Programming On Purpose
Programming On PurposeProgramming On Purpose: Essays on Software Design by PjPlauger ISBN 0137213743
The book is a collection of Plauger's essays about software design that appeared in Computer Language magazine. He presents the book as a series of tools for the software engineer.
These tools are programming patterns, and include these ideas (in the order presented)...
Here's a sample from the bibliography:
If you've ever been in a house designed in a very nontraditional style, you understand quickly. There are annoying drafts, unexpected dead spaces, worrisome cracks in the walls. Maybe three releases later, your grandchildren will get a version that they can enjoy, but meanwhile you have to debug and/or adapt to all of the oversights.
Applying the same reasoning to the design of computer systems shows us why we have made so many drafty habitats. We just don't know enough yet to master all of the complexity. In time perhaps we will, but only after we develop an architectural sense, and a humility, that will keep us in check. Read Alexander if you want to develop that architectural sense.
There have been two sequels to the book, containing additional sets of essays.
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