The Pragmatic Programmer is among the most impactful programming books that I have ever read. I can not count the number of times I have recommended it to someone. At times people get fooled by the easy language and presentation and think that this book is targetted towards beginners.
The concepts and practices in book have stood the test of time, given it was published more than twenty years ago.
You may have heard about DRY. Don't repeat yourself. The principle comes from this book. You may also have heard about agile software development? Dave and Andy were in the team that wrote the manifesto for agile software development.
Here are the principles that a pragmatic programmer lives by. They have been classified by the topics they appear in.
Tip 1. Care
About Your craft
Tip 2. Think!
About Your Work
Topic 1 - It’s Your Life
Tip 3. You
Have Agency
Topic 2 - The Cat Ate My Source Code
4. Provide
Options, Don’t Make Lame Excuses
Topic 3 - Software Entropy
5. Don’t
Live with Broken Windows
Topic 4 - Stone Soup and Boiled Frogs
Tip 6. Be
A Catalyst for Change
Tip 7. Remember
The Big Picture
Topic 5 - Good-Enough Software
Tip 8. Make
Quality a Requirements Issue
Topic 6 - Your Knowledge Portfolio
Tip 9. Invest
Regularly in Your Knowledge Portfolio
Tip 10. Analyze
Critically What You Read and Hear
Topic 7 - Communicate!
Tip 11. English
Is Just Another Programming Language
Tip 12. It’s Both - What You Say and
The Way You Say It
Tip 13. Build Documentation In
Don’t Bolt It On
For a summary of Chapter 2 visit, A Pragmatic Approach: The Pragmatic Programmer - Part 2
