Do you want to become a great developer?

I found this old post on my old blog and still think it may have some good book tips which I will share with you on my new blog, where I also have new visitors.

In this post I will give my suggestions of books that in my opinion could make you become a great developer. Remember that books will only give you theoretical knowledge and not the practical knowledge, so you also need to use your knowledge and do some practical programming to success. You will also learn from your mistakes and the best way to succeed is to follow those who have succeeded.

Note: I assume you already have some great skills in some programming language, such as C#, VB.Net, Java and C/C++ etc. The books I will list in this post will be easier to understand if you have basic knowledge in C#, C/C++ or Java. Most examples in the book are written in Java, C# or C/C++.

Before you start your path to become a great developer, I should suggest you to read the following book:

The Balanced Life: Achieving Success in Work & Love - Alan McGinnis

To become a great developer you will need time, and you should be careful so you don’t scarify the one you love.

Read the books in the order they are listed:

Learn how to become a Pragmatic programmer:

1) The Pragmatic Programmer - Andrew Hunt, David Thomas

Learn how to write well structured code

2) Code Complete, Second Edition - Steve McConnell

Learn about how to write secure code

3) Writing Secure Code 2:Edition - Howard and LeBlanc

Learn about Object Oriented thought process

4) The Object-Oriented thought Process – Matt Weisfeld

Learn GOF’s Design Patterns

5) Design Patterns – GOF

Learn about different principles and patterns etc

6) Agile Software Development, Principles, Patterns, and Practices - Robert C. Martin

Learn how to write high quality code by suing TDD

7) Test Driven Development: By Example - Kent Beck

Learn about how you can improve the design of existing code

8) Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code - Martin Fowler

Learn about how to refactoring to patterns

9) Refactoring to Patterns - Joshua Kerievsky

Learn about Data Structures and when to use them

10) Data Structures And Algorithms With Object-Oriented Design Patterns In C++ - Bruno R. Preiss

Another great book I can recommend is a book about how to help others to excel:

Bringing Out the Best in People: How to Enjoy Helping Others Excel - Alan McGinnis

If anyone have some more book tips or stuff that make you to be a good developer, please feel free to add a comment!

12 Comments

  • Being a great developer does not pay more than being a mediocre developer. I will not be reading any of those books. On the other hand, I will be studying accounting, video editing, and graphics design because a web developer does a lot more than write code.

  • Actually I dont understand what Fredrik was trying to do??? To become a greate developer I should buy those books and read all of those. Because i think to increase my technical skills i have to engage in practise and grabing new things not only reading books which are only related with codes!!!! Surely books are good helping tools but only with books you cant be a great developer!!!


  • itvison:
    Thanks for the comments and you are right, I actaully write in the post the following if you read the first part:
    "Remember that books will only give you theoretical knowledge and not the practical knowledge, so you also need to use your knowledge and do some practical programming to success. You will also learn from your mistakes and the best way to succeed is to follow those who have succeeded."
    The books helped me to write better softwares and the idea is to give some people tips about great books which can help them in the same way they helped me.

  • Eric Evans' book on Domain Driven Design was an eye opener for me. And yes, reading books can only get you so far.

    cheers
    Florian

  • To itvision and rrobbins,
    Oh my god, you guys never read this books? Shame on you if you are developer and not reading these books. Good job Fredrik N for listing my favourite books. I wish i can read them all again. :D

  • The Martin Fowler quote is chopped of at the bottom on firefox. That is quite ironic & funny.

    ...that humans can.../chop.

  • Basically reading books improves technical knowledge and practicing it will make persisted in the brain. After reading the books knowingly or unknowingly we will use some of the techniques, patterns and guidelines while coding. Reading improve your knowledge and knowledge is POWER.

  • Good job, listing some books that helped you shape your thinking when it came to software developments. I have already read some of books but I will diffidently, read the others e.g The Balanced Life: Achieving Success in Work & Love -
    Andy Verma

  • Sir, I appreciate your knowledge sharing with novices. I find that my first job as a database/web developer is something quite more difficult that I expected when I was in university. So I decided to research a bit on how to become a better programmer before going for all those last-version x-language reference books. Then I find that some of the books like "The pragmatic programmer" are 8 years old. My question is if what I can find in that book still applies today. Thanks so much again for your advice.

  • Ship It!A Practical Guide to Successfull Software Project. A must read book for Software Project Manager,Developer.

  • i find your list interesing and i agree that the theorie and the practice are both important to become a great developper.
    the book "clean code" must also be in your list. Thanks and keep going.

  • Thanks fredrik
    a question, somebook what help to theme of architecture.

    regards
    Miguel

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