March PragPub »

• Refactoring to Functional Style in Java 8
• Beyond Functional Programming with the J Language
• Alien Voices from Planet J
• The Roots of J
• Mob Programming

Plus: On Tap, Swaine’s World, New Manager’s Playbook, Johanna on Managing Product Development, Antonio on Books, The BoB Pages, Shady Illuminations

Recently Released:

• Effective Testing with RSpec 3 
• The Cucumber Book, Second Edition 
• Take My Money 
• Practical Vim, Second Edition 

The first practical typewriters started rolling off the Remington production line on this day way back in 1873, and brought the QWERTY keyboard to life. One hundred and forty-four years later, we still use the keyboard layout designed to prevent mechanical jams.

Old habits die hard.

But die they must. From Mob Programming, to the array language J, to functional style programming, perhaps it's time to look past our old habits no matter how ingrained.

Come and get the latest issue of PragPub magazine, and make some progress today.

March PragPub Magazine

Between an exploration of the realizable fantasy of sailing between the stars and a skeptical look at the questionable dream of making refrigerators smart, the March issue of PragPub covers a lot of ground.

Mark Pearl returns with more adventures in mob programming, the extrapolation of pair programming that brings the wisdom of crowds to coding. Mark’s series is all about giving you real hands-on experience in what it takes to get a team started with mob programming, and this month he tackles four common challenges likely to be faced by any team new to mobbing.

Following the advice in The Pragmatic Programmer, we like to examine new or unfamiliar programming languages every so often, and this month we’re digging into Kenneth E. Iverson and Roger Hui’s array language, J. The article by Adam Tornhill aspires to show you a programming language different enough to affect the way you view code, as well as presenting a new paradigm that might even alter your problem-solving abilities by reshaping the way you think about problems. We’ve supplemented it with a couple more short articles on J and its parent language, APL.

Adam’s article is titled “Beyond Functional Programming,” and you’ll have to read it to see just how J goes beyond the functional paradigm. For an article that goes right to the heart of functional programming, we offer Venkat Subramaniam’s “Refactoring to Functional Style in Java 8.” Venkat is writing about refactoring Java code to functional style all this year, and in this month’s article he refactors a piece of code that picks an element from a collection. The transformation takes code that was verbose and fluffy and makes it crisp, concise, and expressive. But Venkat shows that the change is about a lot more than code elegance.

Johanna Rothman has some advice on your project portfolio and on how to effectively say “No” to your manager when the portfolio is getting out of control. Marcus Blankenship talks about how not to say a certain unhelpful word to your team if you are the leader, and how to discourage others from using it if you’re not. Antonio Cangiano presents a rundown on the latest tech books, John Shade grumbles about products that shouldn’t be so darned smart, and your editor covers some recent developments in the tech world and offers up a puzzle.

Now available from theprosegarden.com.

Upcoming Author Appearances

Who Are We?

The Pragmatic Bookshelf publishing imprint is wholly owned by The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC.

Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas founded the company with a simple goal: to improve the lives of developers. We create timely, practical books, audio books, and videos on classic and cutting-edge topics to help you learn and practice your craft.

We are not a giant, faceless, greed-soaked corporation. We're a small group of experienced professionals committed to helping make software development easier.

Don't Get Left Out

Are your friends jealous that you get these spiffy email newsletters and they don't? Clue them in that all they need to do is create an account on pragprog.com (email address and password is all it takes) and select the checkbox to receive newsletters.

Are you following us on Twitter and/or Facebook? Here's where you can find us and keep up with the latest news and commentary, and occasional discounts:

Tell your friends! Tweet this

Follow us on Twitter: @pragprog, @pragpub, Andy Hunt @PragmaticAndy.

Thanks for your continued support,
Andy Hunt
Publisher, Pragmatic Bookshelf

Books • eBooks • PragPub Magazine • Audiobooks and Screencasts
PragProg.com

Manage your subscription using your account, or permanently unsubscribe here.
Sent by the Pragmatic Programmers, LLC. • 9650 Strickland Rd Ste 103-255• Raleigh NC 27615