book

Masterminds of Programming

by Federico Biancuzzi, Chromatic

March 2009

Intermediate to advanced

496 pages

18h 40m

English

O'Reilly Media, Inc.

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Organization of the MaterialConventions Used in This BookHow to Contact UsSafari® Books Online
Design DecisionsUsing the LanguageOOP and ConcurrencyFutureTeaching
The Pythonic WayThe Good ProgrammerMultiple PythonsExpedients and Experience
Paper and PencilElementary PrinciplesParallelismLegacy
The Forth Language and Language DesignHardwareApplication Design
The Goals Behind BASICCompiler DesignLanguage and Programming PracticeLanguage DesignWork Goals
The Life of AlgorithmsLanguage DesignUnix and Its CultureThe Role of DocumentationComputer ScienceBreeding Little LanguagesDesigning a New LanguageLegacy CultureTransformative TechnologiesBits That Change the UniverseTheory and PracticeWaiting for a BreakthroughProgramming by Example
The Power of ScriptingExperienceLanguage Design

A Functional TeamTrajectory of Functional ProgrammingThe Haskell LanguageSpreading (Functional) EducationFormalism and Evolution
The Soundness of TheoremsThe Theory of MeaningBeyond Informatics
A Seminal PaperThe LanguageFeedback and EvolutionXQuery and XML
Engineering Objective-CGrowing a LanguageEducation and TrainingProject Management and Legacy SoftwareObjective-C and Other LanguagesComponents, Sand, and BricksQuality As an Economic PhenomenonEducation
Power or SimplicityA Matter of TasteConcurrencyDesigning a LanguageFeedback Loop
Language and DesignGrowing a LanguageC#The Future of Computer Science
Learning and TeachingThe Role of the PeopleUMLKnowledgeBe Ready for ChangeUsing UMLLayers and LanguagesA Bit of ReusabilitySymmetric RelationshipsUMLLanguage DesignTraining DevelopersCreativity, Refinement, and Patterns
The Language of RevolutionsLanguageCommunityEvolution and Revolution
Designed to LastResearch and EducationInterfaces to LongevityStandard Wishes
An Inspired AfternoonReusability and GenericityProofreading LanguagesManaging Growth and Evolution

Overview

Masterminds of Programming features exclusive interviews with the creators of several historic and highly influential programming languages. In this unique collection, you'll learn about the processes that led to specific design decisions, including the goals they had in mind, the trade-offs they had to make, and how their experiences have left an impact on programming today. Masterminds of Programming includes individual interviews with:

Adin D. Falkoff: APL
Thomas E. Kurtz: BASIC
Charles H. Moore: FORTH
Robin Milner: ML
Donald D. Chamberlin: SQL
Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan: AWK
Charles Geschke and John Warnock: PostScript
Bjarne Stroustrup: C++
Bertrand Meyer: Eiffel
Brad Cox and Tom Love: Objective-C
Larry Wall: Perl
Simon Peyton Jones, Paul Hudak, Philip Wadler, and John Hughes: Haskell
Guido van Rossum: Python
Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo and Roberto Ierusalimschy: Lua
James Gosling: Java
Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson, and James Rumbaugh: UML
Anders Hejlsberg: Delphi inventor and lead developer of C#

If you're interested in the people whose vision and hard work helped shape the computer industry, you'll find Masterminds of Programming fascinating.