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The Practice of Programming
by by Brian W. Kernighan Rob Pike -- Review by Joe Mizer NOCCC , jmmizer@juno.com - January 14, 2000 at 16:01:12:
The approach put forward by this book is based on simplicity, clarity, generality and automation. Simplicity keeps programs short and manageable. Clarity makes sure they are easy to understand by other programmers and compilers. Generality means they will work well in a broad range of situations and adapt well when new situations arise. Automation should be used by the programmer whenever possible. Allow the machine to work for us, freeing the programmer from the mundane tasks.You know the language from several courses and you have written several applications. So why do you need a short 250 page book? This book does nothing but improve your style, your understanding of algorithms, your debugging skills, your knowledge of program testing, performance strategies, portability and notation. The authors knowledge and experience in research, teaching, writing books and writing programs are shared with us in this book.
This book brings years of experience to readers like myself, and introduces us to problems similar to those we could face any time. They have also presented problems I probably would not encounter for years, if ever. Which is why the book is so important.
Published in 1999 by Addison Wesley ISBN # 0-201-61586-x has a list price of $24.95 US. The book is a recent publication and most examples are in C, C++ or Java. The language used for the examples is unimportant, since the principles are similar in all languages. Each chapter has suggestions for additional reading which could take several years to complete. I recommend this book because even though the details of some of the examples went right over my head, I felt I understood the concepts being presented.
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