Engineering

I built the Kenputer as part of 6.004, one of many MIT courses with material now available on the Open Courseware Project. The text for 6.001, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, demonstrates programming can be an esthetic and intellectual endeavor. Abstraction and Specification in Program Development is no longer used for 6.170 (and CLU was never that useful), but the material was my first introduction to useful data abstraction and documentation of function and module interfaces.

Henry Petroski writes on engineering design and engineering failures. The Evolution of Everyday Things explains how engineering design is more of an evolutionary process than a one-shot design. To Engineer is Human examines high-profile engineering failures and their causes.

Bob Colwell writes on various engineering issues, including amusing anecdotes from his days as a processor architect at Intel.

For a trip down memory lane, check out Apple folklore, Mac system notes, the Symbolics Museum, and the Old Computers Museum.

The movie Office Space is required viewing. And of course, there's Dilbert, which is funny until you realize it's all true.

Software Development

If you're going to read one book on software development, read Steve McConnell's Rapid Development, a compendium of modern software development practices. Gordon Bell's High-Tech Ventures, although dated, is my favorite how-to guide for startups. Fred Brook's The Mythical Man-Month is another classic (the title refers to the point that adding unnecessary people on a project is not only useless, but counterproductive). Everyone should expend some thought on the intellectual property issues of software and the commons that benefit us all - read the analyses and explanations by Lawrence Lessig.

See game development resources for recommended books and web sites on game development.

I was largely inspired to put my own thoughts in writing by the essays on hacker culture by Eric Raymond, thoughts on programmers and program languages by Paul Graham, the personal anecdotes and insights into software design of Richard Gabriel, and the intelligent rants of Joel on Software. Eric Sink offers tips on one-person software developer outfits ("Micro-ISV"'s).

Best Practices

The term "best practices" is about as accurate and realistic as "zero-defect software", but there are some useful ideas embedded in all those fads and buzzwords.

Refactoring techniques are listed at Refactoring.com.

The Agile Manifesto lists the principles of agile software development methodologies, such as extreme programming and scrum development.

Design patterns are listed at the Portland Pattern Repository. Lest one think that design patterns originated entirely from within the programming community, read architect Christopher Alexander's pattern language trilogy.

The Java Coding Style Guidelines are fairly reasonable, yet many feel compelled to mangle it with Hungarian Notation, explained in Charles Simonyi's original paper.

User Interfaces

Anyone designing user interfaces should be familiar with graphic design, especially the work of Paul Rand. Edward Tufte demonstrates how to convey information efficiently and accurately via graphics. Donald Norman argues against unncessary complexity in everday life. Ask Tog about GUI design. Jakob Nielsen writes on web usability.

Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines and Apple Human Interface Guidelines.

If you're willing to look beyond standard GUI design, read about interactive storytelling from Chris Crawford and graphical narrative from Scott McCloud.