Recommended Reading: Software
Refactoring - Improving the Design of Existing Code, Second Edition
Martin Fowler, Kent Beck - Goodreads »
One of the books that most defined how I think about software, this is a must read for anyone wanting to take their programming a step forward. It covers from simple to complex; a massive category of techniques to improving the design, quality, and maintainability of software.
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
Robert C. Martin - Goodreads »
The book that started me down the path to realizing that software is so much more than just understanding how to use the random set of libraries and languages at any give job. This book taught me that humans read code, explain it to others, and make changes to it. It is not always the same people that created it. The idea that readability for you and everyone involved for the life of the codebase is one of the most important skills to learn in our careers.
Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#
Robert C. Martin, Micah Martin - Goodreads »
The book kicks off with a primer into some really solid Agile Practices, and then dives in heavy to some of the most important principles on how we should look and think about software… the SOLID principles. These along with some core patterns can take a complex task and make it easy to reason about and change while reducing the technical debt accrued.
Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby: An Agile Primer
Sandi Metz - Goodreads »
Sorry, this book has a lot of ruby in it. However, it is an absolute staple for any programmer to consider. Sandi Metz is amazing at taking the heavy content that is often misunderstood and abused from the greats such as Uncle Bob, Fowler, and Beck, and turns it into a practical human approachable subject to help keep people on track and not just live in a purely academic world. Metz has a talent for showing us at any skill level, where we can go next to progress.
Test Driven Development: By Example
Kent Beck - Goodreads »
Have you ever studied a subject that you did not use in its original form, but you consider it to be pivotal to how you think and use your skill sets? This book falls very much into that category for me. Test Driven Development as a practice will dictate the structure of your code and design, for better or worse. However, the practices, theory, and techniques in this book are absolutely amazing in teaching one how to think about and write automated tests in software.
It is suggested to read this book, embrace the practices, and then lighten back a bit into a Test First Practice instead of a Test Driven Development Practice.