Rise & Resurrenction of the American Programmer

by Edward Yourdon

Book Overview

The author reviews what he considers to be the new generation of programmers. In doing so he aims to help programmers understand the new technologies, industries and applications they should be... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 013121831X
• ISBN13: 9780131218314
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 1.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Like a good wine, Improves with age

I bought this book march 2000, Read it, thought it was OK , left it on my shelf. 5 Years later I was going to discard it from my collection. opened it up and was surprised at the wealth of information in it and how closely it matches my own experience and philospohy. It is a mine of good information. Not a book to read front to back but to explore, it reads better than most web and magazine articles. If you can get one on the used market its worth 50cents of anyones money. i would say its time for a revised edition.

Must read for programming and consulting managers

I have read this book three years ago when I was a programming consultant. It is amazing to see the parallel between Yourdon's thoughts in the book and the current Software Engineering Institute CMM methodology. It is as if the whole new methodology was based on this book! This book definitely reads better than SEI's documentation. You can finish the book in a couple of days and retain the mahority of the ideas presented.If you are a programming supervisor, IT manager, or an enthusiastic software engineer, this book is fun, captivating, and very motivational.

The future of computer science seen by a great man

It gives a lot of guidelines about how to improve projects and human management (American and European point of view), developer behaviors, and so on. I found chapters concerning object technology, analysis and design very realistics, pinpointing advantages, drawbacks, and advice. Very good and clear Java's strategic position overview as programming language, web-based language ( client and server ), and so on. Unfortunately, I expected more details about Inernet technology ( e-commerce, ethic, ...). A very good book to read as a novel.

An extremely well written that I found very accessible.

I just graduated with a degree in History, but have been entertaining the idea of getting involved in computers in some fashion. The only problem is that I have no background at all and have little Idea where to start. I picked up Rise and Resurrection hoping to get some sort of direction. Yourdon's book is wonderfully written and very understandable. He does a great job of explaining the opportunities available in the computer world, and presents his take on burgeoning technologies and tools. I would recommend this book to anyone in the computer field, interested in getting into the computer field, or simply with an interest in computers.

Almost a rebuttal of Yourdon's 1992 "Decline and Fall."

In 1992, Ed Yourdon nearly had me convinced that code from Bangalore (India) was about to be as dominant as VCR's from Tokyo. Just a few years later, he feels better, and so do I. What changed? Many things. Today, in the consumer software market, we've learned to accept "Good Enough" Software. "Good Enough" Software depends on a considered tradeoff among schedule (delivery date), functionality (feature richness), and quality (absence of defects). Quality no longer means flawlessness, except in nuclear reactors and pacemakers. This tradeoff is well-suited to the "cowboy" culture that has long been the bane of American programming - and perhaps less suited to top-down, authoritarian cultures. Hence the balance shifts back to our own shores. Yourdon makes several other equally thought-provoking points about the brightening future for American software professionals. Visit his Website at (http://www.acm.org/~yourdon/) for an update on his philosophy, and then go and get this book!