers, arrays, ranges, hashes, sets, and more. Regular expressions get attention, as do file and other I/O operations.Along the way, the reader is introduced to numerous tools included in the standard Ruby distribution--tools like the task manager Rake and the interactive Ruby console-based interpreter Irb--that facilitate Ruby development and make it an integrated and pleasant experience.The book encompasses advanced topics, like the design of Ruby's class and module system, and the use of Ruby threads, taking even the new Rubyist deep into the language and giving every reader the foundations necessary to use, explore, and enjoy this unusually popular and versatile language.It's no wonder one reader commented: "The technical depth is just right to not distract beginners, yet detailed enough for more advanced readers."Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.

Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective


Randal E. Bryant - 2002
    Often, computer science and computer engineering curricula don't provide students with a concentrated and consistent introduction to the fundamental concepts that underlie all computer systems. Traditional computer organization and logic design courses cover some of this material, but they focus largely on hardware design. They provide students with little or no understanding of how important software components operate, how application programs use systems, or how system attributes affect the performance and correctness of application programs. - A more complete view of systems - Takes a broader view of systems than traditional computer organization books, covering aspects of computer design, operating systems, compilers, and networking, provides students with the understanding of how programs run on real systems. - Systems presented from a programmers perspective - Material is presented in such a way that it has clear benefit to application programmers, students learn how to use this knowledge to improve program performance and reliability. They also become more effective in program debugging, because t