Book review by Ted Felix
A classic. This encyclopedic work gathers together everything you've ever suspected into one easy-to-read volume. Every software developer should have a well-read copy of this on their bookshelf. For beginners, it is essential, but take your time as it covers a lot of ground. For intermediate programmers, this will open your eyes. For experts, this is the book to use as a starting point for research into all the various areas of software development. The bibliography is impressive. McConnell's focus is on software construction although he does touch on all aspects of development. This book got me reading again.
This book recommends reading two other books that I have found to be very important: Larman's Applying UML and Patterns and Fowler's Refactoring. These two are "must-reads" along with Code Complete.
Interesting aside: McConnell cites Walston and Felix 1977, A Method of Programming Measurement and Estimation, saying that programmers who work in their native programming language are three times as productive. C. P. Felix is my father.
Read from 9/9/2004 to 11/16/2004.
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