Today, Miki Tebeka (@tebeka) writes about using sqlite3’s detect_type parameter to work around type erasure when reading databases from Python:
Miki’s Pandas Brain Teasers book is full of quirky and useful advice that explores edge cases and must-know facts for the professional developer. The Medium article contains a generous promo code you can use for any of Miki Tebeka’s Brain Teaser titles.
A great way to stay in touch with The Pragmatic Bookshelf is to sign up for our newsletter. You’ll be the first to know about new books for programmers, books in beta, and promo codes that give you discounts of up to 40%.
Today Johanna Rothman (@jrothman) writes about the origins of Agile approaches, and why the Manifesto for Agile Software Development was created:
We’ve tucked away a promo code into the Medium article, which you can use on any of Johanna’s many many ebooks. Her writing provides an extensive look into practical productivity and teamwork:
Giving appropriate feedback to those you manage requires both honesty and trust. Today James Stanier (@jstanier) explores how you can help people improve and applaud their successes in his Medium article:
We’ve embedded a generous promo code into the article so you can more easily purchase James’ ebook Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager. In your career, you’ll may suddenly get the opportunity to lead teams: to become a manager. But this is often uncharted territory. How do you decide whether this career move is right for you? And if you do, what do you need to learn to succeed? Let Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager help guide you, as it shares the secrets you need to know to manage engineers successfully:
Also in print from your favorite independent book seller.
Today Carmine Zaccagnino (@carminezacc) explores the utility of mobile device apps and the languages that create them. With an eye towards cross-platform development, Carmine writes about Flutter, Google’s cross-platform solution to create universal apps with a single codebase:
Carmine Zaccagnino’s book Programming Flutter: Native, Cross-Platform Apps the Easy Way introduces Flutter to developers looking to deploy cross-platform. Deliver the native look, feel, and performance you and your users expect from an app written with each platform’s own tools and languages. Create apps fast, doing half the work you were doing before and exploiting powerful new features to speed up development. Write once, run anywhere.
Flutter: Native, Cross-Platform Apps the Easy Way is in print from your preferred book seller.
Is your Agile approach the right one? Do you deal with an interrupted work flow, lots of open items, intermittent releases? Johanna Rothman (@jrothman) helps you customize your approach in this Medium article:
Johanna’s books dive into practical ways to lead innovative organizations. If you like this article, make sure to check out all her books with The Pragmatic Bookshelf. Use the discount code from the article to save on your eBook purchase direct from PragProg:
In this Medium write-up, Miki Tebeka (@tebeka) explores values and references in Go arrays. He uses a little code challenge that demonstrates some edge conditions within the language that may be non-obvious to new Go developers:
Miki’s book, Go Brain Teasers contains 25 short programs that will challenge your understanding of Go. Like any big project, the Go developers had to make some design decisions that at times seem surprising. This book uses those quirks as a teaching opportunity.
By understanding the gaps in your knowledge, you’ll become better at what you do. Some of the teasers are from the author’s experience shipping bugs to production, and some from others doing the same. Teasers and puzzles are fun, and learning how to solve them can teach you to avoid programming mistakes and maybe even impress your colleagues and future employers.
We’ve added a discount code to the Medium post that you can apply to purchasing the Go Brain Teasers ebook:
Go Brain Teasers is in print. Available from your preferred book reseller.
Performance reviews are the best opportunity that you have to push your top performers further and course-correct those who are underperforming. James Stanier (@jstanier) writes that you can use these reviews well, and your staff will only get better:
James’ book Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager helps you start your transition to being a manager and see how that compares to being an engineer. Learn how to better organize information, feel productive, and delegate, but not micromanage. Discover how to manage your own boss, hire and fire, do performance and salary reviews, and build a great team. You’ll also learn the psychology: how to ship while keeping staff happy, coach and mentor, deal with deadline pressure, handle sensitive information, and navigate workplace politics.
We’ve added a nice promo code to his Medium article that you can use to purchase the ebook:
Print version available too. Purchase from your independent bookseller.
Is WebRTC Old or New? The fundamental, timeless truth of web development is that our technologies are always both old and new, writes Karl Stolley (@karlstolley) in this Medium article:
Karl’s book Programming WebRTC is now in beta and you can use the promo code from the Medium article to purchase it. WebRTC is an API exposed in all modern web browsers. After almost a decade of development, the WebRTC specification was finalized, and this book provides faithful coverage of that finalized specification:
Team effort can surpass the work of an individual. Are you using delegation effectively? James Stanier (@jstanier) writes today about the power of delegating:
Going from engineer to manager doesn’t have to be intimidating. Engineers can be managers, and fantastic ones at that. Cast aside the rhetoric and focus on practical, hands-on techniques and tools. You’ll become an effective and supportive team leader that your staff will look up to. Read about this in Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager by James Stanier.
We’ve tucked a generous promo code into James’ Medium article that you can use to purchase the ebook from our site. Become an Effective Software Engineer Manager is also in print and available from independent booksellers around the world.
Clive Sinclair who passed away on September 16, 2021, was, in all senses of the word, a visionary. Erica Sadun (@PragmaticErica) looks at things he built and achieved, emphasizing what a rare talent he was:
Erica’s Book, Swift Style is an opinionated guide to an opinionated language. It explores the the dos and don’ts involved in crafting readable Swift code and code documentation. We’ve added a promo code to the Medium article for you to use when purchasing her ebook:
If you look really carefully, there’s a tiny Swift logo on the Coffee cup. It took more time to get the rights to use that teensy logo than it took to design the entire cover!
(The joke is that a slug is a really slow, which is to say non-swift, creature, but it’s hopped up on caffeine and willpower.)
Program synthesis, including Genetic Algorithms, automates programming details and enables programmers to focus on big goals. Today, Frances Buontempo (@fbuontempo) explores creating the classic FizzBuzz solver using this tech:
Self-driving cars, natural language recognition, and online recommendation engines are all possible thanks to Machine Learning. Now you can create your own genetic algorithms, nature-inspired swarms, Monte Carlo simulations, cellular automata, and clusters. Learn how to test your ML code and dive into even more advanced topics with Genetic Algorithms and Machine Learning for Programmers by Frances Buontempo:
Pick up a copy of the ebook using the promo code we added to the Medium write-up or buy a print copy from your favorite booksellers.
Have you ever had one of those days where you feel like work has completely sapped you of all of your emotional energy? James Stanier (@jstanier) writes about bringing your best as a manager in difficult times:
Consider your whole department. How can you work with other teams to ensure best practice? How do you help form guilds and committees and communicate effectively? How can you create career tracks for individual contributors and managers? How can you support flexible and remote working? How can you improve diversity in the industry through your own actions? Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager will show you how.
Use the code from the Medium article for a tidy discount on the ebook or pick up a copy from your favorite independent bookseller.
Your elevator pitch can be the life or death of your book. Jim Almo shows how to write a good one. If you’re interested in submitting a proposal to The Pragmatic Programmers, read through our Become an Author page and get in touch! proposals@pragprog.com
Happy Birthday, ! Dmitry Zinoviev (@aqsaqal) writes about the history (and birthday) of the humble emoticon (or smileys as they were known in their day):
When you are ready to learn more about Python, network analysis, data science, and code reuse check out Dmitry’s books. Use the promo from the Medium post to save on any of Dmitry’s ebooks. His books are also in print, available from your favorite booksellers.
Today, Frances Buontempo (@fbuontempo) writes about Swarm Algorithms on our Medium feed. While a genetic algorithm mixes up potential solutions by merging some together and periodically mutating some values, swarm algorithms can be regarded as individual agents collaborating, each representing a solution to a problem.
Self-driving cars, natural language recognition, and online recommendation engines are all possible thanks to Machine Learning. Now you can create your own genetic algorithms, nature-inspired swarms, Monte Carlo simulations, cellular automata, and clusters. Learn how to test your ML code and dive into even more advanced topics. If you are a beginner-to-intermediate programmer keen to understand machine learning, this book is for you.
In print, available from booksellers around the world.
As a manager, your relationship isn’t just with your team but also with the management above you. James Stanier (@jstanier) writes about getting the best out of the relationship with your own manager so you can go further in your career.
We’ve tucked a promo code for the ebook into the Medium article, good to the end of October. James’ book Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager teaches you how to be the leader Your development team needs:
The title is in print if you prefer words on real pages, and available for sale from world-wide booksellers.
! Dmitry Zinoviev (