Seriously Good Software

Preface

My personal title for this book is “Java: Exercises in Style.” After the wise people at Manning taught me about catchiness, this preface is all that’s left of that title and its literary overtone. Indeed, in the modern classic Exercises in Style, French writer Raymond Queneau writes the same story in 99 different ways. The point of the book is not the story, which is intentionally unremarkable, but rather the whimsical exploration of the virtually endless expressive capabilities of natural languages.

Programming is certainly not literature, despite efforts by renowed personalities such as Donald Knuth to bring the two closer together. In fact, beginner programmers may be forgiven if they think there’s one best way to solve each programming ...