This is a brilliant book if you are getting into software engineering, full of tips and really practical advice. However, if you have been developing any kind of software professionally for at least a year, you are unlikely to learn much from it. Still, it might be worth reading as a 'recap' for some.

Kláraði ekki. Skil ekki hæpið við þessa bók. Að stærstum hluta augljós sannindi. Ráðin eru of sértæk til að skilja eitthvað eftir sig, en samt of almenn til að nota í raunverulegu verkefni.

As a software engineer with many years of experience, nothing in this book was new to me yet I’m rating it 5 stars because I can at least verify that the topics discussed in this book are all extremely important especially to those who are just starting their journey. It’s quite easy to get cocky as a junior software engineer and forget about the most important thing there is for us: we’re here to solve problems and deliver quality products to our customers. That’s it. And this book is very successful at explaining everything you need to get to that point.

The first book each software engineer should read.

A carefully selected list of software engineering tips. Compelling and plainly laid-out arguments for making successful software projects. Some tips are dogmatic and controversial but each chapter is thought-provoking at least and behaviour-changing at most.

Surprisingly, I thought the weakest tips were ones that brought up specific code or language features. You can tell the authors have thought long and hard about how the perfect software engineer would behave. Each tip had me thinking and challenging my assumptions and I think many will be valuable to remember or refer back to later.

I would also definitely recommend reading the 20th-anniversary edition. It has some useful reflections on how the first edition was interpreted and revisits the DRY principle.

Must read for everyone interested in programming and software development and also for people already working in the IT industry!

Pretty useful resource for working at an early startup, glad I waited to read this until I had lots of personal experience to refer to for each topic

Amazing book! It's been a while since I read it but I remember it was the best programming book I read at the time. Maybe it will not be that good today, but I still keep it and would recommend do anyone.

This is a great book. I enjoyed listening and reading it

I'm shocked this book has such a cult following. It does some things well: code snippets in multiple languages; a broad knowledge base; addressing personal and team development as well as software development. On the other hand, this is the ankle-deep paddling pool, rich-dad-poor-dad self-help book of programming texts. Nothing is covered in any great depth and while I've enjoyed 350 pages of namedropping concepts, I doubt I've learned anything, it feels incredibly superficial striving towards some ethereal 'Pragmatic Programmer' mentality.

Some parts are downright upsetting, the authors boast about refusing their editor's pleas to write the book in a Word document (they wrote in Markdown and wrote software to compile it). As a result, they've managed to write unnecessary software and made a remarkably ugly book.

Taking time and care for what you create is supposedly a hallmark of a Pragmatic Programmer, but Andy and David's book has glaring holes. This text is probably is a good overview for a beginner, but I would struggle to recommend it.