5 ms·

Ask HN: Books for soon to be Software Engineers

46 points by cdmcnamara 15y ago

I just graduated college with a degree in CS and took a job as a SE. I was curious to know if there were any books that would be valuble to help me bridge the gap between school and industry. Thanks for your suggestions.

swanson 15y ago
I read these two books in the first few months at my job with a book club that included the other new hires and a good mix of more experienced developers. * The Pragmatic Programmer [1] * Apprenticeship Patterns [2] I would highly recommend both. [1] http://swanson.github.com/writeup/2010/10/25/pragmatic-programmer.html http://swanson.github.com/writeup/2010/10/25/pragmatic-progr... [2] http://swanson.github.com/writeup/2010/10/26/apprenticeship-patterns.html http://swanson.github.com/writeup/2010/10/26/apprenticeship-...
gte910h 15y ago
Code Compete 2 Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art Pro GIT Debugging by Agans
chillax 15y ago
Clean Code
sage_joch 15y ago
If you will be programming in Java, these books will serve you incredibly well: * Effective Java * Java Concurrency in Practice * Head First Design Patterns
- beagle3 15y ago
  If you will be programming in Java, my condolences. (yes, I'm ready for the downvotes). I'm sure there's some nice Java code out there. I recently agreed to do a Java project, and the 6 months I was at it sucked the joy of programming out of me. I've spent the last few years doing Python, C and K, and in comparison, Java is so bureaucratic that I felt like 10% of my work was advancing towards my goal, and 90% was bureaucracy (compared to 20% bureaucracy in C, 5% in Python and 0.001% in K) And as for books, I recommend Jon Bentley's "Programming Pearls" series, Steve McConnell's "Software Project Survival Guide" and DeMarco and Lister's "PeopleWare". The last two have more to do with project (and people) management than with software engineering - but you will need these skills much earlier than you'd expect, perhaps even in your first couple of months of work. And PeopleWare is a short and enjoyable read, you could put it in the "leisure" pile.
- andrewcooke 15y ago
  seconding effective java, in particular. seems like there should be a good book on how to manage your boss / client but i don't know of one.
rhettg 15y ago
Code Complete Being Geek
- Mongoose 15y ago
  +1 for Being Geek. It's essentially a well-laid out rehash of Rands' blog posts over the years but I've found it good reading, even with the enormous amount of typos. I'm in the same situation as the OP, so the strategic career advice is much more relevant now than when I read it in the past.
buckwild 15y ago
Rule number one is you can't learn EVERYTHING from a book. I'd suggest contributing to open source projects and reflecting on what you learned...
rw 15y ago
I strongly recommend both of these: * The Practice Of Programming (co-authored by the 'K' in C's K&R) * Code Complete 2
awa 15y ago
The Passionate programmer [Pragmatic series] - On how to develop yourself as a programmer Coders at work - For inspiration
aaronbrethorst 15y ago
Peopleware by Demarco and Lister is one of my all-time favorites. The Pragmatic Programmer is also great.
kqueue 15y ago
I am sure you'll get enough suggestions on technical books so I won't bother suggesting one. But make sure to pay extra attention to communication. A huge part in software engineering is communication.
cannedprimates 15y ago
A Few Good Men from UNIVAC
mullr 15y ago
* The Pragmatic Programmer (Read this once every 6 months until it's obvious) * Head first design patterns * Agile Web Development with Rails It's not obvious, but the rails book is a great introduction to test-driven development in general.
rlawson 15y ago
hopefully your new company will be ok with using opensource components - so for sure read The Cathedral and the Bazaar by ESR
ig1 15y ago
Code craft is the book I normally recommend for people starting out. Code Complete which several other people recommend is a great book, but it's one of those books that make much more sense after you've been programming for a year or so.

46 points by cdmcnamara 15y ago

swanson 15y ago

I read these two books in the first few months at my job with a book club that included the other new hires and a good mix of more experienced developers. * The Pragmatic Programmer [1] * Apprenticeship Patterns [2] I would highly recommend both. [1] http://swanson.github.com/writeup/2010/10/25/pragmatic-programmer.html http://swanson.github.com/writeup/2010/10/25/pragmatic-progr... [2] http://swanson.github.com/writeup/2010/10/26/apprenticeship-patterns.html http://swanson.github.com/writeup/2010/10/26/apprenticeship-...

gte910h 15y ago

Code Compete 2 Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art Pro GIT Debugging by Agans

chillax 15y ago

Clean Code

sage_joch 15y ago

If you will be programming in Java, these books will serve you incredibly well: * Effective Java * Java Concurrency in Practice * Head First Design Patterns

beagle3 15y ago
If you will be programming in Java, my condolences. (yes, I'm ready for the downvotes). I'm sure there's some nice Java code out there. I recently agreed to do a Java project, and the 6 months I was at it sucked the joy of programming out of me. I've spent the last few years doing Python, C and K, and in comparison, Java is so bureaucratic that I felt like 10% of my work was advancing towards my goal, and 90% was bureaucracy (compared to 20% bureaucracy in C, 5% in Python and 0.001% in K) And as for books, I recommend Jon Bentley's "Programming Pearls" series, Steve McConnell's "Software Project Survival Guide" and DeMarco and Lister's "PeopleWare". The last two have more to do with project (and people) management than with software engineering - but you will need these skills much earlier than you'd expect, perhaps even in your first couple of months of work. And PeopleWare is a short and enjoyable read, you could put it in the "leisure" pile.
andrewcooke 15y ago
seconding effective java, in particular. seems like there should be a good book on how to manage your boss / client but i don't know of one.

rhettg 15y ago

Code Complete Being Geek

Mongoose 15y ago
+1 for Being Geek. It's essentially a well-laid out rehash of Rands' blog posts over the years but I've found it good reading, even with the enormous amount of typos. I'm in the same situation as the OP, so the strategic career advice is much more relevant now than when I read it in the past.

buckwild 15y ago

Rule number one is you can't learn EVERYTHING from a book. I'd suggest contributing to open source projects and reflecting on what you learned...

rw 15y ago

I strongly recommend both of these: * The Practice Of Programming (co-authored by the 'K' in C's K&R) * Code Complete 2

awa 15y ago

The Passionate programmer [Pragmatic series] - On how to develop yourself as a programmer Coders at work - For inspiration

aaronbrethorst 15y ago

Peopleware by Demarco and Lister is one of my all-time favorites. The Pragmatic Programmer is also great.

kqueue 15y ago

I am sure you'll get enough suggestions on technical books so I won't bother suggesting one. But make sure to pay extra attention to communication. A huge part in software engineering is communication.

cannedprimates 15y ago

A Few Good Men from UNIVAC

mullr 15y ago

* The Pragmatic Programmer (Read this once every 6 months until it's obvious) * Head first design patterns * Agile Web Development with Rails It's not obvious, but the rails book is a great introduction to test-driven development in general.

rlawson 15y ago

hopefully your new company will be ok with using opensource components - so for sure read The Cathedral and the Bazaar by ESR

ig1 15y ago

Code craft is the book I normally recommend for people starting out. Code Complete which several other people recommend is a great book, but it's one of those books that make much more sense after you've been programming for a year or so.