Software and Mind: The Mechanistic Myth and Its Consequences

This book is on the current state of software development, should be required reading for anyone entering the programming field. Any programmer that is currently and dogmatically following any methodology should be handed a copy of this book.

Addressing general readers as well as software practitioners, Software and Mind discusses the fallacies of the mechanistic ideology and the degradation of minds caused by these fallacies. Mechanism holds that every aspect of the world can be represented as a simple hierarchical structure of entities. But, while useful in fields like mathematics and manufacturing, this idea is generally worthless, because most aspects of the world are too complex to be reduced to simple structures. Our software-related affairs, in particular, cannot be represented in this fashion. And yet, all programming theories and development systems, and all software applications, attempt to reduce real-world problems to neat hierarchical structures of data, operations, and features.

Using Karl Popper's famous principles of demarcation between science and pseudoscience, the book shows that the mechanistic ideology has turned most of our software-related activities into pseudoscientific pursuits. Using mechanism as warrant, the software elites are promoting invalid, even fraudulent, software notions. They force us to depend on generic, inferior systems, instead of allowing us to develop software skills and to create our own systems. Software mechanism emulates the methods of manufacturing, and thereby restricts us to high levels of abstraction and simple, isolated structures. The benefits of software, however, can be attained only if we start with low-level elements and learn to create complex, interacting structures.

If you are in school learning to program, read the book. If you program for a living, read the book. If you manage programmers, read the book. If you are thinking of investing in a software system, read the book before you buy. Above all else, if you find yourself clinging to the dogma of some methodology, take the time to read "Software and Mind: The Mechanistic Myth and its Consequences" by Andrei Sorin, PhD. It may open your mind to some possibilities.

Title Software and Mind: The Mechanistic Myth and Its Consequences
Author(s) Andrei Sorin
Publisher: Andsor Books; 1st edition (January 1, 2013)
Hardcover 944 pages
eBook PDF (944 pages, 7.4 MB) and PDF files
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0986938904
ISBN-13: 978-0986938900
Download: http://www.softwareandmind.com/

A Hacker’s Guide to Git

 Complex systems like Git become much easier to understand once you understand how they work under the hood. This guide explains some of Git’s core concepts including basic object storage, commits, branches and tags. It also contains in-depth explanations about the different kinds of merging in Git, including the much-feared rebase.

Git is currently the most widely used version control system in the world, mostly thanks to GitHub. Complex systems like Git become much easier to understand once you figure out how they really work. The goal of this guide is to shed some light on how Git works under the hood.

Title A Hacker’s Guide to Git
Authors Joseph Wynn
Publisher: Leanpub (May 25, 2014)
Paperback: N/A
eBook: HTML and PDF
Language: English
ISBN-10/ASIN: N/A
ISBN-13: N/A
Download: http://wildlyinaccurate.com/a-hackers-guide-to-git/

Pro Git

 Pro Git (Second Edition) is your fully-updated guide to Git and its usage in the modern world. Git has come a long way since it was first developed by Linus Torvalds for Linux kernel development. It has taken the open source world by storm since its inception in 2005, and this book teaches you how to use it like a pro.

Effective and well-implemented version control is a necessity for successful web projects, whether large or small. With this book you’ll learn how to master the world of distributed version workflow, use the distributed features of Git to the full, and extend Git to meet your every need.

Written by Git pros Scott Chacon and Ben Straub, Pro Git (Second Edition) builds on the hugely successful first edition, and is now fully updated for Git version 2.0, as well as including an indispensable chapter on GitHub. It’s the best book for all your Git needs.

What you’ll learn

    Use Git as a programmer or a project leader.
    Become a fluent Git user.
    Use distributed features of Git to the full.
    Acquire the ability to insert Git in the development workflow.
    Migrate programming projects from other SCMs to Git.
    Learn how to extend Git.

This book is for all open source developers: you are bound to encounter Git somewhere in the course of your working life. Proprietary software developers will appreciate Git’s enormous scalability, since it is used for the Linux project, which comprises thousands of developers and testers.

This book takes you step-by-step through ways to track, merge, and manage software projects, using this highly flexible, open source version control system.

    A book by Git experts to turn you into a Git expert
    Introduces the world of distributed version control
    Shows how to build a Git development workflow

Title Pro Git
Authors Scott Chacon
Publisher: Apress; 2nd ed. 2014 edition (December 24, 2014)
Paperback: 456 pages
eBook: HTML, PDF, ePub, and Mobi (Kindle)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1484200772
ISBN-13: 978-1484200773
Download: http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2

Data-Oriented Design

The thinking behind Data Oriented Design is very similar to how you think about relational databases. Optimizing a relational database can also involve using the cache more efficient, although in this case, the cache is not CPU cache put pages in memory. A good data base designer will also likely split out infrequently accessed data into a separate table rather than creating a table with huge number of columns were only a few of the columns are ever used.

This book is a practical guide for serious game developers. It is for game developers working to create triple A titles across multiple platforms, for independent developers trying to get the most out of their chosen target hardware, in fact for anyone who develops cutting edge software in restrictive hardware.

It is a book about how to write code. It is a book written to educate games developers in a coding paradigm that is future proof, unlike the style of coding we've become so accustomed to. It is a book rooted in C++, the language of choice by games developers of the last ten years, and provides practical advice on how to migrate without throwing away years of accumulated code and experience. This book is about how you can transform your development.

Title Data-Oriented Design
Authors Richard Fabian
Publisher: DataOrientedDesign.com (2013-06-25)
Paperback: N/A
eBook HTML
Language: English
ISBN-10: N/A
ISBN-13: N/A
Download: http://www.dataorienteddesign.com/dodmain/dodmain.html

Do Better Scrum - An Unofficial Set of Tips and Insights into How to Implement Scrum Well

Certified Scrum Trainer and Coach Jim York says: Scrum is Simple. Doing Scrum is Hard. Many people I meet in organizations say that they find it hard to know how to get started with Scrum. Others have teams that are following some Agile practices, yet are far from becoming what Jeff Sutherland terms hyper-productive.

In the four years since I wrote the first edition of this little guide many new and excellent books on Scrum have been published. A few examples that I have read and recommend to my students are Succeeding with Agile [Cohn 2009], Agile Product Management with Scrum [Pichler 2010], Coaching Agile Teams [Adkins 2010], and Essential Scrum [Rubin 2012]. Yet the fact is that most simply don’t read them and so there still seems to be demand for brief guides such as this one. My first aim with this new edition has been to provide a more rounded and complete reference to the world of Agile and Scrum, while still sticking to the essence. A second aim has been to update the practices described to match what I teach and coach today. Agile is an emergent set of patterns and practices that will, by design, change over time. The third and final aim has been to keep it as to-the-point as possible with no ‘fluff’. For those who do like to read further, the reference section has been expanded significantly.

In the first version I wrote: “I hope this little booklet may be a source of inspiration to help you do Scrum and Agile a little better each day. More importantly I hope it might encourage you to drag yourself, your team and your whole organization away from the old ways of working that simply don’t, well, work and find new ways that lead to greater quality, faster delivery and above all, more fun.” This is still its primary purpose. One more thing remains certain: you will never become better at doing Scrum (or any Agile method) without practicing. So what are you waiting for? Just go and do it!

Title Do Better Scrum - An Unofficial Set of Tips and Insights into How to Implement Scrum Well
Author(s) Peter Hundermark
Publisher: InfoQ (February 04, 2015)
Paperback N/A
eBook PDF (76 pages, 1.2 MB), ePub, and Mobi (Kindle)
Language: English
ISBN-10: N/A
ISBN-13: N/A
Download: http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/do-better-scrum