Coders at Work

Peter Seibel interviews 15 giants of the world of computer programming. I pretty much didn't know any of the programmers before, and my programming skills are definitely far from any of their standards, but this book was an amazing read.

The interviews create detailed portraits, zooming in on the craft of programming, and feature everyone's thoughts, opinions, life-stories, tips and tricks about how they program, what languages they use, how they debug, and if they start bottom-up and top-down. Seibel asks questions about how they got into programming; if they consider themselves scientists, engineers, artists or craftsman; and how they recognize great programming skills.

We hear hands-on stories about team management of coders, enforcing of strict coding syntax standards, finding the balance between quick-and-dirty and over-optimized code, and a lot of bashing of C and C++ and their use of pointers.

Lessons i will take away from this book:
> Read other people's code, a lot!
> Write readable code, instead of extensive commenting
> Learn more languages

With few exceptions most of the interviewees started learning the craft in the area of punch-cards and teleprinters, and have been influential for the discipline by inventing operating systems, programming languages or writing the bible of programming.

I'd really like to see a version of this book showcasing today's media-art coders. But in general, there really should be a XXXXXX-at-Work for every discipline there is. Hearing personal accounts, behind-the-scene stories about the field you are passionate about ...