Content and opinions

Thee parts, three views how what debugging actually is.

The first is the pragmatic debugging: reproduce your bug, diagnose it, fix it, and make it definitely go away. Each step is actually not mandatory done by a debugger, and in fact the book advocates the TDD approach. Making it go away is in fact thinking about what this bug meant: was it a design issue, a feature, and if it is a bug, how can all the consequences be erased?

The second is managing your bugs. The main action is to have a bug database that is healthy, meaning it must be taken care of. As the book is about a pragmatic approach, one may think the advice are pure logic, and that no one would not follow them. If this book serie has so much success, it is because those advice are in fact not that obvious for everyone!

Finally, the first two parts are in fact the theory. Practice is always a little bit different. What do you do of leagacy releases? Of third-parties libraries? Of bugs that you need to fix in a hurry in parallel? Tests is another facet of software closelly related to debugging. Once you’ve debugged something, you want your tests to assert that it won’t come again unless you see it. How can you be sure that you will have enough information when debugging your software? Finally, there are some pitfalls in software that hinder debugging. As those anti-patterns, this part is about concrete actions that must be implemented in every software project.

Conclusion

Pragmatic Bookshelf has the habit of having a lot of experience feedback in their books, and this one is not an exception. Sadly, there are mainly present in the first part of the book. Still, it’s not the main value of the book. I think the main value is placing debugging in the new landscape of agile software. Too many times, the word debugging is missing in agile books, replaced by only testing. They are the two sides of the same coin. The last part has its virtues as well. Debugging is not a simple workflow, there are differences for each software project.

As usual, the publisher has an excellent book on a practical subject that answers practical questions on debugging.

Debug It!: Find, Repair, and Prevent Bugs in Your Code
Price: $29.88

Debug It!: Find, Repair, and Prevent Bugs in Your Code (Pragmatic Programmers) (Paperback)
by Paul Butcher
ISBN: 193435628X

Price: USD 23.07
38 used & new available from USD 12.94

| 4.5 | 8

Content and opinions

The book consists of a lot of pieces of advice (the brand of Pragmatic Bookshelf, the publisher), not too many so as not to be bored at the end.

It starts with the field (i.e. language and technology) you may focus on. Either you want to be at the edge, or rely on a mature technology. It depends, but there are some specifics you should know if you want to bloom.
The second aspect/part is dedicated to your network: how do you get information and how do you give it? Who should you be working with? All these aspects help you be the best at what you do.
When you actually work, there are some advice to make you really essential to your company: speak your mind, read the leader’s one, make your job profitabe to your company, …
The fourth part is about marketing. It is perhaps surprising, but you have to sell yourself. You may be the best in your field, have an excellent network and are essential to your company, if it doesn’t know it, you’re screwed. Sell yourself, this will be also great if you want/have to switch jobs.
Your carrier path is not clear with all the technology changes, with the current economical situation. You have to ready yourself to this, which is what the last part is all about: prospects and your future.

Each time the chapter is clear and goes straight to the point. The content is also explained with music metaphors, as the author is also a musician. Other well-known people give their opinion on some chapters of the book, each time shedding a new light on our own situation.

Conclusion

Pragmatic advice starts with obvious advice. If the content seems rather obvious (especially if you want to be better at your job, you may have applied a lot of the pieces of advice of the book), it’s always good to have it reminded, as we tend to not see the forest of the trees.

The main idea is to be at the edge. Learn from others, listen to the trends and the people who make them, and act accordingly.

The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development
Price: $20.47

The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development (Pragmatic Life) (Paperback)
by Chad Fowler
ISBN: 1934356344

Price: USD 16.29
45 used & new available from USD 13.95

| 4.5 | 38

Content and opinions

The book has three main parts: a general introduction to Distributed Version Control Systems (DVCS) and Git, using Git everyday and what is called administration.

The introduction covers the different choices made by Git relative to Version Control. Without the actual commands, it is a gentle introduction, and if the choices does not suit you, well, you can walk away here. Its mainly an introduction to DVCS, but with a Git biais. If you find the book in a real library, you can browse this single chapter first. Then, another chapter helps you install the software package on Linux, OS X or even Windows.

The actual fun part comes next. How do you actually use Git to add and commit changes? Git has some some specifics in that matter compared to Bazaar or Mercurial. What are branches and how can they be used, how they should be used? What is the purpose of history and how it can be changed (fundamentaly changed)? Git is one of the few VCS that can actually rewrite history. There are of course enough warnings because this can be dangerous. Once history is known, it can be shared through remote repositories, and then how should a repository be organized? Finally some additional tools are presented. It’s really easy to follow the evolution, and it draws a small picture of the commands you will use every day.

The last part is abut migrating from CVS and SVN, and then how to set up a Git server. The connection between the commands in SVN and CVS is also described when you switch to Git. Of course, you will need more than CVS and SVN knowlegde to really use Git to its maximum power, the book is not about the theory of VCS, only about how to use Git. You will find a good introduction, but you will have to learn by other means the complete philosophy behind DVCS.

Conclusion

I didn’t know much about Git before reading the book, and the approach proposed here is efficient (although simple): from the basics to advanced workflows. You need to know a little about version control, as the Git specific parts are well explained in the book.

Pragmatic Version Control Using Git (Pragmatic Starter Kit) (Paperback)
by Travis Swicegood
ISBN: 1934356158

Price: USD 23.07
46 used & new available from USD 16.00

| 4.5 | 20