Computer
Science 50
class reading, or, words of wisdom
from hacker
extraordinaire,
Joel Spolsky, and, the venerable Unix programming guru, Eric
Raymond
Throughout
the
course we will read a number of articles that relate to programming and
the software development cycle. Most will be anecdotal based on
experience working in the software industry and others more academic.
Please read them and come armed with thoughts, opinions, questions.
We have a reading for each Wed and Friday class. We won't have too much
time in class for discussion to be honest but do read these and we'll
take 5-10 minutes at the start of
class or at break in the class.
I like these articles for a number of reasons: they are insightful,
sometimes funny, always opinionated and reflect real world experience -
whether you like that or not.
Students asked for more Joel so we have more Joel this term. If it's too
much we'll back off.
Sometimes Joel can come over a little jaded but you gotta love
him.
Hey, a certain about of cynicism and attitude needs to be
demonstrated to get your hackers badge from me at the end of term, and
reading Joel and Eric
will help enormously.
We will do our best to briefly discuss
these articles in class given time but you should read them either
way.
Week 1
Friday - The
Tale of J. Random Newbie (2 pages), The
Art of Unix Programming, chapter
16, section 1, Eric S. Raymond.
Week
2
Friday - Biculturalism, (3 pages) and
The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code,
(9
pages), Joel
Spolsky
Week
3
Friday
-
Philosophy [PDF](15 pages), chapter 1 of The
Art of Unix Programming, by Eric S. Raymond.
Week
4
Friday The Perils of JavaSchools, (6
pages) and
The Law of Leaky Abstractions,
(5
pages), Joel
Spolsky
Week
5
Friday -
Craftsmanship, (4
pages), Joel
Spolsky
Week
6
Friday- Painless
Functional Specifications - Part 2: What's a Spec?, (4
pages) and - Things
You Should Never Do, Part I,
(5 pages), Joel
Spolsky
Week
7
Friday - Fire
And Motion, (5
pages), Joel
Spolsky
Since we love Joel's views in this class
here is a talk
he gave at google
Read
it if you can -
Strategy
Letter I: Ben and Jerry's vs. Amazon,
(7
pages), Joel
Spolsky
Painless
Functional Specifications - Part 4: Tips, (6
pages), Joel
Spolsky
The
Law of Leaky Abstractions,
(5
pages), Joel
Spolsky