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Becoming a Better Programmer: A Handbook for People Who Care About Code
If you’re passionate about programming and want to get better at it, you’ve come to the right source. Code Craft author Pete Goodliffe presents a collection of useful techniques and approaches to the art and craft of programming that will help boost your career and your well-being. Goodliffe presents sound advice that he’s learned in 15 years of professional programming. The book’s standalone chapters span the range of a software developer’s life―dealing with code, learning the trade, and improving performance―with no language or industry bias. Whether you’re a seasoned developer, a neophyte professional, or a hobbyist, you’ll find valuable tips in five independent
362 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
August 29, 2015
The title seems pretty appropriate, this book tries to talk about every subject related to becoming a better programmer.
I felt the book was a bit too superficial and overly preachy. If I've bought a book that says "becoming a better programmer", it should assume that I'm self-motivated enough to want to improve as a programmer. But I felt that instead of helping me on that, it was just rehashing things I already knew and saying things that I wish my peers would know.
It seems the kind of book that folks who read it won't find anything new, and folks who would learn from it won't read it.
The content is not bad, most of the advice is solid, there were a few chapters that had interesting insights and the quotes were pretty cool.
But if you've already read The Pragmatic Programmer, Working Effectively with Legacy Code and Clean Code, you can skip this one. And if you haven't, read those instead of this one: they go much deeper and without a doubt will make you a better programmer.
I felt the book was a bit too superficial and overly preachy. If I've bought a book that says "becoming a better programmer", it should assume that I'm self-motivated enough to want to improve as a programmer. But I felt that instead of helping me on that, it was just rehashing things I already knew and saying things that I wish my peers would know.
It seems the kind of book that folks who read it won't find anything new, and folks who would learn from it won't read it.
The content is not bad, most of the advice is solid, there were a few chapters that had interesting insights and the quotes were pretty cool.
But if you've already read The Pragmatic Programmer, Working Effectively with Legacy Code and Clean Code, you can skip this one. And if you haven't, read those instead of this one: they go much deeper and without a doubt will make you a better programmer.
March 28, 2016
A lot of authors seem think they can gather together what is essentially a ton of short blog posts and compile them into a book that will become as noteworthy and reference-able as The Pragmatic Programmer. Maybe The Pragmatic Programmer is also really just a collection of simple blog posts, and the only reason I liked it so much and disliked this book was because I read them at different points in my career. When I read Pragmatic, I needed to read it, and it was very influential for me, and when I read Becoming a Better Programmer, I'd already learned and started doing most of the things in the book because I've been at this gig too long. Maybe if the books were swapped, I'd love this book and roll my eyes at the basic-ness of Pragmatic.
But as it happens, that's not the timing of when I read these books, and so for me Pragmatic Programmer was life-changing, and this book was an incredibly long and tedious collection of what I'd argue is common knowledge.
The book is probably fine, and I might even recommend it to a newcomer, but it just didn't do much for me. I'm not trying to say I'm above it, this isn't me tooting my own horn, I just genuinely think that there's nothing particularly insightful or noteworthy at play here. Just a standard collection of common programmer wisdom that anyone who has been working for a few years knows. I frankly found the book a slog to get through, and I kept hoping I'd eventually happen upon something worth bookmarking, quoting, or highlighting, but I just never did.
I think this is a definite "your mileage may vary" book. There are a lot of positive reviews from career newbies who clearly found it to be, for them, what I found Pragmatic Programmer to be for myself. So I don't know, it's probably worth reading if you're fairly new to programming, or perhaps unsure of yourself or suffering from imposter syndrome.
But as it happens, that's not the timing of when I read these books, and so for me Pragmatic Programmer was life-changing, and this book was an incredibly long and tedious collection of what I'd argue is common knowledge.
The book is probably fine, and I might even recommend it to a newcomer, but it just didn't do much for me. I'm not trying to say I'm above it, this isn't me tooting my own horn, I just genuinely think that there's nothing particularly insightful or noteworthy at play here. Just a standard collection of common programmer wisdom that anyone who has been working for a few years knows. I frankly found the book a slog to get through, and I kept hoping I'd eventually happen upon something worth bookmarking, quoting, or highlighting, but I just never did.
I think this is a definite "your mileage may vary" book. There are a lot of positive reviews from career newbies who clearly found it to be, for them, what I found Pragmatic Programmer to be for myself. So I don't know, it's probably worth reading if you're fairly new to programming, or perhaps unsure of yourself or suffering from imposter syndrome.
November 25, 2015
This book is all about the philosophical part of software development. It's a little bit of everything we read through the years, generalized in one book.
It's not a bad book, but it doesn't offer anything new to the table. If it's your first non-technical Software Development book, then you'll learn a bit of everything, but it's definitely not enough to replace the older books as `The Pragmatic Programmer`, `Code Complete` or `Clean Code`.
It's not a bad book, but it doesn't offer anything new to the table. If it's your first non-technical Software Development book, then you'll learn a bit of everything, but it's definitely not enough to replace the older books as `The Pragmatic Programmer`, `Code Complete` or `Clean Code`.
December 11, 2018
Os insights do livro, coisas que no dia-a-dia passamos despercebidos, fazem o livro ganhar 5 estrelas. Ele me ajudou a construir palestras e ajudar outros desenvolvedores. Obrigado lsdr!
November 29, 2017
Loved the colorful language used in the book. 'Nefarious', 'nectrotic', 'different tribes of C++ programmers', 'recognizable cadences', 'spit and polish', 'bake the tests into the compile/build/run process', 'listen to your test suite', 'code hooligans', 'the careless stitches between the code components beginning to tear', 'codesmith' are just a few. It's a joy to read for the language used alone, and the tips (even though if you're a mid-level programmer you've probably seen all the advice before) just add to the overall value of the book. Tends to contradict itself a little a couple times - test coverage of production code seems to be one of the issues where conflicting advice is provided. I also didn't get much out of Part II - it felt more like repetitive rhetoric, but it still laid out the entire lifecycle of a software project. A bit lacking in substance compared to classics like The Pragmatic Programmer; a good read otherwise.
January 4, 2019
Najbardziej intrygujący w tej książce jest spis treści. Niestety, autor nie doskoczył do postawionej sobie poprzeczki. Książka przeładowana banałami, pozbawiona praktycznych przykładów, bardzo szeroka tematycznie, a przez to płytka. Chociaż jest tu nieco interesujących rad i myśli, nie oferuje żadnej sensownej metody wdrażania zmian, przez co pozostanie zbiorem wysoko abstrakcyjnych rad o zerowym przełożeniu na praktykę.
January 18, 2018
Pretty much what the titles says, including advice both about the technical as well as the human and social aspects of becoming a better programmer. Some of this is pretty obvious, some if it is too superficial to be helpful (especially the more technical advice), but I do think there is quite a bit in here that can help juniors or help you with mentoring juniors.
July 6, 2018
The book offers nothing new to someone with a little experience as a programmer. I think it is best suited for beginners because it shows some of the basic best practices.
Altough I think if I have read it when I was starting my journey, this book would be a very good one.
Altough I think if I have read it when I was starting my journey, this book would be a very good one.
February 6, 2019
It’s ok. None of the advice is necessarily wrong it’s just super high level. This book could be good as a quick read for someone who hasn’t programmed much to at least enumerate the areas where they need to go deeper.
March 7, 2018
I found this book informative and entertaining. I read this while getting my programming degree and it helped me to do better on my assignments and gave tips that I'll carry into my future.
August 3, 2019
This book is more written for someone who is straight out of school. For senior developers I didn't think it brought very much to the table.
April 29, 2020
Easy reading. Valuable to understand perspectives
Really liked the approach of the book in describing human interaction issues and habits that lurk in code or any proyect.
Really liked the approach of the book in describing human interaction issues and habits that lurk in code or any proyect.
March 1, 2021
Well written and often entertaining, but the meat of the book is largely a restatement of the obvious.
June 16, 2021
Very good tips
November 1, 2017
A mixed bag.
The first part of this book focuses on coding advice, but it's not particularly concrete or actionable. The examples that are present are very C specific and I could only see it being useful for beginners. For example, it's full of sentences along the lines of "make sure to handle errors," "make sure you know how to use concurrency constructs," and "always employ sound engineering techniques that minimize the likelihood of unpleasant surprises." These are all correct, but a bit obvious and not particularly useful. It also repeats itself a lot, introducing TDD, KISS, and DRY principles in the first part, and then repeating them over and over and over again, but not in a new way that would make the message more sticky.
The other parts of the book focus more on the sociology, psychology, and philosophy of programming and are stronger, especially Part III ("Getting Personal") and Part V ("The People Pursuit"). The chapters about programmer ethics, continuous learning, and working with other great programmers are the high points. The writing style is fairly informal, with lots of attempts at humor, some of which miss, but a few others, especially The "Generic Manifesto" and the Hitchhiker's Guide satire, are great.
Some good quotes from the book:
An interesting and beneficial side effect of working with good coders is that you're far more likely to end up working with good code.
I conclude from what we've seen here that there are (at least) two levels to the ethical programming career: the mandate to "do no harm" is the base level, to not tread on people, or be involved in work that exploit others. Beyond this is a more involved ethical mantra: to only work on projects that provide sound social benefits, to specifically _make the world better_ with your talents, and to share knowledge in order to advance the program and craft.
Working with your programming language is a relationship you have to work at each day.
Being accountable to other programmers for the quality of your code will dramatically improve the quality of your coding.
The first part of this book focuses on coding advice, but it's not particularly concrete or actionable. The examples that are present are very C specific and I could only see it being useful for beginners. For example, it's full of sentences along the lines of "make sure to handle errors," "make sure you know how to use concurrency constructs," and "always employ sound engineering techniques that minimize the likelihood of unpleasant surprises." These are all correct, but a bit obvious and not particularly useful. It also repeats itself a lot, introducing TDD, KISS, and DRY principles in the first part, and then repeating them over and over and over again, but not in a new way that would make the message more sticky.
The other parts of the book focus more on the sociology, psychology, and philosophy of programming and are stronger, especially Part III ("Getting Personal") and Part V ("The People Pursuit"). The chapters about programmer ethics, continuous learning, and working with other great programmers are the high points. The writing style is fairly informal, with lots of attempts at humor, some of which miss, but a few others, especially The "Generic Manifesto" and the Hitchhiker's Guide satire, are great.
Some good quotes from the book:
An interesting and beneficial side effect of working with good coders is that you're far more likely to end up working with good code.
I conclude from what we've seen here that there are (at least) two levels to the ethical programming career: the mandate to "do no harm" is the base level, to not tread on people, or be involved in work that exploit others. Beyond this is a more involved ethical mantra: to only work on projects that provide sound social benefits, to specifically _make the world better_ with your talents, and to share knowledge in order to advance the program and craft.
Working with your programming language is a relationship you have to work at each day.
Being accountable to other programmers for the quality of your code will dramatically improve the quality of your coding.
January 25, 2015
This book is definitely fun and insightful at the same time, which makes up a devastating combo if you are that kind of developer that does care about what he delivers, that kind of professional that gets to work before everyone else because it’s not just about the money, it’s because I love what I do, that kind of guy that enjoys staying up until 5 am with his favorite text editor opened and a cup of warm coffee next to him.
I’ve enjoyed these 360 pages. I have enjoyed them so much that I’m sitting in front of Iceweasel with that stupid smile that you have when something nice just happened to you.
What is this book about? It’s about caring about what we do. It’s about throwing our ego apart and accepting that we are humans and, as such, we all make errors and, mainly, we can/must learn from them.
Developing software is that mix of science, art and magic that’s hard to define. Still, there are best practices and some common sense guidelines that get us to the next level. And make the world a better place.
I have read, years ago, Clean Code by R. Martin. Well, that was great. I think that I have learned a lot from that text. Reading Pete’s book reminded me many things of Martin’s. I’m pretty much sure Pete himself has read and loved that book and was influenced by it, as a lot of coders have been as well.
But Pete is fun! Reading this book makes you wanna be his team mate and share with him stories, those funny things we tell each others during a coffee break or lunch.
If you are a developer that cares about his code, then Becoming a Better Programmer will definitely get to your soul. Pete is one of us, I can tell.
Suggested Books:
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
As usual, you can find more reviews on my personal blog: . Feel free to pass by and share your thoughts!
I’ve enjoyed these 360 pages. I have enjoyed them so much that I’m sitting in front of Iceweasel with that stupid smile that you have when something nice just happened to you.
What is this book about? It’s about caring about what we do. It’s about throwing our ego apart and accepting that we are humans and, as such, we all make errors and, mainly, we can/must learn from them.
Developing software is that mix of science, art and magic that’s hard to define. Still, there are best practices and some common sense guidelines that get us to the next level. And make the world a better place.
I have read, years ago, Clean Code by R. Martin. Well, that was great. I think that I have learned a lot from that text. Reading Pete’s book reminded me many things of Martin’s. I’m pretty much sure Pete himself has read and loved that book and was influenced by it, as a lot of coders have been as well.
But Pete is fun! Reading this book makes you wanna be his team mate and share with him stories, those funny things we tell each others during a coffee break or lunch.
If you are a developer that cares about his code, then Becoming a Better Programmer will definitely get to your soul. Pete is one of us, I can tell.
Suggested Books:
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
As usual, you can find more reviews on my personal blog: . Feel free to pass by and share your thoughts!
August 9, 2015
The first section was great, I got a lot out of it. The other sections were good, but I didn't enjoy them as much. Overall the book felt too long, but I can't pick any topic that should have been left out.
Chapter 30, "Posturing Programmers" was very annoying. The author even admitted he was being flippant with that chapter. His tone with it was completely out of place with the tone of the rest of the book. He really needs to throw that chapter away and rewrite it seriously so it fits with the rest of the book. The topic belongs in the book, but it does not deserve the silly treatment he gave it.
Overall, I wish my coworkers could read this book and discuss it together, I think any development team would benefit from that.
Read this if you are serious about improving your career as a programmer, although I don't think it will be of much use if you haven't been working in the field for a few years.
Chapter 30, "Posturing Programmers" was very annoying. The author even admitted he was being flippant with that chapter. His tone with it was completely out of place with the tone of the rest of the book. He really needs to throw that chapter away and rewrite it seriously so it fits with the rest of the book. The topic belongs in the book, but it does not deserve the silly treatment he gave it.
Overall, I wish my coworkers could read this book and discuss it together, I think any development team would benefit from that.
Read this if you are serious about improving your career as a programmer, although I don't think it will be of much use if you haven't been working in the field for a few years.
August 18, 2016
Picked this up at the Library, thoroughly enjoyable read. This was chalk full of the "best practices" knowledge I was looking for. It's funny and accessible to anybody who makes a job or hobby of programming. Goodliffe has something funny and something smart to say about the "full stack" of programming aspects, from tabs v. spaces in your source code, to good testing and re-factoring, on up to the squishiest of soft skills.
Being completely platform- and technology-generic may have been it's detriment for a reader who hasn't yet progressed to working in the industry. I now know more about what unit tests are supposed to accomplish, but I still have little knowledge of what a good one concretely looks like. I do wish at the end I felt a little more able to do like the author dictates and "use my brain" to good effect.
Overall, I really loved the book, and I may come back to it in a year or so to see how things have gone.
Being completely platform- and technology-generic may have been it's detriment for a reader who hasn't yet progressed to working in the industry. I now know more about what unit tests are supposed to accomplish, but I still have little knowledge of what a good one concretely looks like. I do wish at the end I felt a little more able to do like the author dictates and "use my brain" to good effect.
Overall, I really loved the book, and I may come back to it in a year or so to see how things have gone.
January 7, 2016
Practical and pragmatic advice that a every developer/programmer/engineer should know and take to heart. Written in a light-hearted manner that is enjoyable to read. Overall nothing in here is mind-blowing or not already said online, but it does provide a one-stop-shop, if you will, of good advice.
I liked the book and would give someone I was mentoring the same advice and I believe any programmer on a quality team will be given the same information. If you are a newer to software development or are unlucky and have ended up in less than ideal teams, the book may be worth picking up to give you a kick in the butt to find what you need to grow in the career.
I liked the book and would give someone I was mentoring the same advice and I believe any programmer on a quality team will be given the same information. If you are a newer to software development or are unlucky and have ended up in less than ideal teams, the book may be worth picking up to give you a kick in the butt to find what you need to grow in the career.
July 15, 2015
For someone with no CS background, this book provides an excellent summary of the key points that programmers should take note. If you need to work with programmers, or is a programmer that is trying to further build up your competencies, seriously consider reading this book!
My only issue with this book is that the author tends to repeat himself through various parts of the book, although this may help reinforce some of the important pointers for some.
My only issue with this book is that the author tends to repeat himself through various parts of the book, although this may help reinforce some of the important pointers for some.
February 11, 2015
Excellent read for lethargic coders (including myself). It pin points to small compromises we do on a regular basis , which ultimately backfires and results heavy losses. I love the intuitive and generic code examples . Examples are well placed within texts. This one is absolutely unputdownable . Those comical reliefs deserves special mention.
July 19, 2016
What a great book. It was such an enjoyable read, with a bit of humour too which is unusual for regular IT related books.
Lots of useful and practical information that I can implement as a programmer. I have never worked in large teams and I gained an insight into what that would be like and how to manage it.
One that I'll definitely be reading again and recommending to other programmers.
Lots of useful and practical information that I can implement as a programmer. I have never worked in large teams and I gained an insight into what that would be like and how to manage it.
One that I'll definitely be reading again and recommending to other programmers.
December 9, 2015
The book could be at most half the size without losing quality. The pace is a little slow at times and the content tends to get repetitive, but it's not bad and could be good for someone new to the field.
January 21, 2016
I found this a thoughtful and humorous read. The book covers many topics that are worth reflecting on as a programmer. I look forward to coming back to this book in the coming months to see how I've changed since last reading it.
January 16, 2017
I got this as a free download for subscribing to the O'Reilly mailing list. I found myself nodding a lot as a I read it. He reflects a lot of my opinions about professional development. Recommended to anyone in IT
January 7, 2015
Not what I expected but still worth reading, learned some things about being a (hopefully) better dev.
August 17, 2016
An excellent book for beginner software developers...
November 28, 2016
Good book overall for newer programmers, still a lot of good gems for the more experienced. Recommending this book to all of my new hires.
February 1, 2017
Świetne rady - podstawowa książka dla programistów
March 6, 2020
tl;dr: learn to care about the code. care for yourself. care about the project. care about becoming better.
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