Sedat Kapanoglu - Street Coder: The rules to break and how to break them

Ive experienced many distinct aspects of becoming proficient in software development as a self-taught programmer (other than reading books), ranging from trying to learn machine language by putting random numbers in memory and observing whether the results were anything other than a simple halt, to spending nights in smoke-filled offices, to sneaking off the university campus in the middle of the night after working clandestinely in the lab as a high schooler, to reading the contents of binary files and just hoping that getting exposed to some bytes would make me magically understand how the code works, to memorizing opcodes, and to trying every combination of the order of arguments to figure out the correct one in a function due to lack of documentation.

Back in 2013, my friend Aziz Kedi, who used to own a bookstore in Istanbul, asked me to write a book about software development based on my experiences. That was the first time I considered writing a book about my profession. I had to shelve the idea soon thereafter because Aziz closed his bookstore and moved to London.

I kept entertaining the idea of having a book I could hand out to new team members who were at the start of their career so they could close the experience gap while widening their perspective. The pre-career understanding of software development is heavily shaped by curricula, preconceptions, and best practices. A newly minted programmer naturally thinks of their accumulated knowledge as a core investment and doesnt want to wander far from it.

At some point, I decided to write such a bookvery slowly. I called the fictional book Street Coder and started making notes of random ideas that could make the lives of new developers easier. They didnt have to be best practices, eitherthey could even be bad practices, if you will, as long as they made developers better thinkers about the problems they faced. The document had grown, and at a certain point, I forgot about it, until the day I got a call from London.

It wasnt Aziz Kedi this time. He was probably busy writing screenplays back then, and Im sure hes working on another one as Im writing this. This time, it was Andy Waldron from Manning Publications. He asked me, What idea do you have for a book? I couldnt think of anything at first, and I was preparingjust to gain some timeto counter his question with this question: Well, what did you have in mind? I pretty much mumbled a bit, and then it suddenly struck me. I remembered the notes Id been taking and the title I had given it: Street Coder.

The title comes from what I learned in the streets, the professional software development world, by many trials and errors, which gave me a pragmatic, down-to-earth perspective about approaching software development as a craft. This book conveys the changes in perspective Ive experienced so youll have a head start in your career.

This book wouldnt have been possible without my wife, Gnyz. Shes carried everything on her shoulders while Ive been busy writing. Thank you, babe. I love you.

Thanks go to Andrew Waldron, who kick-started my passion for authoring this book. This has been a phenomenal experience. Andy has always been tolerant and understanding, even when I accused him of secretly sneaking into my home and changing the books text. I owe you a drink, Andy.

Thanks go to my development editors, Toni Arritola, who taught me everything I know about writing programming books, and Becky Whitney, whos been patient and good natured about all the badly written parts I originally turned inwhich were Andys doing, really.

Thanks go to the technical reviewer, Frances Buontempo, whos been extremely constructive and on-point for the technical feedback. Thanks also go to Orlando Mndez Morales for making sure that the code I share in the book actually makes sense.

Thanks go to my friends Murat Girgin and Volkan Sevim, who reviewed the earliest drafts and assured me that my jokes wouldve been funny if the reader knew me.

I thank Donald Knuth for letting me quote him. I find myself lucky to have gotten a personal response from him, even if it was only OK. I also thank Fred Brooks for reminding me that theres a fair use clause in the copyright law, so I dont need to call him every day to ask for his permission, and also not to trespass in his home at 3 a.m. There was really no need to involve the cops, FredI was just leaving! Thanks also go to Leon Bambrick for letting me quote him peacefully.