This edition is coming to you a little earlier than usual to leave you (and us) free to enjoy the holidays. We did not have an individual curator for this issue, but rather a crowdsourced list of top book recommendations from across our developer communities to help enrich your software development journey.
From refining your understanding of browser networking to learning to design data-sensitive applications, these insightful reads, handpicked by Futuriceans, are here to bring forward new skills and perspectives that can impact and enhance your coding universe. Dive in!
This is a really great book on essential aspects of networks, transport protocols, application protocols and browser APIs. It will improve your understanding of the browser, helping you to make better design decisions and build faster and more reliable web applications.
By Martin Fowler, Kent Beck | Recommended by Niko Heikkilä
Before reading Refactoring, I had the misconception that refactoring is about living dangerously and changing entire modules in one sweep without minding the consequences. Instead, Fowler and Beck guided me through how each refactoring consists of a series of tiny and safe changes with two fundamental rules: 1) refactoring must not alter or break the functionality, and 2) each refactoring should be tested and committed to version control no matter how tiny the change. Having read this book, I learned that writing quality software requires many much more smaller steps multiple times a day.
By Steve Freeman, Nat Pryce | Recommended by Niko Heikkilä
GOOS describes through myriad examples what it means to drive your software development through rapid test cycles, each guiding you to listen to your design continuously. If a particular piece of code feels challenging to test, your design needs improvement, and you must transform your design thinking. Freeman and Pryce teach how test-driven development works as an effective tool.
Have you ever wondered about the personalities of coders? This book not only delves into the evolution of the programmer's profession but also explores the mindset that compels us to gaze at the screen for hours, almost manically searching for what has caused a bug in the code. As someone who transitioned careers, reading this book made me realize that I truly embody the spirit of a developer!
This is one of my favourite tech books - A great book about data, databases, distributed systems and much more. It focuses more on overall concepts and ideas instead of delving into the details of individual tools. In my opinion, the book combines academic knowledge and practical application seamlessly.
