false 32475 3 In the 80s, Tracy Kidder's <i>The Soul of a New Machine</i> attempted to define the story of the development of a minicomputer: from the new science to the business and nascent culture of electronic hardware and software that was characteristic of that time. Scott Rosenberg's <I>Dreaming in Code</I> draws on Kidder's model as it attempts to document the state of software, the Internet, and everything circa 2006 through the lens of Chandler, an as-yet-unfinished software application for the management of personal information.<p> The Chandler project--driven by Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development and main author of its 1-2-3 spreadsheet, and later co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation--isn't the primary point of <I>Dreaming in Code</I>, though reading about software people and their social behavior is at least as interesting as reading about that of meerkats or monkeys. Rather, Chandler is a rhetorical device with which Rosenberg takes on the big questions: How do software development teams work (or not)? Why does the reuse of software modules rarely work altogether correctly? Does open-source development by volunteers on the Internet lead to innovation or just insanely bifurcated chaos? Chandler helps his readers think more clearly about all of these issues; however, "answers" to these questions are, of course, not to be had, which is one of his points.<p> The problem with books about technical subjects that aspire to appeal to a general audience, particularly computers and software, is that such subjects are so far outside the realm of familiarity of most people that the prose bogs down in analogy and metaphor. Rosenberg manages to avoid too much of that and deliver a readable account of software development and culture. <i>--David Wall</I> 1217032 16 1 2007 Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software total:313|5:47|4:122|3:114|2:25|1:5| 313 1120 516 83 4 8 false false Sat May 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat May 02 15:52:33 -0700 2009 Sun May 03 05:33:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 2 false false Fri Jun 20 11:15:23 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 20 11:25:31 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Wed Dec 05 02:20:42 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 05 02:36:30 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 03 18:54:37 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 03 18:58:39 -0700 2007
It was refreshing to...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 30 18:21:26 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 30 18:44:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Oct 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 13:02:00 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 13:09:41 -0700 2009 1
It's not about coding.

Certainly there's a lot about coding in it, but it's about working with people, attempting to solve unsolvable pr...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 30 09:41:40 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 30 09:47:29 -0700 2009
The story, still ongoing, of a programming team attempting to write an 'ultimate' piece of software. Not like some sci-fi book, tho. Not some soft...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Aug 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 20:34:30 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 17:09:03 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 15:34:04 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 04 17:46:34 -0700 2009 Dreaming in Code. Fortunately "the kind of difficulty software presents serves as a welcome contrast to the perplexing, unyielding frustrations of what geeks call our 'wetware' lives. It i...more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue May 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 14:32:21 -0700 2009 Tue May 05 13:43:04 -0700 2009
I most enjoyed the chapter "Engin...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Apr 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 11 11:01:58 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 11 11:15:05 -0700 2009
What was truly fascinating was watching all the pitfalls the...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Aug 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 16:04:22 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 19:07:29 -0700 2009
I'm about 1/2 way in; good book. It's worth a read if you're in the business, a storehouse of all the things you already know, but put togeth...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jan 31 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 31 13:59:46 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 31 14:20:03 -0800 2009
The book tells (part of) the story of the Chandler Project (http://www.chandlerproject.org), a software project that wanted to create PIM software that would do such herculean tasks like "l...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jul 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 29 08:32:31 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 21:42:25 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Aug 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 05 18:09:02 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 18:51:56 -0700 2009
I'm about 1/2 way in; good book. It's worth a read if you're in the business, a storehouse of all the things you already know, but put togeth...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Oct 31 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 15 08:16:48 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 30 23:55:31 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Aug 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 06 10:41:16 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 14 22:49:06 -0700 2009
Update after reading it
Great book! If you want to understand what us software engineers do a...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 06 12:13:36 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 06 12:50:46 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Jun 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun May 18 14:36:16 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 09 11:16:29 -0700 2008 ----------------

This book was given to me as a present last Christmas with "Beautiful Code". Usually books about software engineering as a process bore me, most texts treat the subject dryly and are more about advocating the author's own process or belief...more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Apr 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 09 19:37:22 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 09 19:37:22 -0700 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=32475