T. B. Tingey said
I was coming back to Amazon to order a copy of this book to have with me at my new company. I read this book a few years back and I wanted some help explaining the vision of unit testing and agile development to my new team. This book was more an inspiration to me to write better code and be more agile in my methods than it was a learning tool for either the C# language or an XML publishing tool. I am disappointed at some of the negative reviews because those readers obviously bought the book for the wrong reason.
Perhaps it is important for people to understand that this book will not teach you C# and the author has no intention of being the C# expert (at least not in this book). The point is not to teach you how to write C# code or use the .net libraries effectively. The point is to teach you extreme programming from one of the experts.
In this book Ron lets you pair program with him as he attempts to write some new software that he needs. The software could be anything and for anyone. What he does well is develop the software quickly and with good clean code. He teaches you how to refactor and why. He teaches you how write unit tests and provide good test coverage for your application. He teaches you to write the right features and build software that will make your customers/clients happy. I would highly recommend developers that want to get into agile software development to read this book.
Kevin Partridge said
I noticed that one reviewer below had issues with the code matching the text. I will start with saying this is sometimes true. Some things were not exactly as the text assumed them to be if you were typing in text as you went along. Now, let me say that none of the omissions were that horrific. I actually learned a lot from figuring out how to get the code to compile and get all of the tests to pass even when the in-text code wasn't as it should have been. I learned a bit about internal C# structure this way as well. I should note that this was also my first exposure to C# as well. But I do have a few years of C and java under my belt (I skipped C++, why go partially OO? ;). And none of the code is really disconnected as the previous reviewer implied. The only disconnects I noticed were those between code previously written and the current code in some sections of the book. The examples always matched the narrative.
All that being said, as Mr. Cabral pointed out, the book is not about the code. It is about a process and methodology. And it covers that material thoroughly and amiably. Mr. Jeffries' writing style makes you feel like he's sitting with you over coffee relating a tale about some issues he had on a road trip. You could almost call the book, "Zen and the Art of Test Driven Development."
All in all, I highly recommend the book. And I highly suggest the other reviewer pick the book back up and work through it. It's worth it. Don't even worry about the code. Learn the process.
The only reason I don't give the book five stars is that the code issues weren't intentional. I might leave the code as it is but note the omissions and leave them as exercises for the reader if they so desire.
However, to Mr. Jeffries, I took copious notes in the book and saved versions using SVN as I worked through the code. So if you want the notes and/or the archive let me know - kevin dot gp at gmail.
Richard J. Cabral said
Ron Jeffries has been in the industry far longer than many, and his deep and personal insight is very valuable to the modern programmer.
This book is not about source code. It's marginally about a software project. It's about the process of making decisions, developing habits, coping with personal style, knowing one's shortcomings, and listening to intuition. It reveals the mind of a master craftsman plying his trade.
Ron is kind enough to provide a constant stream of knowledge gems in the form of "soundbyte" tips and literature references. Cull it for the bibliography alone and you'll get your money's worth.
Mr. Jeffries makes programming a human task. How many of us have been asked to develop something far beyond our knowledge using previously unknown tools? I believe programmers who read this book will gain confidence and pride in their trade.
Troy Brumley said
I like Ron's writing style, but the code samples in the book bore only superficial relationship to the text. I expected to be able to sit down with this book and follow along, but I could not because the disconnect between code and text was so great that I couldn't bear to read any further. The book sits, unfinished by me, which is fitting since it was left unfinished by Ron and the publisher.
Fang Jin said
This is a hard-to-come-by book. I think it's especially useful for someone programmed for less than 10 years or not ever get trained by computer science. The book uses C# which I am very happy with, but it's more like "Extrme Programming Adventures" in any lanaguage.
I learned a lot from the technique delivered by the author, ex. test,test,always write a test before coding (Don't be lazy,it'll bite u back sooner or later if you don't). I can't appreciate this more after three days of practicing that I feel more comfortable to continue my three and half year fluid dynamics project now. Before doing this, I do test but I always test in "kinda of" state. Check it out, see if you code in that state, lol.
Futhermore, the way to write test for GUI application enlightens me too, 'cause I never actually write test for GUI and don't know how. If you have the same problem, the book has a solution for you.
Personally, the nice thing about the book is that the way he wrote the book makes me think he's no better than me when he's coding :) XP is not about how to design and setup the project( which I thought what it was, maybe there's another book for this), but several ways that can help you to code with more confidence without being a master.
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