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Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software | 
 enlarge | Author: Scott Rosenberg
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Rating:  62 reviews
Sales Rank: 51134
Media: Paperback
Pages: 416
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 1400082471
Dewey Decimal Number: 650
EAN: 9781400082476
Publication Date: February 26, 2008
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Amazon.com
In the 80s, Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine attempted to define the story of the development of a minicomputer: from the new science to the business and nascent culture of electronic hardware and software that was characteristic of that time. Scott Rosenberg's Dreaming in Code draws on Kidder's model as it attempts to document the state of software, the Internet, and everything circa 2006 through the lens of Chandler, an as-yet-unfinished software application for the management of personal information. The Chandler project--driven by Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development and main author of its 1-2-3 spreadsheet, and later co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation--isn't the primary point of Dreaming in Code, though reading about software people and their social behavior is at least as interesting as reading about that of meerkats or monkeys. Rather, Chandler is a rhetorical device with which Rosenberg takes on the big questions: How do software development teams work (or not)? Why does the reuse of software modules rarely work altogether correctly? Does open-source development by volunteers on the Internet lead to innovation or just insanely bifurcated chaos? Chandler helps his readers think more clearly about all of these issues; however, "answers" to these questions are, of course, not to be had, which is one of his points. The problem with books about technical subjects that aspire to appeal to a general audience, particularly computers and software, is that such subjects are so far outside the realm of familiarity of most people that the prose bogs down in analogy and metaphor. Rosenberg manages to avoid too much of that and deliver a readable account of software development and culture. --David Wall
Product Description
Our civilization runs on software. Yet the art of creating it continues to be a dark mystery, even to the experts. To find out why it’s so hard to bend computers to our will, Scott Rosenberg spent three years following a team of maverick software developers—led by Lotus 1-2-3 creator Mitch Kapor—designing a novel personal information manager meant to challenge market leader Microsoft Outlook. Their story takes us through a maze of abrupt
dead ends and exhilarating breakthroughs as they wrestle not only with the abstraction of code, but with the unpredictability of human behavior— especially their own.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 57 more reviews...
 recommended for non programmers January 23, 2007
S. Johnson (Gainesville, VA United States)
33 out of 34 found this review helpful
Ansel Adams wrote, "There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept." And such is the case with the Chandler project. After four years of development, they have delivered only a 0.6 release with no general availability in sight.
In Dreaming in Code, author Scott Rosenberg follows a group of programmers tasked with creating a new product over a three-year stint. Along the way the book explores disciplines in development (and the lack of), the history of computing (particularly its truths and folklore), and explains why software engineering isn't a science but an art. A common misconception even among developers is that software is similar to construction when, as becomes clear in the book, developing software is more like cooking. Programming methodologies are as plentiful as cookbooks but both are limited by the realities of artistry. A chef can make miracles from a pantry full of ingredients; a cook cannot.
If you're involved with a development team as a marketer, there is much here that will illuminate your team's dysfunction. Rosenberg reintroduces us to concepts that have been known since The Mythical Man Month and The Soul of a New Machine but apparently not understood, remembered, or believed. Strongly recommended.
Good explanation of a frightening reality May 30, 2007
Stratiotes Doxha Theon (Richmond, Missouri)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Mr. Rosenberg may not have picked the most typical software project for this case study but the similarities in delays, defects, and disorder of so many other software projects is uncanny. Perhaps it is because there is no such thing as a "typical" software project. Every problem space and every group of people has its own distinctives that make each project appear unique. References to Brooks' monumental 1972 work, The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition), are numerous and with reason - little seems to have changed in the 3 decades since that work. As fast as software design methodologies change, the technology that underlies it changes faster yielding new challenges. It is an industry that seems to outgrow every discipline designed to control it and there seems little hope it will be tamed anytime soon. The implications of our world becoming more and more dependent on such shakey ground is frightening and costly.
Rosenberg's work is a good reminder to the software artisan/engineer (we cannot even define the best monicker for this discipline) that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Rosenberg would be a worthy followup study to Brooks for anyone involved in the software industry - designers, managers, requirements authors, and more. Begin with Brooks and then read Rosenberg to understand the scale of the challenges.
For the non-technically-oriented reader, Rosenberg paints an entertaining picture of the past characters and movements that have shaped software design over the years. He looks briefly at some topics such as the psychological makeup of the typical software designer and how that affects the industry but also at the long history of trying to decide if software is more an art or a science. It is a question that baffles us yet today.
It is unlikely, Rosenberg seems to admit, that anyone will have a breakthrough idea to resolve this growing problem. Rosenberg may not have offered the solution but he has done a fine job of describing the problem for the rest of us - technical or not. As we grow more and more dependent on software every day, it would not be melodramatic to claim that our future depends on resolving the issues involved in the process of creating it. Rosenberg has provided a good description of the current state and provides a challenge for fixing it. _Dreaming in Code_ may be another of those milestones in software design history to help us guage our progress one day. Perhaps it will be another of those monuments like Brooks' that remind us how little progress we have made.
Management seems intent on finding the illusive defect-free programming methodology but perhaps they would do better to understand the concepts of dealing with an ever-changing environment of human activity. Human activity will always remain prone to error and software managers would do well, in the view of this reviewers, to consider the works of Chet Richards as in his book, Certain to Win. The work of those like Richards hold the key to thriving and succeeding in the current software development environment.
We're Not in Kansas Anymore February 17, 2007
T. Harris
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
And we haven't been for a long time. To hear Rosenberg tell it, we briefly entered modernity in the 1950's with computer hardware, and then quickly regressed into an ironic Greek tragedy of software, where all of us spend our time playing either Sisyphus, fixing endless "bugs", or Tantalus, finding on-time delivery methods just beyond our reach. Ironic because in this story, Sisyphus is often happy.
Dreaming in Code is not about coding. Nor is it fiction. It is disturbing, realistic fact. An outsider's diary of a software project, blessed with a successful visionary leader--Mitch Kapor of Lotus 1-2-3 fame--and almost no resource constraints, which nevertheless exhibits all the "usual" problems.
Rosenberg competently brings in software history and references all in the field will recognize. More important, though, he shows software to be one of those great advances that is fraught with deadly imperfections. Like, say, hospitals, or automobile travel.
To software people. You can keep your eyes closed, come to work, and enjoy dreaming in code. Or you can wake up for a day and read this book.
(An extra note, since I've read some of the reviews, including those on the back cover. Some miss the point. This book is not about the Chandler project, nor should members of apparently successful software projects ignore it lightly. It is also not a disguised methodology book on how to develop software. It is about our expectations from software and from ourselves, to show us ourselves in a mirror and raise questions.)
To everyone else. I haven't the slightest idea what non-software people will think reading this book. But Rosenberg has made it accessible, using few technical terms and explaining them simply. So you owe it to yourself to look here. And we need your insight-- don't leave the field just to us.
Postscript
I remember back in the 60's and 70's, a two-sentence conversation I often used to have with people outside of the computer (software) field, when space adventure movies (I'm thinking of Kubrick's "2001") were popular:
Them: Gosh, imagine what it would be like out on a spaceship, depending only on a computer for life support.
Me: You don't have to imagine anymore. We are both on one right now.
Excellent insider account of a typical software development project May 21, 2007
Joe Wikert (Fishers, IN)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
It's easy to see why Dreaming in Code has been such a hit. I just finished reading it and found it to be an extremely well written insider's look at a software development project. Even if you're not that interested in the story behind the still unreleased Outlook killer, otherwise known as "Chandler", you'll find this to be a great overview of why the whole application/system development process can be so darned complicated. In fact, you might find yourself wondering how any development team ever manages to get any product out the door!
Dreaming in Code is the story behind Mitch Kapor's latest dream of inventing a much better contact management tool than the world has ever seen before. You can keep up with the team's progress via their website and blog, but if you're really curious and want to know the full history, you need to read the book as well. There's also a companion website for the book at [...] it's full of great resources and an excellent example of how all book websites should be built.
Scott Rosenberg does a fantastic job of explaining the challenges, dilemmas, decisions and everything else that trips up most software development projects. It took me back to my days, long ago, as a programmer writing code for point-of-sale systems at NCR in the 1980's. It's funny (or maybe not so funny) how most of the same problems that plagued the teams I was part of 20 years ago still crop up on a regular basis today. In fact, that's one of the more interesting aspects of this book and one that Rosenberg covers well by going back even further into the 1960's and IBM's System/360.
Here are a couple of excerpts that I found to be most insightful, the second of which is also quite relevant for those of us in the tech book publishing business:
"Chandler was no different from the great majority of software projects. It's rare for a group of software developers to work together on a series of projects over time; in this they are less like sports teams or military units or musical ensembles and more like the forces of pros who assemble to make a movie and then disperse and recombine for the next film. So, while individual programmers and managers may carry with them a wealth of experience and knowledge of techniques that served them well in the past, each time they begin a new project with a new team, they are likely to end up pressing the reset button and having to devise a working process from first principles."
Joel Spolsky is quoted in the book and reports this about development methodologies: "...the majority of developers don't read books about software development, they don't read web sites about software development, they don't even read Slashdot. So they're never going to get this, no matter how much we keep writing about it."
What I liked best about this book though is that it's not just for programmers and other techies. Rosenberg does a great job of writing everything in layman's terms so that even the most complex issue is readily understandable by all. Read this book so that the next time your computer crashes or a new version of your favorite program has been delayed you'll have a better understanding of why it happened!
Excellent story about the complexity of software development May 31, 2008
Eric D. Brown (Dallas, TX)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you are interested in software development...read this book.
If you aren't interested in software development...read this book.
If you've always wondered why software development is such a tough thing to manage and predict completion...read this book.
Did I say that you should read this book? :)
The book is not a detailed "how to"...it is a story that follows the development of "Chandler", a software product that was going to 'change the world'....but of course, the product never really materialized. The team worked on the product for more than 5 years and never produced what the founder, Mitch Kapor of Lotus 1-2-3 fame, had envisioned. 5 years, over 4700 bugs and two dozen programmers with very little to show for the effort.
Take a look at the Related Articles below...you'll see that Chandler is just now coming to be a "1.0" release after 7 years of development. Interested story and a great book.
If you find yourself perplexed about the process of software development, this book might help you move a little closer to understanding the complexity of this process.
Definitely recommended reading.
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