The book is succinct yet comprehensive. Written by the creator of Cucumber, it starts with explaining why to use Cucumber, moves through the fundamentThe book is succinct yet comprehensive. Written by the creator of Cucumber, it starts with explaining why to use Cucumber, moves through the fundamentals, and then discusses a variety of usages of the tool, with plenty of useful examples throughout. I wish more books about a particular technology were written like this one. ...more
I was debating whether to give this three or four stars and decided that it was a solid three. The book is well-written and very thorough (over 600 paI was debating whether to give this three or four stars and decided that it was a solid three. The book is well-written and very thorough (over 600 pages of content), but I do wish it had some more concrete examples with supporting code. Some of the patterns built on other patterns or were permutations of other patterns in the book, which got me wondering whether a solid understanding of the underlying principles in the Gang of Four book is the extent of the pattern knowledge you need, and this information would allow you to naturally arrive at the patterns described in this book. Perhaps, but at the very least, this book codifies the knowledge a little more and provides good names for the patterns, allowing us to communicate designs more clearly. I wouldn't recommend reading this book cover-to-cover, but it could serve as a great reference if you need to tackle some complex integration scenario or have some other enterprise messaging needs....more
A definite must-read for professional developers, this book taught me a lot about incrementally building software that's constantly deployable and maiA definite must-read for professional developers, this book taught me a lot about incrementally building software that's constantly deployable and maintainable - not only the technical know-how required to do it, but also the mentality needed. Reading the book made me realize that my unit testing skills are woefully lacking in comparison, so I'm grateful that it provides extension tips, tricks, and examples that I can study for improvement. But this book covers much more than unit testing, which is why I plan on referring back to it quite often, as it has forced me to completely reconsider how I approach building software....more
This book is hit and miss. Some parts I liked and found useful, while others seemed dated or I simply disagreed with. It's a good book for gaining expThis book is hit and miss. Some parts I liked and found useful, while others seemed dated or I simply disagreed with. It's a good book for gaining exposure to things like domain-driven design, test-driven development, object-relational mapping, and dependency injection, but there are other books that go into deeper detail on each of these subjects. So I'd say check this book out if you're new to these topics but otherwise go to the books that this book references. ...more
As someone with only mediocre JavaScript skills, I found the book to be quite helpful. It's just like the title suggests: a collection of recipes and As someone with only mediocre JavaScript skills, I found the book to be quite helpful. It's just like the title suggests: a collection of recipes and best practices for writing better JavaScript. However, the book probably isn't as useful for more advanced JavaScript programmers....more
This is an amazing book, one that should be read by everyone in the software industry. And it's a good management book in general. There's a small numThis is an amazing book, one that should be read by everyone in the software industry. And it's a good management book in general. There's a small number of parts that seem dated, but overall, this book is crammed with so many great ideas and advice that are still relevant and that I wished were adopted by many more people. In fact, I find it troubling that, despite the book being around for so long, some of the ideas in the book still aren't widely adopted.
Please read this book, and a big thanks to Jim for letting me borrow it....more
Great, great book. However, you should probably have at least some understanding of agile, design patterns, and refactoring before reading this book iGreat, great book. However, you should probably have at least some understanding of agile, design patterns, and refactoring before reading this book if you truly want to get the most out of it. The book talks about using model-driven design to create a domain model and ubiquitous language that everyone in the company can leverage - a topic that seems to be getting more attention as of late.
Some of the topics are pretty abstract, and I would have liked to see some more code and concrete examples for some of them. Nonetheless, I encourage all programmers to at least read chapters 1-3, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 14....more