Book cover of A Philosophy of Software Design

Book description

This book addresses the topic of software design: how to decompose complex software systems into modules (such as classes and methods) that can be implemented relatively independently. The book first introduces the fundamental problem in software design, which is managing complexity. It then discusses philosophical issues about how to approach…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked A Philosophy of Software Design as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I have to be honest here: when I was reading this book on a trip to New York, I found myself quite surprised because I had seen so many praises for this book, yet I did not particularly agree with most of the topics I was reading about. In particular, I found several points that contradicted those in Clean Code and Code Complete.

I know there’s a debate going on between the authors on a distribution list, but besides some of these points on which I respectfully disagree with the author, I can see is a book of immense…

I knew how to code when I finished school, or at least I thought I did. What I didn’t know was how to think about programs and how to structure the bigger picture. Over time and with practice, I learned how to think about design, but the journey was fraught and painful. I wish I had this book when I started out.

Coming to the book later in my career, I may have intuitively known a lot of what Ousterhout covers, but I’ve never seen it put so elegantly. I found myself nodding along and now often point coders at…

From Christopher's list on books for coders shelf.

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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