Since I’ve mainly worked on rather informal projects where I have been the only programmer, I’ve developed a rather bad habbit of just hacking away at code until it works. My larger projects tend to get rather complicated. They become convoluted, messy and just downright ugly. Part of the reason why I decided to go back to uni and do a second degree in computer science was to improve my ability to scale projects. I figured that because I could already program I didn’t need to take any computer science classes (so I ended up majoring in math instead) but I have discovered that after working away at my own projects is that being able to program is not the exact same thing as being able to create software. And unfortunately (fortunately?) most class-room style assignments and are pretty small compared to real world programing. And being very good at completing lots of small tasks isn’t the same thing as being able to manage a large project.

So I’ve assigned myself some reading: These books have all come highly recommended.

Thinking in C++, Volume 1: Introduction to Standard C++

Thinking in C++, Vol. 2: Practical Programming, Second Edition

Code Complete

Programming in Lua

Full reviews of the books will come as I finish reading them.