Which 3 technical books would you recommend all fresh-out-of-uni junior developers to read? [closed]

Question

Say you, a senior developer, get a junior developer straight out of uni or college to care under your wings. He/she is the typical freshly minted programmer: knows at least one mainstream language fairly good and perhaps some basic knowledge in a second or third; possesses the basic knowledge about search algorithms and data structures and when to use which; uses some form of coding standard consistently, but doesn't really grasp the notion of self-commenting code; have participated in several small projects of one or two team members and one larger project with 5-10 team members; etc.

Now, to ensure that your eager apprentice is mentally properly equipped before getting to work, which 3 technical books would you recommend him or her to read? These can really be any books, as long as they improve the developer's programming skills on way or another. (If you know a must-read book about a particular programming language and the project happens to contain lots of such code, do include that one in your list if you feel it applicable.)

Answer 1

• The Pragmatic Programmer, by Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas
• Refactoring, by Martin Fowler
• Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace by Lawrence Lessig

The Pragmatic Programmer tells you just about everything you need to know about how to be an effective programmer. (And the reason I don't list Kent Beck's Test Driven Development is because that's an expansion of one topic in PragProg.)

Refactoring shows you in detail how to improve your code.

Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace shows you the impact your code can have on the world around you. You're not writing something in isolation. You're writing something that can have a profound impact on your users, and the world at large. Code is Politics.

Answer 2

The Pragmatic Programmer taught me a lot and there is no complicated code examples in there either. Just good advice and useful concepts.

Answer 3

I'd likely give them the same sort of books that I tend to reach for the most often at my job, or those books that helped me out the most when I first got started. Thus:

1. Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction by Steve McConnell
2. Software Requirements by Karl E. Wiegers
3. Algorithms in a Nutshell

Some substitutions that I might make to this list depending upon the environment and the background of the person would be Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art by Steve McConnell if they didn't have much of a background in that. Also, the textbook Introduction to Algorithms instead of the Nutshell reference if they didn't have a course using that book (or bought it on their own) in college.

Answer 4

Code Complete

This covers so many aspects of software craftsmanship. It was my first, and it was a great book to start your career on.

User Stories Applied

This book helped me make meaningful estimates through the use of velocity based planning.

Framework/Language specific books are important, but in my opinion books about craftsmanship and estimating software are more important to success in your career.

There will always be another framework to learn.

Answer 5

The Art of Unit Testing - Roy Osherove
Design Patterns in C# - Steven Metsker (C#) / Head First Design Patterns (Java) - Elisabeth Freeman, Eric Freeman,Bert Bates, Kathy Sierra
Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction - Steve McConnell

Answer 6

These aren't programming books per se, but I'd recommend "The Mythical Man Month" and "Peopleware". When you get out in the real world, chances are good you won't know how a software project should be run, and there are plenty of bosses out there that will take advantage of that fact. Reading these books won't give you your manager's experience, but they'll give you a better idea of when they're doing something dumb or trying to put something past you.

And believe me when I say that learning to "manage up" is a programming skill. A bad manager is the single biggest threat to your programming skill there is. Even if you don't learn to get your way with them, you'll at least know when you're in a bad situation.

Answer 7

For the job, some of the first things that are not taught in school that a developer is going to have to get comfortable with are:

• Unit Testing
• Version Control
• Project Automation (CI, etc.)

Fortunately, there's the Pragmatic Starter Kit. It was a huge help when I started and it's by no means the "if you only read 3 books, read these 3" but if you're going to read a whole bunch in your career, I'd suggest starting with these 3, just to get it out of the way.

Covers:

Answer 8

I found very useful to give three types of books. I'm assuming you target C#, but you can find the corresponding book in almost any technology:

• One more "reference like" book like C# in Depth.
• One more "framework related" book like CLR Via C#.
• One more "methodology related" book like Practice of an Agile Developer.

We can use an analogy and compare with learning a spoken language:

• The first one helps with syntax
• The second with vocabulary and usage
• The third helps to know what to say... and when... and to whom... ;)

They are all essential to me.

Answer 9

Get him The Bug by Ellen Ullman. I've rarely read such a vivid rendition of the life of a developer... Plenty of lessons to learn in the book, and it's not one of those dry technical tome, it's actually fiction.

Answer 10

Hrm:

• Code Complete, it is the Bible of software development
• Rapid Software, you're going to question a lot of decisions your management makes and you're going to wonder what they're doing right or wrong. It's good to question everything but since software management is so unintuitive this guide provides you with a more level understanding.
• Refactoring, Martin Fowler has never done me wrong so far. You'll have to iterate a lot. Best to learn how to do it correctly.

Answer 11

Clean Code has already been mentioned in other posts. I'd like to add Interface Oriented Design: With Patterns . It teaches how to think in terms of interfaces and not actual implementations. In the end making your code more flexible and maintainable. Also, The Art of Unit Testing is one of the best books on unit testing that has simple and practical examples. It teaches you why and not just the how.

Answer 12

I would recommend Code to Developer by Mike Gunderloy.

Some of the technology references (VS 2003) in the book are a little bit dated, but I specifically remember this book as being my main introduction to concepts like source control, defensive programming, bug tracking, etc - all of the stuff that they didn't teach me in school.

Answer 13

My answer is very different, it could be totally wrong :-)

I consider that College graduates should first have a strong foundation before they move to the finer aspects of SW Engg. Also in my experience a lot of graduates come very unprepared to the real world.

1. Continue reading and re reading Cormen. If you are done with it migrate to "The Art of Computer Programming" by Knuth. Read and re read these for an year or two :-)

2. Pick up one book on Operating System internals. "Unix internals" by Steve P Date is a good book. It will take an year or two to digest everything and be a champ on Unix.

3. Pick up Code complete. The book helps you decide at what standards you want to develop the code you write.

I would also advocate picking up a fourth book on TCP/IP or just plain networking whatever suits you.