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The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky 1st ed. Edition

by Avram Joel Spolsky (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 43 ratings
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It's nice having a collection of high-quality writing related to software and the business in one place instead of trawling the Web for it. Meryl K. Evans, meryl. ...an entertaining read with a number of enlightening insights into what I do for a living... The whole book is fantastic though, and you should absolutely pick it up...in dead tree form. This is a book worth checking out, even if you're not a software developer.

With a nod to both the serious and funny sides of technical writing, The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky is an entertaining read and a guide to the technical writing literati.

The Best Software Writing contains writings from:

  • Ken Arnold
  • Leon Bambrick
  • Michael Bean
  • Rory Blyth
  • Adam Bosworth
  • danah boyd
  • Raymond Chen
  • Kevin Cheng and Tom Chi
  • Cory Doctorow
  • ea_spouse
  • Bruce Eckel
  • Paul Ford
  • Paul Graham
  • John Gruber
  • Gregor Hohpe
  • Ron Jeffries
  • Eric Johnson
  • Eric Lippert
  • Michael Lopp
  • Larry Osterman
  • Mary Poppendieck
  • Rick Schaut
  • Aaron Swart
  • Clay Shirky
  • Eric Sink
  • why the lucky stiff

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  1. ISBN-10
    1590595009
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1590595008
  3. Edition
    1st ed.
  4. Publisher
    Apress
  5. Publication date
    June 30, 2005
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    7.01 x 0.75 x 9.25 inches
  8. Print length
    346 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joel Spolsky is a globally recognized expert on the software development process. His web site Joel on Software (JoelonSoftware.com) is popular with software developers around the world and has been translated into over 30 languages. As the founder of Fog Creek Software in New York City, he created FogBugz, a popular project management system for software teams. Joel has worked at Microsoft, where he designed Visual Basic for Applications as a member of the Excel team, and at Juno Online Services, developing an Internet client used by millions. He has written two books: User Interface Design for Programmers (Apress, 2001) and Joel on Software (Apress, 2004). Joel holds a bachelor's of science degree in computer science from Yale University. Before college, he served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a paratrooper, and he was one of the founders of Kibbutz Hanaton.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Apress; 1st ed. edition (June 30, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 346 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1590595009
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1590595008
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.01 x 0.75 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 43 ratings

About the authors

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  1. danah boyd

    danah boyd

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    danah boyd is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, the Founder of Data & Society, and a Visiting Professor at New York University. Her research examines the intersection of technology, society, and youth culture. Currently, she's focused on research questions related to "big data", privacy and publicity, youth meanness and cruelty, and civil rights.

    To learn more about danah, check out her website: http://www.danah.org/ or visit her blog: Apophenia - http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/

    You can also find danah on Twitter @zephoria

    See more on the author's page
  2. Joel Spolsky

    Joel Spolsky

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    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
43 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

D. Siah
5.0 out of 5 stars What does good writing (in Software) look like?
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2018
Verified Purchase
Read this book if you are a software developer. The book is clearly intended to get people in software to read more of their peers more outstanding writings/opinions on the matter. Why? Simply put software engineers and the family of similar roles are highly dependent on good communication, however good writing skills are seemingly deficient in the field. By reading (and ideally going on and writing) these samples the author intends get people to consider what good communication (primarily persuasive writing) looks like.

The best part is how wildly strange some of the opinions in the book are. Consider an essay where the thesis is that check-styles should through compile time errors. I mentioned this essay to some of my colleagues and it clearly sparks debate, most people disagree with the statement and have great arguments.

Zeal is bountiful in the software industry yet many people are shy to start or don't know what good writing looks like applied to this field. So if you are a developer or manager in the industry do yourself (and teammates) a favor and read/share this book. If you enjoy this book, you'll definitely enjoy the author's own blog joelonsoftware.com and other writers on the topic. It's the good kind of rabbit hole.
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Sergey
5.0 out of 5 stars joel is smart and insightful
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2013
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If you're interested in the business of software, Joel Spolsky is a name that should definitely be on your bookshelf. He is smart, experienced, and has a wealth of knowledge to share. His writing style is plain-spoken and filled with interesting anecdotes that hold the reader's attention while he teaches them something good.
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Greg Tomkins
5.0 out of 5 stars Sink or Swim
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2007
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I reread this book the other day, and I had forgotten how much I love it. Two words: Eric Sink. Eric is an incredibly good writer, who of course, has at least one of his own books as well. Anyway, this compilation is terrific.
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LIUGANNING
5.0 out of 5 stars Good guide
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2012
Verified Purchase
It is very help for the software company!
If you can implement some of the tips, your company will change in deep I think!
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Ugo Cei
5.0 out of 5 stars Good style and great content
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2005
The blurb on the back cover reads:

"At my own company, we instituted a policy: we only want to hire software developers who can write, and write well. Just try submitting a résumé to me with grammatical errors or a cover letter that reads like it was written by that guy who translates those instruction manuals for really cheap consumer electronics. I dare you."

I think this is a great policy. Being able to communicate well is one of the greatest and most overlooked assets to look for in good software developers. With this book, Joel Spolsky shows us some of the best examples of good writing in the field of software.

If it were just a matter of good writing style, the importance of this book would be rather limited. But its real value, besides the stylistic aspect, is the great content. Most articles are not just well written, but also very interesting, insightful or outrightly funny. Great content in a nice package.

I've previously referred to Paul Graham's essay "Great Hackers", which is one of the best. My other favorites are Ken Arnold's "Style is Substance" and why the lucky stiff's introduction to the Ruby language.

My only small gripe with the book is the fact that most, if not all, the material inside is already available on the net. It sure is pleasant having it all nicely collected and printed in a book, so that you can read it on the plane or at the beach, but I find it quite improbable that all good software writing can be found on the net and none in print magazines and book. Or maybe it is simply easier to obtain republishing rights for online material than it is for printed stuff? A couple of comic strips seem quite out of place, too.

Apart from these minor details, a very entertaining and stimulating read. Highly recommended.
2 people found this helpful
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Richard B. Way
2.0 out of 5 stars Hit and miss and pretty off topic
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2005
Verified Purchase
Being familiar with Joel's website, and judging by the title of the book and the excepts I had seen I bought this book expecting it to be about software development. Success and failure stories of projects, designs, development, testing and deployments. What works for people? how much abstraction is good? What testing methods and tools work well and how to use them? Stuff like that. What I found however is that this collection of stories and essays has very little to do with software writing. It would be more correct to entitle is "The best of writing by people loosely related to software development." While some of it does go over some great aspects of development (The articles on social software are excellent!) there are some article that are completely assinine. For example a chapter where the author describe the best 'hacker' recruitment style, including all the offerings of your mother's basement. The author also goes to great extents to chastise anyone who isn't a python developer. There are also many articles on managing intelligence production teams(Software development, testing, deploying, etc...) and while these article were neat, they had nothing to do with the actual writing of software. Over all I was greatly disappointed in the book, and it would have been a complete waste had it not been for the (very few) burried gems in the rough and the social software articles.
17 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in India on July 2, 2018
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one of the best
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Toby Allen
5.0 out of 5 stars This is great.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 6, 2005
Verified Purchase
I like this book. I have been a reader of Joel Spolskys website for many years now, and enjoy his irreverent style and interesting analysis, so any writing he reckons is good enough to put in a book is worth reading as far as I'm concerned. This book begins to treat people who are interested in software as normal people rather than A. Dummies B. Nerds or C. People with too much money who are willing to buy books that dont really tell you anything.
The book itself is made up of articles (from 1 page to a 10) taken from websites, and have everything from cartoon foxes to stick men with fangs. The articles are all inspiring, entertaining or interesting or all three. This book is well worth the purchas price.
I'm looking forward to II
15 people found this helpful
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CSOMÁK GÁBOR
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 24, 2016
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Must have for every software developer
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