Ah, this one takes me back. It's almost a pity no one else has mentioned the classic Tao of Programming by Geoffrey James: http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/ta

Ah, this one takes me back. It's almost a pity no one else has mentioned the classic Tao of Programming by Geoffrey James: http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html A bit dated now, and it looks like ESR has improved on the concept considerably, but this little classic will always be my favorite: "Each language has its place within the Tao. But do not program in Cobol if you can avoid it."