"The Pragmatic Programmer" unfolds possible paths to modern software development. By covering a wide range of topics, like prototyping, utilizing an appropriate tool suite, module decoupling, design by contract, refactoring or automation, it illustrates best practices as well as major pitfalls. And at the same time is very entertaining to read.

Many propositions stated in this book simply made me nod my head, as the quoted anecdotes reminded me of common mistakes in software projects, some of which I have experienced myself in the past. 

In my opinion, lots of issues boil down to a programmer's attitude: Do you keep on questioning your current approaches? Do you consider coding as a non-mechanical process? Are you willing to invest some time and effort in your personal knowledge portfolio? Are you a pragmatic programmer?

This book propagates craftsmanship as a new metaphor for software development. It focuses on the human individual, and states that experienced software craftsman can make all the difference between project success and failure. As with traditional craftsmanship, becoming a craftsman is only possible when being dedicated to lifelong learning. Apprentice developers first have to learn how software development is done (which is not the same as being taught how to program). They are mentored by a master craftsman, and benefit from observing his work. Apprentices become journeyman once they developed a deep understanding of their craft. When journeymen master their craft, they turn to be master craftsmen.

I sympathize with a lot of Pete McBreens statements. He just tends to be a little bit too harsh on classical software engineering. In my understanding, a focus on a systematic, scientific approach to software development, a well-defined process model, that is both scalable as adaptable, should be a fine accompanist to the software craftsmanship paradigm.

Not only the title resembles Scott Meyers "Effective C++" and "More effective C++". Just as Meyers' C++ books, "Effective Java" contains dozens of rules of thumb and describes challenges that most Java developers encounter every day. The content covers topics like immutability, favoring composition over inheritance and interfaces over abstract classes, substitutes for C/C++ constructs, performance pitfalls, threads, synchronization, and serialization. The book provides a great deal of help on producing robust and efficient code.

Not being aware of the issues explained in Effective Java means not knowing enough of the language. Isn't it a common misconception for someone to be proclaimed a qualified Java programmer, once he or she knows the language syntax and some of the most common APIs? In my professional career, I went through more than one nightmare caused by the work of unexperienced Java developers (and to be honest: looking back at some stuff I coded back in the days of Java's dawn today, I just also have to shake my head in disbelief). I wished I would have had one copy of this book back then. Things sometimes just seem too simple on the surface. These potential pitfalls are what no one talks about in many of the dispensable Java books that keep on being published each month, and I recommend to avoid them by reading this book, or one will have to figure it out the hard way. 

This all-time-classic focuses on the social aspects of software development. Success or failure of software projects are influenced not only by technical, but also by human factors, and many technical leaders tend to deny that. Build together a "jelling team", avoid those cubicle offices, instead give your programmers the environment they need to make the best out of them. This book is full of wisdom, aerated with douzands of funny anecdotes, a must-read for software managers (and software developers too).

The first strike of the notorious "Gang-of-Four". Object oriented design patterns have existed before, but this was the first time the most universal of them were collected and well-documented within one writing. Besides providing a catalog of proven software design idioms, it also helped to establish a common "language" within developers, when it comes to talking about design ideas.

The first print of this book I ever possessed was the german translation, but I did not discover the exhaustive beauty of design patterns, unless I bought the original english version, and John Vlissides follow-up "Pattern Hatching". 

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