A very nice read that covers the birth and evolution of D&D all the way through its acquistion by Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. Although it's a celA very nice read that covers the birth and evolution of D&D all the way through its acquistion by Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. Although it's a celebration of D&D, it sometimes also read like a corporate history book. But stories about what happened behind the scenes were an interesting read. Interspersed throughout were short "cover letter" of sorts by industry notables and other celebrities on how D&D came into their lives and how their lives were influenced by them. I too had my own story about D&D, but I guess the book included a tad too many, because by the time I was halfway through, I mostly just skimmed the rest.
Since this book has included lots of great artwork both old and new (and some very nostalgic!), there must be some critique of its design. Whoever decided to "slant" the text at an angle, or to "interleave" two different narrations (in the latter parts), should hopefully have learned that it was a bad idea. They did not make for comfortable reading.
I don't play RPGs anymore (except CRPGs), but it's a nice bout of nostalgia to read through this....more
The title of the book did not imply that this book also actually covers how to write good stories, and gives an overall picture how to start and how tThe title of the book did not imply that this book also actually covers how to write good stories, and gives an overall picture how to start and how to deliver the end result from an agile perspective (which are presented well enough). If you are already familiar with those topics and are actually looking to delve more in-depth into user story mapping (with great examples), then this might not be it. It also repeats itself sometimes. I get that some things bear repeating, but still, it's a bit much....more
If you bought this, then you've wasted money, regardless of your level of expertise.
If you're a novice who's just starting out or a developer who wantIf you bought this, then you've wasted money, regardless of your level of expertise.
If you're a novice who's just starting out or a developer who wants to find out more about best practices, find books that target the areas you're looking to improve on; they will be way more useful by providing concrete and specific examples.
If you're an expert looking for a refresher, just about any software development blogs, sites, or forums that you've been following (you are doing this, right?) will give you better value.
The 97 things are each told in a max of 2 pages - very little room for anything more than a generic discussion. They range from common sense and popular practices to technical challenges and domain expertise. I doubt any professional developer would find even half of these immediately relevant and applicable to their current work/role. They just cover too many areas in too few details.
I'm not saying the advice is bad (although I did find myself shaking my head at a couple), most are good valid advice - I'm just saying this is a poor way to acquire them....more
This is a book that one could get started on the idea of "good code" - clean, readable, elegant, simple, easy-to-test, etc. It has the usual stuff thaThis is a book that one could get started on the idea of "good code" - clean, readable, elegant, simple, easy-to-test, etc. It has the usual stuff that you'd expect - good naming convention, testable code, single responsibility, short classes, short methods - but I feel like it takes them on overdose, going to extremes (IMHO) such as setting short explicit lengths, forbidding certain constructs, and what seems like refactoring for the sake of it.
I'd actually recommend other books like the Pragmatic Programmer or Code Complete; there's something about the way this book reads that irks me. I think it's more useful to highlight the attributes that clean code should have (which this book does do), then it is to declare outright what is "good" and what is "bad" (even in subjective areas like readability, comments, and formatting).
To their credit, the author(s) did state right out at the start that these are their very personal preferences, so that's all right - I'm just disagreeing on some of the more subjective areas.
Also a plus are a few actual and simple scenarios/use cases to show code clean up in action, but they aren't exactly really tricky bits of code, but rather straightforward examples - very good for developers new to the concept of clean code, but less so for developers already familiar with the basic ideas....more
It's like a mini-encyclopedia plus general knowledge and facts on a wide variety of topics.It's like a mini-encyclopedia plus general knowledge and facts on a wide variety of topics....more
An encyclopedia packed full of general knowledge and facts on a wide variety of topics. A good "beginner's" encyclopedia after graduating from young aAn encyclopedia packed full of general knowledge and facts on a wide variety of topics. A good "beginner's" encyclopedia after graduating from young adult references....more
Started this book a long while ago but never finished until recently, but I mostly just skimmed the last 3 chapters, which were practical examples as Started this book a long while ago but never finished until recently, but I mostly just skimmed the last 3 chapters, which were practical examples as well as a conclusion.
A lot of tools and technologies mentioned in the book have undergone many changes, but I think the concepts remained the same. The concepts espoused by the book still remains relevant - something a lot of Java programmers today still fail to grasp. Things like keeping things simple, don't over-engineer, use the right tools, etc.
The book is a bit misnamed though. Yes, it does sort of explain how you can code better, faster, and lighter in Java, but there isn't really that much depth here, something more for the less experienced crowd. So don't go expecting performance-tuning advice or complexity comparisons. It's more accurately described as how to go about designing and developing a piece of software while avoiding some common pitfalls....more
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