Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, & technology book reviews, plus social, political, & economic commentary
Mastering Python, Second Edition by Rick van Hatten aims to help you “write powerful and efficient code using the full range of Python’s capabilities.” It’s a big book, some 680 pages in print form, and well written. And it does indeed delve into Python’s “full range.” Even so, a few reviewers have commented that they … Continue reading Mastering Python, 2nd Edition -> Big & Beneficial
Actually, no. This is not a post about that snarky kid named Eddie Haskell on the mid-20th-century TV sitcom “Leave It to Beaver.” (But I did watch “the Beave” and “Eddie” back then on a black-and-white television set with a rabbit-ears antenna.) The topic this time is Haskell, the not-so-popular software development language named for … Continue reading ‘What? Haskell??? Eddie Haskell?’
Mastering Go, 3rd Edition Mihalis Tsoukalous Packt Publishing, 978-180107-931-0 By Si Dunn To be honest, I’m not a great software developer. Actually, I retired from software development and software technical writing back in 2009, when the languages du jour–at least where I worked–were assembler and C, with a smattering of Erlang, and a relational database … Continue reading Going for It–with Go
Go in Practice Matt Butcher and Matt Farina Manning, paperback Considerable planning, effort and care have gone into writing Go in Practice, a new Golang programming book from Manning and also available from Amazon. The book’s structure and approach are both geared toward helping Go newbies move beyond the basics. The writing is clear, and the … Continue reading Get Better with Golang: ‘Go in Practice’
MongoDB in Action, Second Edition Covers MongoDB version 3.0 Kyle Banker Manning, paperback Yes, this updated edition of MongoDB in Action is aimed at software developers. However, the book wisely does not ignore those of us who are more casual users of MongoDB. Indeed, this is a fine how-to book for MongoDB newcomers and casual … Continue reading Manning’s ‘MongoDB in Action’ has been updated for version 3.0 – #programming #bookreview
Clojure in Action, 2nd Edition Amit Rathore and Francis Avila Manning – paperback Clojure seems to be afflicted with a measles-like outbreak of parentheses, and it generally just looks strange to many software developers. And there’s a good reason for that, as this book’s two author point out in their recently released second edition. “Clojure’s … Continue reading Attack of the Killer Parentheses: ‘Clojure in Action, 2nd Edition’ – #bookreview
Go in Action William Kennedy, with Brian Ketelsen and Erik St. Martin Manning – paperback The authors of Go in Action assume that you are a working developer who is proficient with some other language, such as Java, Ruby, Python, C# or C++. However, their book is written well, has good illustrations and offers small … Continue reading Go in Action – A comprehensive overview, from ‘Hello, Go’ to ‘Testing & Benchmarking’ – #programming #bookreview
Meteor in Action Stephan Hochhaus and Manuel Schoebel Manning – paperback I have worked with several JavaScript frameworks, and Meteor has become a favorite, mainly because it is closely related to the MEAN stack family and plays well with MongoDB and Node.js. As the Meteor in Action authors note: “Meteor runs on top of … Continue reading ‘Meteor in Action’: A good how-to guide for learning a popular JavaScript framework – #programming #bookreview
Elixir in Action Saša Jurić Manning – paperback “Elixir,” Saša Jurić writes, “is a modern functional programming language for building large-scale, distributed, fault-tolerant systems for the Erlang virtual machine.” What Elixir really is, of course, is a breath of fresh air for software developers who find it hard or confusing to work with … Continue reading Elixir in Action: A good guide to the ‘alternative language for the Erlang virtual machine’ – #programming #bookreview
Groovy in Action, Second Edition Dierik König and Paul King, with Guillaume Laforge, Hamlet D’Arcy, Cédric Champeau, Eric Pragt and Jon Skeet Manning – paperback Groovy in Action, Second Edition, is not light reading. Indeed, the printed book weighs nearly three and a half pounds and has 880 pages. But it is great reading for anyone who wants … Continue reading Groovy in Action, Second Edition – A hefty how-to guide newly updated for Groovy 2.4 – #programming #bookreview
Books, Commentary, & More 