I own a lot of books.  Actually, I probably own *too many* books.  So many sit unopened, saved for a later date because I only have so many eyes, brain cells, and waking hours.  It is for this reason that my review of Bob Reselman's Coding Slave takes place quite a while after the book's release in 2004.

Given that my review isn't terribly timely, you might have read other reviews and concluded that the central message of Coding Slave is that our system of software development is horribly broken, leading to unmaintainable systems managed by undertrained, overworked developers.  Or that the solution is to form some of engineering style guild run by developers for developers, where this mystical union takes care of both training and pay, ya da ya da ya da.  *Who cares*?  You know what Bob Reselman has taught *me* through this book?  The average user persona is way too boring.

When I'm writing user personas, I don't want to write about John Xavier, the middle-aged man who is looking to track his fleet of vehicles.  I want to talk about "Albert Schulberg, aka BigDick6969" (actual character in Coding Slave) and how "his priorites are to achieve orgasm and achieve inebriation, preferably in that order" (actual *quote* from Coding Slave).  Or Ajita Ortihawamein, the sassy and scrappy young developer who will lay down with anyone and anything to ensure the client is pleased!  Where are *these* kind of people in our documentation?  I'm not telling Steve McConnell how to write, but if the next edition of "Rapid Development" had people like these in its case studies it would be a GOLD MINE.


But you're not here to listen to me rant about user stories; you want to know whether this book is worth your time and money.  Let me put it this way: if you read McConnell's "Professional Software Development" but thought, "Man, I wish this had more menage a trois scenes to engage me as a reader", then Coding Slave is *definitely* the book for you.  Of course, if you are reading Steve McConnell's books in the hopes of seeing some sex scenes, I would suggest you have greater problems to take care of before you start worrying about the state of the software development industry.

I know what you're thinking, "Coding...sex...violence...Justice gives this a 10 out of 5".  Wrong.  Yes, I definitely think that it takes some testicular fortitude to even imply that we might as well be doling out sex along with code in the future, since we're either whoring out our brains or our bodies in the end.  Please understand that there is no bias involved in the non-perfect score for this review; I've read books by hippies before, and I'm totally cool with it.  


The reason this book isn't getting umpteen out of 5 is that it takes half of the book for things to even get started.  I understand that Bob does a bit of setup here, but I felt that the sidebars on the Frank and Walt characters were unnecessary for his main points near the end.  I freely admit I could be missing something here.  I have tacked on a bonus point here for the name of the "one ERP to rule them all" on page 138.

Coding Slave is really 4 parts: 1 part violence, 1 part code stories, 1 part sex, and 1 part essay.
The depictions of violence?  Awesome, vivid, but only very brief moments in the book.  We needed a bar brawl or something!  3 stars.  
The stories re: the coding, the monolith systems, the poorly documented code?  We've all been there.  4 stars.  
The sex?  Uhm...well, I have to admit, you can tell these sex scenes were written by a software developer.  And no lines like "Let me insert my element into your array, bow wow chika wow wow?*"  2 stars.  
The essay?  Best part of the book, and this is definitely a slightly less academic way of putting things than McConnell does (I would note that there *are* differences between the two but I'll go into them in a later post, possibly).  Thanks for including "The Meno" in the appendix.  5 stars.  

Using the incredibly complicated math of adding this up and averaging the scores out, we come to a rating of 3.5 out of 5.  Those of you familiar with my previously established ratings scale know that this means it comes somewhere inbetween a peck on the lips and a full-on tongue thrashing with this book.  

Let's say that "Coding Slave" is a bit of an awkward kisser but shows potential for improvement; thus this book is still worth your time if you have a little bit of patience to get to the good stuff!!!  Recommended.