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The Productive Programmer--New from O'Reilly: Techniques for working smarter, better, faster, and cheaper

August 1, 2008

Sebastopol, CA--Anyone who develops software for a living needs a proven way to produce it better, faster, and cheaper. The Productive Programmer (O'Reilly, US $39.99) by master developer Neal Ford offers critical timesaving and productivity tools that you can adopt right away, no matter what platform you use. 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.

"Productivity is defined as the amount of useful work performed over time," explains Ford. "Someone who is more productive performs more effective work in a given time interval than someone less productive. This book is all about how to become more productive as you go about the tasks required to develop software."

By reading The Productive Programmer, 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.

Neal Ford is an Application Architect at ThoughtWorks, a global IT consultancy with an exclusive focus on end-to-end software development and delivery. Before joining ThoughtWorks, was the Chief Technology Officer at The DSW Group, Ltd., a nationally recognized training and development firm.

Additional Resources:

For more information about the book, including table of contents, index, author bios, and cover graphic, see the catalog page for The Productive Programmer

The Productive Programmer
Neal Ford
ISBN: 9780596519780, 222 pages, Book Price: $39.99 USD
PDF Price: $31.99 USD
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