I can't speak highly enough about "The Mythical Man-Month," by Fred P. 
Brooks (1975).

Let's just say that when they issued the 20th anniversary edition, they 
didn't need to update the examples in the text.

cheers
stuart


Sharon Foster wrote:
>>From my software engineering days, I like Steve McConnell's "Code
> Complete" and "Software Project Survival Guide;" "The Mythical
> Man-Month," by Fred P. Brooks; "Joel On Software" by Joel Spolsky (who
> also has a blog); and "The Elements of Programming Style," by Kernigan
> and Plauger. K&R is directed at the C programming language, but there
> are enough similarities in syntax with PHP, Java, and a lot of other
> web developer languages that I think it's still relevant.
> 
> Sharon M. Foster, JD, MLS
> Technology Librarian
> http://firstgentrekkie.blogspot.com/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 12:12 PM, Robert Fox<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Since this list has librarians, hard core programmers and hybrid librarian programmers on it, this is probably a good place to ask this sort of question.
>>
>> I'm looking for some book recommendations. I've read a lot of technical books on how to work with specific kinds of technology, read a lot of online technical "how tos" and that has been good as far as it goes. But, technology changes too fast to be wed to one particular programming language, database technology, metadata standard, etc. I'm interested in finding books that speak to the issues of programming methodology, design principles, lessons learned, etc. that transcend any particular programming technology. Are there good books that distill the wisdom and experience of veteran developers and /or communicate best practices for things like design patterns, overall software architecture, learning from mistakes, the developer mindset and such things?
>>
>> Could you recommend perhaps the top three or four books you've read in these areas?
>>
>> Rob Fox
>> Hesburgh Libraries
>> University of Notre Dame
>>
> 


-- 
Stuart Yeates
http://www.nzetc.org/       New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/     Institutional Repository