Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

The case against open source - unfortunately

Customer Rating:

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.

Customer Rating:

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

Customer Rating:

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

Customer Rating:

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

Customer Rating:

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.