Why am I passionate about this?
You know what ages like milk? Programming books. I always cringe when someone glances at my programming bookshelf. Some of those books are so dated, they make me appear out of touch by association. Sometimes, I feel compelled to justify myself. “Yes, that's the first edition of Thinking in Java… I keep it for nostalgic reasons, you know!” Yesterday’s software book is today’s fish and chip wrapper. However, there are exceptions. A few classics stay relevant for years, or even decades. This is a shortlist of software books that might be older than you, but are still very much worth reading.
Paolo's book list on classic software that are still worth reading
Why did Paolo love this book?
If one author influenced my way of thinking about software, that’s Martin Fowler. From planning to architectures, his insights are embedded in every line of code I write. I was certain that one of his books would make my list.
But which one? Let’s face it–many of Fowler's books feel dated today. Not because his ideas became obsolete, but because they're now taken for granted. Who needs to re-read a book like Refactoring, when we all have a refactoring menu at our fingertips?
So I settled on this book. It’s a catalog of patterns, but one of the best. And don’t be misled by the word “enterprise” in the title: even lightweight patterns such as Active Record were popularized by this book.
Whether or not you work in a large company, this is still an essential collection of knowledge, written in Fowler’s signature clean style.
1 author picked Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
The practice of enterprise application development has benefited from the emergence of many new enabling technologies. Multi-tiered object-oriented platforms, such as Java and .NET, have become commonplace. These new tools and technologies are capable of building powerful applications, but they are not easily implemented. Common failures in enterprise applications often occur because their developers do not understand the architectural lessons that experienced object developers have learned.
Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture is written in direct response to the stiff challenges that face enterprise application developers. The author, noted object-oriented designer Martin Fowler, noticed that despite changes in technology--from Smalltalk to…
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