Dreaming in code : two dozen programmers, three years, 4,732 bugs, and one quest for transcendent software / Scott Rosenberg.
2007
681.3.C6000 R813
Available at ITU
Items
Details
Call Number
681.3.C6000 R813
Title
Dreaming in code : two dozen programmers, three years, 4,732 bugs, and one quest for transcendent software / Scott Rosenberg.
Language
English
Author
Rosenberg, Scott.
Edition
1st ed.
Imprint
New York : Crown Publishers, c2007.
Description
400 p. ; 25 cm.
Summary
[Publisher description] In the 80s, Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine attempted to define the story of the development of a minicomputer: from the new science to the business and nascent culture of electronic hardware and software that was characteristic of that time. Scott Rosenberg's Dreaming in Code draws on Kidder's model as it attempts to document the state of software, the Internet, and everything circa 2006 through the lens of Chandler, an as-yet-unfinished software application for the management of personal information. The Chandler project--driven by Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development and main author of its 1-2-3 spreadsheet, and later co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation--isn't the primary point of Dreaming in Code, though reading about software people and their social behavior is at least as interesting as reading about that of meerkats or monkeys. Rather, Chandler is a rhetorical device with which Rosenberg takes on the big questions: How do software development teams work (or not)? Why does the reuse of software modules rarely work altogether correctly? Does open-source development by volunteers on the Internet lead to innovation or just insanely bifurcated chaos? Chandler helps his readers think more clearly about all of these issues; however, "answers" to these questions are, of course, not to be had, which is one of his points. The problem with books about technical subjects that aspire to appeal to a general audience, particularly computers and software, is that such subjects are so far outside the realm of familiarity of most people that the prose bogs down in analogy and metaphor. Rosenberg manages to avoid too much of that and deliver a readable account of software development and culture.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [357]-383) and index.
Formatted Contents Note
Chapter 0 Software Time [1975-2000]
Chapter 1 Doomed [July 2003]
Chapter 2 The Soul of Agenda [1968-2001]
Chapter 3 Prototypes and Python [2001-November 2002]
Chapter 4 Lego Land [November 2002-August 2003]
Chapter 5 Managing Dogs and Geeks [April-August 2003]
Chapter 6 Getting Design Done [July-November 2003]
Chapter 7 Detail View [January-May 2004]
Chapter 8 Stickies on a Whiteboard [June-October 2004]
Chapter 9 Methods
Chapter 10 Engineers and Artists
Chapter 11 The Road to Dogfood [November 2004-November 2005]
Epilogue A Long Bet [2005-2029 and beyond]
Chapter 0 Software Time [1975-2000]
Chapter 1 Doomed [July 2003]
Chapter 2 The Soul of Agenda [1968-2001]
Chapter 3 Prototypes and Python [2001-November 2002]
Chapter 4 Lego Land [November 2002-August 2003]
Chapter 5 Managing Dogs and Geeks [April-August 2003]
Chapter 6 Getting Design Done [July-November 2003]
Chapter 7 Detail View [January-May 2004]
Chapter 8 Stickies on a Whiteboard [June-October 2004]
Chapter 9 Methods
Chapter 10 Engineers and Artists
Chapter 11 The Road to Dogfood [November 2004-November 2005]
Epilogue A Long Bet [2005-2029 and beyond]
ISBN
1400082463
9781400082469
9781400082469
Location
Library Reading Room 681.3.C6000 R813
Record Appears in
General Collection