The Best Software Writing I

I’ve just finished reading The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky.

This is a collection of 29 essays about software development by a range of authors some of who have published works of their own. They are all available on the web if you look for them, but having them in book form makes it a lot easier to read on the train.

Of particular note were Danah Boyd’s essay entitled “Autistic Social Software”, in which the author describes 3 ways to make technology work in the context of people – to demand it fits into peoples lives, to see what catches on and evolve, and to understand people’s needs first. Most web sites, especially in the dot com boom a few years ago used the first approach. More modern web sites are using the second and third approaches, to better reflect the way people do things, and the technologies are evolving in the same direction.

Related to this Eric Sink’s essay entitled “Closing the Gap”. The author describes how you should develop in the open, with public discussions and readily available preview downloads. This combines Boyd’s second and third approaches. The weakness of the understanding people’s needs first is that they can’t often express them unless they see what is possible. If technology is developed in the open, people can better express their needs and the technology can be adapted.

Recommended.