This summer I’ve been reading The Pragmatic Programmer by Andy Hunt and David Thomas. And there is nothing else to do but to join the masses of appraisers. It’s a really good read. The stuff these boys introduce and advocates is good. The only thing I really found my self disagreeing to was the part about writing your own domain specific compiler for the domain you’re working in (I’m referring to the Domain Languages section in Chapter 2), seems to me there can be a maintenance trap there. But that’s just a gut feeling and nothing empiric. To be totally honest I don’t have enough knowledge about the subject. Is it similar to Domain Specific Languages (DSL) that’s buzzing now? How does it compare to Domain Models? I don’t really know at this point so I have to find out.

Reading this book something else hit me. A good (computer) book is not all about the subject on witch it elaborates, it’s a lot more. This book sucked me in and I really wanted to read on. When I was done with it, I picked up a new reed: CLR via C# by Jeffrey Richter. And man, nothing bad about Jeffrey, but it was like running into a brick wall. Ok, the subject is a lot more technical than that of the pragmatic programmer. But it was also the language, use of humor (or lack of it) and the physical size. The Pragmatic Programmer is about 300 pages and CLR via C# is pushing on 700 pages. Man, my shoulder hurts carrying that around in my lap top bag. Last summer I read Head first Design Patterns that also was almost 700 pages, but they put a lot of energy in making it fun to read. So if you’re writing a book that’s >= 400 pages, you’re either a really good writer or you split it up in multiple books. That is if you want me to read it from cover to cover. And that’s just every authors wish, isn’t it… 😉

Ok, time to sum up.

• The Pragmatic Programmer is an awesome book
• CLR via C# is not a fun read so far, tough probably packed with good info
• The style of the writer(s) is important. How you tell the story….
• It’s late, god night