You know good software when you see it, but how do you explain what good software is? Experienced software developers have pet practices and techniques that make their software easier to test, maintain and understand. But when you ask them how to make your software like theirs, they give you a seemingly endless list of rules. How can they remember all those rules? The secret is that they don't! Instead, experienced software developers understand a handful of basic principles. The rules are merely manifestations of these basic principles. But, principles are hard to explain; so experienced developers resort to explaining rules instead. In Principle-Based Refactoring, Halladay explains a set of software refactoring rules and links the refactoring rules back to the basic principles that drive robust software design. The book identifies eight fundamental design principles and also includes a set of approximately fifty refactoring rules that illustrate the principles. Each rule has a summary description, a discussion, including references back to the driving principles, and examples of the rules' applications. In addition, this book discusses refactoring mechanics including test strategies that guide software developers in verifying the quality of refactored code.

Principle-Based Refactoring: Learning Software Design Principles by Applying Refactoring Rules

Computers & Technology

Halladay, Steve

Programming

Principle Publishing

For centuries alchemist tried to solve the elusive problem of turning lead into gold. They never really solved this problem, but the course of their experiments and research created the foundations for modern physics and many great discoveries. Attacking seemingly outlandish questions can yield valuable side effects. Today, the outlandish question that many computer scientists are considering is: can a computer really be a mind? In this book, Steve Halladay uses this question to motivate the exploration of concepts in computational theory and machine learning. So many courses on computational theory are dry and meaningless. These courses bludgeon the students with seemingly irrelevant proofs of obscure relationships. Ask most successful software engineers what they remember from their comp theory class and, more often than not, they will give you a blank stare. There is no reason for this! The concepts of computation theory speak to some of the most fascinating work in computer science today. It’s just a matter of relating the theory to this exciting work. This book does just that! In this book you will understand how theoretical computational machinery relates to bleeding edge software development. See how you can use finite state machines, pushdown automata and Turing machines to build intelligent interactive agents. Figure out what we can and cannot compute and realize what this says about how our minds work and what we are able to think. Explore machine learning and grasp how the theory of computation helps us understand the constraints of how quickly a machine can learn.

The Alchemy of Computational Theory

Computer Science

<p>Learning SQL can be murder. Not the bludgeoning kind of murder most people experience when trying to learn the syntax and semantics of SQL, but a kinder, gentler side-splitting kind of murder as administered by Steve Halladay in this book. What is the motive? To make learning SQL enjoyable for you. What is the means? Halladay’s relentless cheesy attempts at humor! What about the opportunity? Well, the opportunity is all yours as you learn how to query an SQL database by following Perry Hazard, a hapless recent college grad as he attempts to use SQL to solve a melodramatic murder mystery. In this lampoon, the author drags you through the gory details of the SQL SELECT statement. You will learn all of the ins and outs as well as the relational theory that is the foundation of SQL. But don’t let this book scare you. The reading may be fun, but the skills you learn from this book are deadly serious. The content is an edutainment odyssey format that has caused many to groan, “Halladay, you’re killing me!” If, like most people, you want to solve a murder mystery and you have been dying to learn SQL, this book is for you!</p>

Getting a Clue with SQL: An Relational Database Edutainment Oddysey

Programming Languages

<p>If you are like most software developers, you probably have a hardware-phobia. You would like to understand how the hardware that makes up your computer works, but the few times you have tried to make sense of it, you have found the hardware world overwhelming and confusing. Terms like HDL, impedance and capacitance don’t help. What does any of that have to do with computing? But take heart! It doesn’t have to be that confusing! Experiencing Computer Architecture is the cure to hardware-phobia. It was written by a software developer for software developers. In this book Steve Halladay takes you through a friendly step-by-step progression that helps software developers understand how to build the hardware for a simple computer. As you work through this book you will understand every layer of hardware abstraction, starting with a simple explanation of transistors, Boolean logic, binary operations and ending with a fully functional processor of your own design. Hardware doesn’t have to be scary - if you can understand Boolean Logic, you can design your own computer!</p>

Experiencing Computer Architecture: A Computer Hardware Guide For Software Developers

Server Administration III: Web

Cox, Dr. Kerry

Web Development & Design