I have enjoyed Kent Beck’s teachings in the past and this book is no exception. The ‘tidyings’ are relatively thin but the theory sections are redeemiI have enjoyed Kent Beck’s teachings in the past and this book is no exception. The ‘tidyings’ are relatively thin but the theory sections are redeeming. However, it was slightly disappointing to see hand drawn images, lots of intermittent blank pages, no code examples, no code repository to go with it, no exercises. Also, the only way to get my hands on this book was through O’Reilly (print or PDF), and the value to money ratio as well as the perceived amount of effort put into writing this book felt off-putting. Thus the 4 stars. Still, there’s value in it and I enjoyed the concept of ‘tidyings’ as ‘gateway refactorings’....more
Lovely little book. Call a spade a spade. Understand the human element behind all AI that is built and hyped. Understand that all AI systems are ultimLovely little book. Call a spade a spade. Understand the human element behind all AI that is built and hyped. Understand that all AI systems are ultimately a direct reflection of the choices of the humans who built them. Understand that it's all A and not so much I....more
A must read for every developer. The lessons can be applied not only to open source but also to any closed source proprietary team because ultimately A must read for every developer. The lessons can be applied not only to open source but also to any closed source proprietary team because ultimately we are all managing software. Coming back to open source, the book stands out because it goes above and beyond the 'how to' and talks about 'why' as well as how to do it sustainably. A quick read for experienced devs because most of the tech aspects are easy to skim through, and a great read because it has potential to cause a paradigm shift in many....more
To review this book, one must... first... review this book... Recursion jokes aside, this one was a gem. Working through the book rather than just reaTo review this book, one must... first... review this book... Recursion jokes aside, this one was a gem. Working through the book rather than just reading it is time-consuming, but that time spent is a huge investment in oneself. What I loved about this book is that the author took the pains to add visual interfaces (albeit plain-text) into the working examples. This additional effort better demonstrates every step of the recursive algorithms. I found that to be very instructive and fulfilling. The projects take the book a notch beyond basic CS. The JavaScript examples were a great addition because there are entirely too many Python books out there. Finally, remember to finish this book... before you can... finish this book. All right, I'll stop now....more
Short, sweet, and complete. Nice to have a centralized coverage of this ever important topic. Took off one star because it's not all that original, anShort, sweet, and complete. Nice to have a centralized coverage of this ever important topic. Took off one star because it's not all that original, and borrows heavily from other classics in the literature such as Code Complete, Clean Code, Refactoring, the Pragmatic Programmer, and the like. Does provide some good examples and unified guidelines though, so I appreciate the effort....more
Thoroughly enjoyed it. What fertility in imagining projects out a wide range of scientific, mathematical, and financial realms. What thoroughness in sThoroughly enjoyed it. What fertility in imagining projects out a wide range of scientific, mathematical, and financial realms. What thoroughness in setting up the scope and expectations of those projects. What completeness in the implementation details. Got a lot out of this one. Sat on it for a good bit - nay, worked with it for a good bit of time. Highly recommended....more
Tools are great things. Great tools are even greater. My current role involves spending several hours a week inside IntelliJ IDEA, working with Java, Tools are great things. Great tools are even greater. My current role involves spending several hours a week inside IntelliJ IDEA, working with Java, Maven, Spring Boot, gRPC, and Protocol Buffers. I am so glad this book was written on time, that I found it on time, and that I took the time to go through it. IntelliJ has gotten more and more capable and has fast become the industry standard for enterprise Java development -- I knew that. And yet I didn't know just how capable it is and how much I was about to learn from this beautifully and amply detailed and illustrated book. Highly recommended to anybody in a similar situation....more
A good overview of all that Spring can do and more. Got a lot out of this. The author clearly knows Spring in and out and enjoys talking about it, walA good overview of all that Spring can do and more. Got a lot out of this. The author clearly knows Spring in and out and enjoys talking about it, walking through most important aspects of the ecosystem with use cases and examples. On the flip side, the book would be better with examples that actually worked. A newcomer to spring is likely to be frustrated because many of the pieces don't actually work and the errata online didn't help much. It is challenging to maintain working code with ever-evolving libraries and frameworks (Spring 6 is already out) though, and the Spring ecosystem is so huge that I don't think a much better job could be done in a book. Maybe I should've abandoned this version and picked up the Spring 6 edition. Still good to learn the lay of the land. Spring does a lot of 'voodoo' behind the scenes in projects e.g. autoconfiguration just by adding a dependency, implementing push for message processing just by adding an annotation, etc., so it's important to have a general understanding of the technology, and the book delivers on that. At the very least, after reading this you know what you don't know and what to look up. Some sections could be written better, e.g. the Reactive Spring section felt like a lot came out of nowhere fast....more
This is neither a literary nor a software tutorial masterpiece, nor is it self-contained. It's gnarly, flawed, rough around the edges. It intermittentThis is neither a literary nor a software tutorial masterpiece, nor is it self-contained. It's gnarly, flawed, rough around the edges. It intermittently mixes up its own macros with standard library functions. Some stuff is just laziness - terms like "the CPP" and "cb" are not bothered to be defined even once (although they're self-evident to an experienced engineer). There's duplication all around in the code. The CNaming_style for functions is like a splinter in the eye. The book can be polished drastically. And yet, and yet it does make one work (if one decides to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty), has (mostly) fully working code, and one ends up picking up experience and knowledge nuggets along the way, e.g. fuzzing, Makefiles, and such. I'd have gone for 3.5 or even 4 stars but some of the typos and missing bits made life harder for me than it needed to be, the final few chapters were extremely rushed, and to top all that off I somehow lost access to the accompanying videos! It was a rough time, but I'm glad I went through it....more
A good intro but I felt like I often had to 'fill in the blanks' myself.A good intro but I felt like I often had to 'fill in the blanks' myself....more
My word did I get a workout from this book. I got my hands dirty and picked up a trick or two along the way. Very comprehensive. Covers a lot of (pretMy word did I get a workout from this book. I got my hands dirty and picked up a trick or two along the way. Very comprehensive. Covers a lot of (pretty much all the) ground. The workouts are simple but the 'beyond the workout', the informational blurbs, and the links all come together pretty admirably....more
I kept oscillating between 3 and 4 stars for this book. It mostly reads like introductory essays on a TON of topics, without diving too deep down anytI kept oscillating between 3 and 4 stars for this book. It mostly reads like introductory essays on a TON of topics, without diving too deep down anything. Some of the content reads like fluff. Most of the examples and diagrams are simplistic. There are other minor issues e.g. introducing UML later in the book whilst already having used UML diagrams before. That said, it is quite comprehensive in its breadth, and the concrete hands-on examples in the book redeemed the book in my opinion. I'd still change the title to 'Hey, you've been coding for 2 years but want a taste of the next level?' before recommending it because I don't think it's quite at a 'pro' level as it stands....more
Lovely book. I took my time with it and went really hands on, which was worth it. Pytest is undoubtedly the best testing framework for Python out therLovely book. I took my time with it and went really hands on, which was worth it. Pytest is undoubtedly the best testing framework for Python out there right now, and the books goes pretty deep into it, covering all kinds of aspects. While nobody can remember all the options and capabilities, the docs and the plugins will come in pretty handy as I strive to make this library a more regular part of my Python projects....more
I s'pose a title such as 'if two dozen well-known authors wrote JavaScript' wouldn't be as catchy, but that's what the book demonstrates. It was shortI s'pose a title such as 'if two dozen well-known authors wrote JavaScript' wouldn't be as catchy, but that's what the book demonstrates. It was short, it was enjoyable, it was different. I confess I didn't pay too much attention to the code, but the author's knowledge of literature as well as JavaScript is pretty deep and unique. I didn't care too much for the red on light-red typesetting - it was too gaudy for my taste. Recommended....more
I read the first version from the same author several years ago, which helped me set up my first tmux configuration. Said config became a daily part oI read the first version from the same author several years ago, which helped me set up my first tmux configuration. Said config became a daily part of my workflow. I am glad I picked up the new version - it helped me remember several tidbits that I'd forgotten, learn a few new things, and refresh my configuration and workflow....more
Pros: (i) I felt like I was in good company (ii) I learned a thing or two that I didn't know before (iii) nice bite-sized chunks of wisdom. Cons: (i) Pros: (i) I felt like I was in good company (ii) I learned a thing or two that I didn't know before (iii) nice bite-sized chunks of wisdom. Cons: (i) Not every chapter is necessarily Java-specific (ii) Slightly outdated (iii) Easy to find contradictions, e.g. get certified vs do not bother getting certified. All in all, it was worth it....more
I should have gone for the other, bigger, real-er books on the subject. I understand it's a pocket reference, and I appreciate the effort, but it's noI should have gone for the other, bigger, real-er books on the subject. I understand it's a pocket reference, and I appreciate the effort, but it's not a very self contained piece of work because it severely lacks examples. As such, I couldn't get much out of this little book other than motivation to read the other books because sed and awk are powerful. A pocket reference _with examples_ would have been much more appreciated....more
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