Yet another book /about/ programming. I don't know just what makes me read them one after another - at the bare bottom, they are all very similar.

And this book is one of the better ones. The authors definitely know what they are talking about, building on years and years of experience writing software. The topics they present are relevant and interesting - their tips are excellent and useful.

What I liked most about this book is that the authors say several times that with all the tools, methodologies, models and new paradigms that pop around us every other day, pure common sense is still the most important accessory a programmer has. No set of rules should be followed blindly - just use the best tool for each job. And having a wide toolbox helps; I liked the author's recognition of Perl - it is definitely a single tool that looks like many in your toolbox.

All in all, a nice book. A bunch of sound and time-proven pieces of advice that give a programmer's brain some food for thought about the bigger picture concepts of our profession, written in a flowing style.