Coders at Work,   ISBN:9781430219484

Customer Rating: 

5 stars for content. In-depth interviews with the real pioneers of programming and language development.

-1 for the terrible font choice - I don't like Gill Sans as the primary font in a book. It's harder to read.

Bottom line: If you are a programmer, BUY THIS BOOK and read it in a well-lit room.

Customer Rating: 

I picked this up and thought "what a wonderful idea for a book". After all, as a developer myself, what's more entertaining than reading about how others approach what I do? Well, this book failed to provide that insight. The questions don't seem to tailored to each "interviewed guru"; they're pretty cookie-cutter and you see them repeated all throughout the book. I frankly was not interested in why they wanted to program. I wanted to know how they solve problems. That's not a topic you'll find covered in this book. On the flip side, this book DID cover a topic that is quite trite and self-aggrandizing. The author kept asking each subject why nearly all other programmers (exceptions being the author and the interviewee, of course) were so poor at their profession. Guys, this is more of an editorial than a book about coders at work. I slogged through 3/4 of the book then skipped to the end to read about Knuth. Know what was there? A discussion of why less than 2% of the people in the world can ever hope to be good developers. High-horse, anyone?

Customer Rating: 

This book is a bad mixture of interesting nuggets and the very boring majority of the rest. The background of the programmers is rather diverse and they use many unknown acronyms. I managed to read 3 or 4 of the extremely long interviews and won't bother with the rest.

Customer Rating: 

The book gives you excellent insight into how the great programmers think and work. Interview style prose gives you a nice feeling of sitting right next to the table where they talk with each other.

As for weak points - I wish some of the interviews were edited more aggressively to cut on some repetitive thoughts.

The choice of interviewees is very nice, although I'd love to see a "Volume 2" - there are plenty of viable candidates.

Customer Rating: 

As with the previous "XXX at Work" book I read by Jessica Livingston (Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days (Recipes: a Problem-Solution Ap)), this is a must-read, of the thoroughly enjoyable kind. If you're a programmer by choice, and you enjoy programming, these interviews with the founding fathers of modern software will supply endless enjoyment and learning. I'm reading it a bit like good novel.