Nördholmen Programming

Programming is a craft many of us happen to learn at university. Good programming can be achieved by pratice and learning from your own and other's mistakes. But great progamming can only be learnt by interest, dedication, and curiosity. This website shall help a little bit with the latter approaches by listing some resources.

Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship

Manifesto for Agile Software Development

If you are serious about your software's quality, why not make a statement? Go sign the Manifesto for Software Craftsmenship if you agree with it, and be sure to check out their reading/reference page with many interesting links. And while you are at it, take a look at the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. The Wikipedia page relates both to each other. Pragmatically, I am of the opinion that you as an individual can benefit from both viewpoints.

Programming principles for game programming by John Romero

John Romero shared eleven programming principles in a German news article. These principles led him and his team of developers through the development of a large number of computer games. Certainly these apply to any software development! A good read and catchy phrased. (Scroll to the end of the German article.)

Effective Java by Joshua Bloch

Just a great book! If you program Java, you should already have it. Just sayin'.

The Programming Aphorisms of Strunk and White

If you want to write good English texts you sooner or later come across Strunk and White's The Elements of Style (on Amazon). The Coding The Wheel blog presents a very interesting artricle transferring the guidelines provided by Strunkg and White to programming. Read it!

Java Puzzlers: Traps, Pitfalls, and Corner Cases by Joshua Bloch and Neal Gafter

Another book co-authored by Bloch, containing puzzles and riddles around the Java language that will surprise and shock you. Entertaining and . I have not read this book, but just the explanations of the puns made in the book make me want to read it! But there are also a few presentations and a sampler PDF out there in the web that ended up (or were taken from) the book. Enjoy!

Logging in Java with slf4j

Logging is very a very important aspect of programming style and quality. Until recently I used log4j, but I was made aware of a much more recent and better API to use: SLF4J. Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen gives a great and short introduction to the why and how of logging in Java. A must read!

Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years

Peter Norvig provides a great rundown of why learning to program is nothing you can do in "21 days", or "3 days", as some book titles want to make you think. 10 years or 10.000 hours is probably more like it! He gives some really good advice how to spend these hours. I particularly like his ideas of learning different languages and working in different groups of programmers: both being the most experienced and the least experienced one in the group. Read it and do it!

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