Anyone who develops software for a living needs a proven way to produce it better, faster, and cheaper. The Productive Programmer offers critical timesaving and productivity tools that you can adopt right away, no matter what platform you use. Master developer Neal Ford not only offers advice on the mechanics of productivity-how to work smarter, spurn interruptions, get the most out your computer, and avoid repetition-he also details valuable practices that will help you elude common traps, improve your code, and become more valuable to your team. You'll learn to: * Write the test before you write the code * Manage the lifecycle of your objects fastidiously * Build only what you need now, not what you might need later * Apply ancient philosophies to software development * Question authority, rather than blindly adhere to standards * Make hard things easier and impossible things possible through meta-programming * Be sure all code within a method is at the same level of abstraction * Pick the right editor and assemble the best tools for the job This isn't theory, but the fruits of Ford's real-world experience as an Application Architect at the global IT consultancy ThoughtWorks. Whether you're a beginner or a pro with years of experience, you'll improve your work and your career with the simple and straightforward principles in The Productive Programmer.

Description Masterminds of Programming features exclusive interviews with the creators of several historic and highly influential programming languages. Think along with Adin D. Falkoff (APL), James Gosling (Java), Bjarne Stroustrup (C++), and others whose vision and hard work helped shape the computer industry. You'll find advice you can apply to systems you're developing, even if you don't use the specific languages being discussed. Full Description Masterminds of Programming features exclusive interviews with the creators of several historic and highly influential programming languages. In this unique collection, you'll learn about the processes that led to specific design decisions, including the goals they had in mind, the trade-offs they had to make, and how their experiences have left an impact on programming today. Masterminds of Programming includes individual interviews with: * Adin D. Falkoff: APL * Thomas E. Kurtz: BASIC * Charles H. Moore: FORTH * Robin Milner: ML * Donald D. Chamberlin: SQL * Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan: AWK * Charles Geschke and John Warnock: PostScript * Bjarne Stroustrup: C++ * Bertrand Meyer: Eiffel * Brad Cox and Tom Love: Objective-C * Larry Wall: Perl * Simon Peyton Jones, Paul Hudak, Philip Wadler, and John Hughes: Haskell * Guido van Rossum: Python * Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo and Roberto Ierusalimschy: Lua * James Gosling: Java * Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson, and James Rumbaugh: UML * Anders Hejlsberg: Delphi inventor and lead developer of C# If you're interested in the people whose vision and hard work helped shape the computer industry, you'll find Masterminds of Programming fascinating.

Success in today's IT environment requires you to view your career as a business endeavor. In this book, you'll learn how to become an entrepreneur, driving your career in the direction of your choosing. You'll learn how to build your software development career step by step, following the same path that you would follow if you were building, marketing, and selling a product. After all, your skills themselves are a product. The choices you make about which technologies to focus on and which business domains to master have at least as much impact on your success as your technical knowledge itself; don't let those choices be accidental. We'll walk through all aspects of the decision-making process, so you can ensure that you're investing your time and energy in the right areas. You'll develop a structured plan for keeping your mind engaged and your skills fresh. You'll learn how to assess your skills in terms of where they fit on the value chain, driving you away from commodity skills and toward those that are in high demand. Through a mix of high-level, thought-provoking essays and tactical 'Act on It' sections, you will come away with concrete plans you can put into action immediately. You'll also get a chance to read the perspectives of several highly successful members of our industry from a variety of career paths. As with any product or service, if nobody knows what you're selling, nobody will buy. We'll walk through the often-neglected world of marketing, and you'll create a plan to market yourself both inside your company and to the industry in general. Above all, you'll see how you can set the direction of your career, leading to a more fulfilling and remarkable professional life.