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Scott Rosenberg

Dreaming in Code

Software projects are notorious for their problems - time and budget overruns, bugs and feature creep. In Dreaming in Code Scott Rosenberg describes the early days of development of Chandler by the OSAF. This was developed as an open source program, but with substantial funding, so one might think it could avoid the usual problems of software development. But it seems nothing is immune, and problems soon arose. In particular, there was little financial pressure to get something out of the door and version 1.0 always seemed to be a couple of years away.

In 2002, when Rosenberg decided to sit in on the development of Chandler, it seemed that it would take about a year to have a viable product. Three years later it was something of a problem to finish a book about a project which was taking so much time. But Rosenberg is a skilled writer, and rather than just describe the day to day discussions of the project he includes plenty of material about the history of the problems of software development, the proposed solutions, and why these solutions didn't work. The book is aimed at a non-specialist readership, and will be of interest to anyone who wants to find out why writing software is such a problem.

Amazon.com info

Hardcover 416 pages
ISBN: 1400082463
Salesrank: 247707
Weight:1.45 lbs

Published: 2007 Crown

Amazon price $17.13

Marketplace:New from $6.03:Used from $1.49

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Amazon.co.uk info

Hardcover 416 pages
ISBN: 1400082463
Salesrank: 162731
Weight:1.45 lbs

Published: 2007 Crown Publishers

Amazon price £15.81

Marketplace:New from £10.85:Used from £3.05

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Amazon.ca info

Hardcover 416 pages
ISBN: 1400082463
Salesrank: 86991
Weight:1.45 lbs

Published: 2007 Crown

Amazon price CDN$ 21.42

Marketplace:New from CDN$ 18.58:Used from CDN$ 4.90

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Product Description
Their story takes us through a maze of dead ends and exhilarating breakthroughs as they and their colleagues wrestle not only with the abstraction of code but with the unpredictability of human behavior, especially their own. Along the way, we encounter black holes, turtles, snakes, dragons, axe-sharpening, and yak-shaving—and take a guided tour through the theories and methods, both brilliant and misguided, that litter the history of software development, from the famous “mythical man-month” to Extreme Programming. Not just for technophiles but for anyone captivated by the drama of invention, Dreaming in Code offers a window into both the information age and the workings of the human mind.

Product Description

Their story takes us through a maze of dead ends and exhilarating breakthroughs as they and their colleagues wrestle not only with the abstraction of code but with the unpredictability of human behavior,
especially their own. Along the way, we encounter black holes, turtles, snakes, dragons, axe-sharpening, and yak-shaving—and take a guided tour through the theories and methods, both brilliant and misguided, that litter the history of software development, from the famous “mythical man-month” to Extreme Programming. Not just for technophiles but for anyone captivated by the drama of invention, Dreaming in Code offers a window into both the information age and the workings of the human mind.

Good not great ****
If you want to read a classic "Soul of a New Machine" beats this worthy book. But if you have a few spare hours you won't be unhappy with "Dreaming in Code". Solid but missing some 'spark' that lifts if from good to great. Recommended read but read "Soul" first if you haven't already.

Good not great ****

If you want to read a classic "Soul of a New Machine" beats this worthy book.

But if you have a few spare hours you won't be unhappy with "Dreaming in Code".

Solid but missing some 'spark' that lifts if from good to great.

Recommended read but read "Soul" first if you haven't already.

Required reading *****
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this book is so good that it should be required reading for all students of Computer Programming. It's not a technical book, but it's perhaps more important than any single technical guide--it contrasts the realities of software development with the neatly defined ideals of computer science. I will read this book again and again.

Required reading *****

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this book is so good that it should be required reading for all students of Computer Programming. It's not a technical book, but it's perhaps more important than any single technical guide--it contrasts the realities of software development with the neatly defined ideals of computer science. I will read this book again and again.

Good, easy-going, starting point for further reading ***
I found this book generally interesting. It is a shame that there was no conclusion for the ongoing case-study but I suppose this affirms many of the authors points. There are a lot of references to further interesting reading. I am currently enjoying Joel on Software as a result of hearing about it in the pages of this book.

Good, easy-going, starting point for further reading ***

I found this book generally interesting. It is a shame that there was no conclusion for the ongoing case-study but I suppose this affirms many of the authors points.

There are a lot of references to further interesting reading. I am currently enjoying Joel on Software as a result of hearing about it in the pages of this book.

Tales from black arts of software development ****
Sometimes you read a book and you find yourself feeling an eerie sense of Deja Vu. Dreaming in Code is just such a book. The main premise surrounds the Chandler project and how its project lifecycle grows and changes over time. What was truly fascinating was watching all the pitfalls the project went through. In almost every case I had the sense of having had that happen - from feature creep to lack of testing to a un-articulated design - I've been there. Its even more interesting to see the same mistakes I've lived through repeated here - you'd think we'd have learned from the past. Sprinkled within the story were tangents into the history and theory of programming. These were sometimes interesting but, especially towards the end, they felt like filler. Still this is a great book and very much worth reading by software professionals

Tales from black arts of software development ****

Sometimes you read a book and you find yourself feeling an eerie sense of Deja Vu. Dreaming in Code is just such a book. The main premise surrounds the Chandler project and how its project lifecycle grows and changes over time.

What was truly fascinating was watching all the pitfalls the project went through. In almost every case I had the sense of having had that happen - from feature creep to lack of testing to a un-articulated design - I've been there. Its even more interesting to see the same mistakes I've lived through repeated here - you'd think we'd have learned from the past.

Sprinkled within the story were tangents into the history and theory of programming. These were sometimes interesting but, especially towards the end, they felt like filler.

Still this is a great book and very much worth reading by software professionals

Great insight into the compexities of software engineering *****
As an IT consultant who does a lot of shorter term gov't projects, this book really hit home. The author really took a good look at some of the questions and problems with software development from a very fundamental level, delving into how the profession was formed, its current state, and even the current education system. I wish this was mandatory reading for software engineering classes in college. While painting a somewhat bleak outlook of the current state of development, I think he is spot on with some of the fundamental problems that he identifies. I also enjoyed his writing style. I do not thing the book will be a good read to those outside of the profession, but its filled with "geek" humor and makes for a good read. Also, he splits the chapters into psuedo-sub chapters which allows for and interesting continuous store with plenty of well placed "departures" and anecdotes.

Great insight into the compexities of software engineering *****

As an IT consultant who does a lot of shorter term gov't projects, this book really hit home. The author really took a good look at some of the questions and problems with software development from a very fundamental level, delving into how the profession was formed, its current state, and even the current education system.

I wish this was mandatory reading for software engineering classes in college. While painting a somewhat bleak outlook of the current state of development, I think he is spot on with some of the fundamental problems that he identifies.

I also enjoyed his writing style. I do not thing the book will be a good read to those outside of the profession, but its filled with "geek" humor and makes for a good read. Also, he splits the chapters into psuedo-sub chapters which allows for and interesting continuous store with plenty of well placed "departures" and anecdotes.

The case against open source - unfortunately ***
While trying to write a review on Amazon I struggled with whether to give it 0, 3 or 5 stars, let me explain First the book is about the development of Chanlder, a next generation PIM sponsored by Mitch Kapor, ex Lotus Chief and with some of the big names in software development and open source, including Andy Hetzfeld whold wrote most of the original Max UI code. What strikes you while reading this is what a complete disaster the project was, they seem to spend weeks if not months "thinking" about the design, navel gazing like never before. The book seems to suggest the designers never once tried to use actual customers or possible customers to understand the problem domain but instead came up with wierd and wonderful designs from the UI down to the lowest level code, most of which were near impossible to implement The author then goes on to suggest, many times in the book, that software is hard and thats a fact. My god, its hard the way these people tried to develop it. On the back of the book I downloaded Chandler, and what a waste of several man years, and several million $$'s its basically a very bad PIM that is barely intuitive, slow and to be honest a bit c**p. So back to the review, if you want to read about the trials and tribulations of a complete mess of a software project, buy this book, 5 stars If you want to read about how not to design and develop software in the current internet age, buy this book, 5 stars If you want to read about how some of the apparent great minds in open source, are not really that great at working as a team in a real company, buy this book, 3 stars If you want the author to describe every computer programming term in the most basic definition, buy this book, 2 stars If you want to learn how to write great software, don't buy this book, 1 star Poor people, you really did get it wrong

The case against open source - unfortunately ***

While trying to write a review on Amazon I struggled with whether to give it 0, 3 or 5 stars, let me explain

First the book is about the development of Chanlder, a next generation PIM sponsored by Mitch Kapor, ex Lotus Chief and with some of the big names in software development and open source, including Andy Hetzfeld whold wrote most of the original Max UI code.

What strikes you while reading this is what a complete disaster the project was, they seem to spend weeks if not months "thinking" about the design, navel gazing like never before. The book seems to suggest the designers never once tried to use actual customers or possible customers to understand the problem domain but instead came up with wierd and wonderful designs from the UI down to the lowest level code, most of which were near impossible to implement

The author then goes on to suggest, many times in the book, that software is hard and thats a fact. My god, its hard the way these people tried to develop it.

On the back of the book I downloaded Chandler, and what a waste of several man years, and several million $$'s its basically a very bad PIM that is barely intuitive, slow and to be honest a bit c**p.

So back to the review, if you want to read about the trials and tribulations of a complete mess of a software project, buy this book, 5 stars
If you want to read about how not to design and develop software in the current internet age, buy this book, 5 stars
If you want to read about how some of the apparent great minds in open source, are not really that great at working as a team in a real company, buy this book, 3 stars
If you want the author to describe every computer programming term in the most basic definition, buy this book, 2 stars

If you want to learn how to write great software, don't buy this book, 1 star

Poor people, you really did get it wrong

The 'Spinal Tap' of software. ***
The story this book tells would be funny if it weren't so tragic. It's the sad tale of a piece of software - started in 2002 - that STILL is very, very far from finished. I purchased the book because I was (briefly!!!) interested in the software - a Personal Information Manager called Chandler (you can go to chandler.org and download it yourself, if you have some time to waste.) I read the book with a growing sense of disbelief - HOW many programmers? And some of them FAMOUS??? HOW much money?? HOW long??? And the software is STILL (sorry) a non-functioning piece of junk?? More than anything else, I was reminded of the movie 'Spinal Tap'... People who (to judge by this particular project) appear incompetent, talking like they are the source of all knowledge on the subject. If anything this book is a manual on how NOT to undertake a software project. Personally, I suspect that one single programmer, working in his spare time, could have produced a better program than Chandler, and reading this book only reinforced that belief. The failure of Chandler, of course, is not the author's fault. It's very clear that he's on the side of the programmers and their managers, and as the book closes you can sense his own sadness (tinged with disbelief) that he has to finish with no ending to his story. However, I've deducted a few stars because he sometimes wanders so far from the central story, sometimes for several chapters. We're given long essays on why software is 'hard', before returning to the Chandler story - and then the book almost disproves its own argument by ending with an example of how a single motivated programmer can make it look easy! A cautionary tale on why software should not be written by committee.

The 'Spinal Tap' of software. ***

The story this book tells would be funny if it weren't so tragic. It's the sad tale of a piece of software - started in 2002 - that STILL is very, very far from finished.

I purchased the book because I was (briefly!!!) interested in the software - a Personal Information Manager called Chandler (you can go to chandler.org and download it yourself, if you have some time to waste.)

I read the book with a growing sense of disbelief - HOW many programmers? And some of them FAMOUS??? HOW much money?? HOW long??? And the software is STILL (sorry) a non-functioning piece of junk??

More than anything else, I was reminded of the movie 'Spinal Tap'... People who (to judge by this particular project) appear incompetent, talking like they are the source of all knowledge on the subject.

If anything this book is a manual on how NOT to undertake a software project. Personally, I suspect that one single programmer, working in his spare time, could have produced a better program than Chandler, and reading this book only reinforced that belief.

The failure of Chandler, of course, is not the author's fault. It's very clear that he's on the side of the programmers and their managers, and as the book closes you can sense his own sadness (tinged with disbelief) that he has to finish with no ending to his story.

However, I've deducted a few stars because he sometimes wanders so far from the central story, sometimes for several chapters. We're given long essays on why software is 'hard', before returning to the Chandler story - and then the book almost disproves its own argument by ending with an example of how a single motivated programmer can make it look easy!

A cautionary tale on why software should not be written by committee.

Tell me something I don't already know ***
This is an extremely well-written book which is entertaining and easy to read. It's almost defining a new genre; rather than saying anything new to software practitioners, it reads like a popular science book. In a sense, this is like an episode of Horizon telling you why software is hard. And fundamentally, this is what the book says; it says, despite the best intentions of all involved, software is hard. It says this at the start, it says it at the end, and it says it in the middle. If you're in the industry, you won't find any new revelations here; if you haven't done so already, go and read "The Mythical Man-Month" for the lowdown on exactly why it's so hard. The book is written without finger-pointing, and that is its second greatest weakness. Scott Rosenberg decries how the software industry falls short of holding inquests into its failures, but then stops short of doing so himself. He hints that changing requirements are a Bad Thing, but doesn't challenge Chandler's design or technology choices, despite the fact that these are clearly contributing factors to the immense slippage. Overall, entertaining, light and fluffy - just don't expect it to tell you anything you don't already know.

Tell me something I don't already know ***

This is an extremely well-written book which is entertaining and easy to read. It's almost defining a new genre; rather than saying anything new to software practitioners, it reads like a popular science book. In a sense, this is like an episode of Horizon telling you why software is hard.

And fundamentally, this is what the book says; it says, despite the best intentions of all involved, software is hard. It says this at the start, it says it at the end, and it says it in the middle. If you're in the industry, you won't find any new revelations here; if you haven't done so already, go and read "The Mythical Man-Month" for the lowdown on exactly why it's so hard.

The book is written without finger-pointing, and that is its second greatest weakness. Scott Rosenberg decries how the software industry falls short of holding inquests into its failures, but then stops short of doing so himself. He hints that changing requirements are a Bad Thing, but doesn't challenge Chandler's design or technology choices, despite the fact that these are clearly contributing factors to the immense slippage.

Overall, entertaining, light and fluffy - just don't expect it to tell you anything you don't already know.

Excellent *****
Books on software and project management are by and large a dry bunch. This book most definitely isn't in that category. It is entertaining and engaging from start to finish. And written in an intelligent style that could to be admired for its own sake, but also well researched and illustrated with very well chosen quotes and examples. I was very impressed. It covers the development of Chandler from the initial concept through the design and prototype stages and towards the first working releases. It details the dead-ends and false starts that characterise many large projects and tries to explain how they happened. Along the way Scott explains a lot of the details of software design and development and its history in a clear and non-technical style. Definitely holding the "intelligent laymen" in mind he has written some very concise and readable descriptions of some fairly complex topics. Along the way he introduces some thought provoking points and even managed to clarify a few concepts that I thought I already understood (and I've 20 years of experience in programming!)

Excellent *****

Books on software and project management are by and large a dry bunch. This book most definitely isn't in that category. It is entertaining and engaging from start to finish. And written in an intelligent style that could to be admired for its own sake, but also well researched and illustrated with very well chosen quotes and examples. I was very impressed.
It covers the development of Chandler from the initial concept through the design and prototype stages and towards the first working releases. It details the dead-ends and false starts that characterise many large projects and tries to explain how they happened.
Along the way Scott explains a lot of the details of software design and development and its history in a clear and non-technical style. Definitely holding the "intelligent laymen" in mind he has written some very concise and readable descriptions of some fairly complex topics. Along the way he introduces some thought provoking points and even managed to clarify a few concepts that I thought I already understood (and I've 20 years of experience in programming!)

A fascinating insight into open source software development *****
I was very impressed by this book; it offers a fascinating insight into the trials and tribulations of developing a complex open source system. The author (who was not personally involved in the development) tracks the development of the system from conception to three years into the product development cycle. Open source projects are typically open-ended, and as such, the author is unable to track the development to a "final" release. However, he still offers a fascinating insight into the development challenges faced along the way. All in all, a pleasurable read.

A fascinating insight into open source software development *****

I was very impressed by this book; it offers a fascinating insight into the trials and tribulations of developing a complex open source system.

The author (who was not personally involved in the development) tracks the development of the system from conception to three years into the product development cycle.

Open source projects are typically open-ended, and as such, the author is unable to track the development to a "final" release. However, he still offers a fascinating insight into the development challenges faced along the way.

All in all, a pleasurable read.

Good book but with a misleading title... ***
I would re-title the book "Random Walk in Modern Software and Computing". It covers a lot of interesting stories and milestones about modern software. Anyone who has been exposed to the industry should have heard and known about them, although it would be difficult to find all of them to be mentioned in one place. If the book was titled that way, It would be an easy 4 - 4.5 out of 5. The coverage about what has mentioned in the title is minimal. If you are interested about the project like I do, you would be disappointed.

Good book but with a misleading title... ***

I would re-title the book "Random Walk in Modern Software and Computing". It covers a lot of interesting stories and milestones about modern software. Anyone who has been exposed to the industry should have heard and known about them, although it would be difficult to find all of them to be mentioned in one place. If the book was titled that way, It would be an easy 4 - 4.5 out of 5.

The coverage about what has mentioned in the title is minimal. If you are interested about the project like I do, you would be disappointed.