Practical Development Environments
reviewed by Jonathan Hoyle
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Author: Matthew B. Doar https://www.oreilly.com/pub/au/1866 O’Reilly Media, Inc. 1005 Gravenstein Highway North Sebastopol, CA 95472 800-998-9938 Booksite: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/practicalde/ $40 USD, $56 CND, £28.50 GBP, € Euro Published: September 2005. Pages: 328 ISBN: 0596007965 Audience: Organizations interested in developing software. Strengths: Good overall approach, grounded in practicality rather than ideology. Weakness: Lacking illustrations and historic examples. |
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When a software engineer or manager hears the term development environment, he usually thinks of the compiler. Matthew Doar widens the term to cover the entire infrastructure of software creation, including bug tracking, QA testing, source control and much, much more. This books covers the aspects of software development aside from the compiler used to generate the application. As the author writes:
This book doesn't tell you how to write faster code, how to write code with fewer memory leaks, or even how to debug code. It does tell you how to compile your product faster, how to keep track of all the code you write, and how to track the bugs in your code.
One of the most important tools used by the software developer is source control: a repository used to save and back up the source code while development is under way. Doar explains the importance of source control and describes a number of solutions currently available, from CVS to PerForce to SourceSafe, and many others. Likewise, he describes the importance of build management, QA testing tools, bug tracking software, documentation environments, release management, and project communication. There is even a section on company politics and how it affects software product development.
What is most refreshing about this book is that it is very frank and practical in nature, not coming from a programming ideology. Pragmatic decisions are encouraged, rather than strict adherence to some engineering creed or manifesto. When offering solutions to a particular aspect of software development, the author lists a number of possibilities, from freeware to commercial. The author is also frank about the pro's and con's of the various tools, clearly showing his experience in the industry with them.
In conclusion, Practical Development Environments is a must read for any organization serious about developing software. It is not overly technical, approachable by QA and and documentation writers, yet detailed enough to cover all aspect of the product cycle. Highly recommended.