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Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think (Theory In Practice)
by
Andy Oram ,
Greg Wilson , Jon Bentley, Brian W. Kernighan, Charles Petzold, Douglas Crockford, Henry S. Warren Jr., Ashish Gulhati
,
more…
How do the experts solve difficult problems in software development? In this unique and insightful book, leading computer scientists offer case studies that reveal how they found unusual, carefully designed solutions to high-profile projects. You will be able to look over the shoulder of major coding and design experts to see problems through their eyes.
This is not simply...more
This is not simply...more
Paperback, 563 pages
Published
July 3rd 2007
by O'Reilly Media
(first published June 26th 2007)
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Beautiful Code is another non-animal O'Reilly volume, with high aspirations. As the sleeve submits: "How do the experts solve difficult problems in software development?" If this book (or any) had been able to have answered that question, reading it would be a head-spinning experience indeed.
The book's chapters are each the domain of a different prominent software developer or writer, and several are elegant outlines of what is unarguably some of the best code out there - Apache Webserver, Quick...more
The book's chapters are each the domain of a different prominent software developer or writer, and several are elegant outlines of what is unarguably some of the best code out there - Apache Webserver, Quick...more
In Yukihiro Matsmoto's chapter on Ruby he says "Most programs are not write-once ... it is therefore more important by far for humans to be able to understand the program than it is for the computer." That's the essence of beautiful code to me. Unfortunately the book is littered with code that's clever, but not beautiful. There are plenty of chapters that are neither... exercises in what the author hacked together in Perl on their holiday. It's still a fairly interesting read, and I'd rate it mo...more
An enjoyable book, but really mis-titled. A more descriptive title would have been:
"Leading programmers describe code they've worked on and are proud of, and then awkwardly wrap some discussion of 'beauty' around it."
However, that's a good book too, and this was. I liked the cross-disiplinary flair, and the ideas that were presented as 'beauty'. It's not a good 'skills' book, but it's a good 'mindsets' book.
"Leading programmers describe code they've worked on and are proud of, and then awkwardly wrap some discussion of 'beauty' around it."
However, that's a good book too, and this was. I liked the cross-disiplinary flair, and the ideas that were presented as 'beauty'. It's not a good 'skills' book, but it's a good 'mindsets' book.
The idea behind the book is sound: experienced programmers tell you about how they solved complicated programs and unique and efficient ways. In practice, the book reads more like a series of success stories, and it almost feels like the programmers are gloating rather than teaching at times. The useful information contained in this book isn't really anything I haven't carried away from other books in a much clearer context. This might be an interesting book if you like the historical factor of...more
This book is sort of a mixed bag. On the one hand, Matsumoto's outstanding essay on lightweight languages links the two words in the title in a clear, creative, and general way ; on the other, Patzer's piece on business integration through REST is dry and basically just full of code. (I'm not trying to pick on him specifically ; there are many others in the book like it.) Somewhere in between are Dean and Ghemawat's groundbreaking MapReduce paper, an interesting-in-its-simplicity Kernighan essay...more
The good, the bad, and the "ow my head hurts".
This is not a light book. It is not an easy book. It is not a book that I would recommend to those uninitiated into the rather painful world of computer science, rather than software engineering.
The book asked leading programmers to contribute commentaries on what they considered butiful code, and why they consider it beautiful. Some of the authors have managed to succeed in this (dare I use the word?) beautifully, understanding that their audience i...more
This is not a light book. It is not an easy book. It is not a book that I would recommend to those uninitiated into the rather painful world of computer science, rather than software engineering.
The book asked leading programmers to contribute commentaries on what they considered butiful code, and why they consider it beautiful. Some of the authors have managed to succeed in this (dare I use the word?) beautifully, understanding that their audience i...more
Jul 04, 2011
Noah Sussman
marked it as to-read
While I didn't finish the whole book, I have read Douglas Crockford's essay on writing a JavaScript parser in JavaScript, and Tim Bray on using regular expressions to extract data from log files.
The Crockford essay is the first article I've ever read on parsing. It's not the first article I've seen on the subject, just the first one I've managed to get through all the way. Crockford's a really good explainer in general, plus the familiarity of the language helped a lot. Now I actually understand...more
The Crockford essay is the first article I've ever read on parsing. It's not the first article I've seen on the subject, just the first one I've managed to get through all the way. Crockford's a really good explainer in general, plus the familiarity of the language helped a lot. Now I actually understand...more
A collection of essays from programmers, some about beautiful aspects of code, some about how a programmer thought about a problem, and some about whatever aspect of programming the writer felt like writing about. Royalties from the book are donated to Amnesty International, which explains why the theme isn't the driving force behind this collection.
This is not a book for beginning-level programmers. Mastery of the fundamentals, such as Code Complete, The Pragmatic Programmer, and their ilk, are...more
This is not a book for beginning-level programmers. Mastery of the fundamentals, such as Code Complete, The Pragmatic Programmer, and their ilk, are...more
I've read a few chapters from this book so far (not sequentially) and found them to be quick and interesting analyses of how programmers tackle and resolve some pretty complex problems. Definitely not for the average reader but you probably know if this is the kind of book you'll enjoy.
I read select chapters from this book but plan to go back and hit them all. Each chapter is from a different author so some are better than others but overall there's a lot of good stuff to be learned from the programming designs and ideas walked-through in this book.
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It is not a book that tells you how to write beautiful code, but is a book that will broadly expand your knowledge on code design by analysing several cases studies and how they have been solved in a beautiful way according to the solver perspective.
I didn't quite like it. It's fun to read things related to people you've worked with, but most examples are labored, longish and really not that beautiful. A few of them are worth reading on their own, but they don't justify buying the book, I my opinion.
Not as good as I had hoped, although there are a few gems between the covers. There's a lot of actual code in this book though, so be prepared to do some serious reading and thinking should you pick it up. Overall, it was fun to read, but I'm not sure how much I took away.
A collection of 30+ essays on various definitions of what constitutes 'Beautiful' code. Some of the essays are outright brilliant; none is mediocre. One of them helped me break through a programming job I was working on.
The book could be going slowly at some points. Some essays are particularly hard to read/understand. But overall I definitely think that this book will make you a better programmer.
The book could be going slowly at some points. Some essays are particularly hard to read/understand. But overall I definitely think that this book will make you a better programmer.
The chapters of this book are totally independent, and very hit-or-miss. Overall, it was pretty interesting.
Sectioned into 33 short chapters, each differing in authorship, the book covers a diverse range of programming topics. "Leading Programmers Explain How They Think" was an apt choice of subtitle. This tome is geared towards one who actually uses code to solve problems, practicing developers who are still improving their craft and the like; for others it is likely to be an extremely trying exercise in patience and ultimately not very rewarding.
In a way reading this book is like allowing someone to...more
In a way reading this book is like allowing someone to...more
Looking to other great code that is totally unapplicable for me, is boring!
Had high hopes, it did not deliver.
A book every programmer should read
It's a real hodgepodge.
Reading...hoping for inspiration. Am currently out-of-love with coding, which happens periodically.
Awesome. Very good!
The idea of this book is excellent since many programmers need to think more about how to build beautiful (not necessarily clever) code. However, not all of the chapters really strike rise to the standard I expected. Overall, it's a nice book to have and to read, but several of the chapters could have been removed, so read the ones that interest you, skip the ones that don't.
Definitely interesting to read about the different approaches great programmers have taken in solving interesting and difficult problems.
There were a few chapters that seemed to drag on with pages of PERL and Unix 'C' code; however, the regular expression matcher, computational geometry and JS parsing chapters are worth the price alone.
There were a few chapters that seemed to drag on with pages of PERL and Unix 'C' code; however, the regular expression matcher, computational geometry and JS parsing chapters are worth the price alone.
There are some great essays here and some long and winding, less interesting, essays here. I read them out of order and sporadically and enjoyed the book, but there was a part of me that was disappointed. Perhaps there's no way to avoid too high of expectations with a title like this. But overall, certainly worth a read.
Some very nice chapters, others below the quality of an average blog post. I guess if you ask (for example) the inventor of a programming language for a chapter it's hard to say "that's crap" in editing. Anyways, poor job in selecting the chapters, could easily be 100 pages.
starts strong, but not all examples stack up to it. seems to lack clear focus, with some essays being about specific code that is beautiful and others being vague hand-waving opinion pieces. worth reading.
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A great collection of essays, don't read it straight through, pick out authors you know or topics that are interesting to you and don't feel bad if you don't read every single essay.
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