The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master

Chapter 3. The Basic Tools

Every craftsman starts his or her journey with a basic set of good-quality tools. A woodworker might need rules, gauges, a couple of saws, some good planes, fine chisels, drills and braces, mallets, and clamps. These tools will be lovingly chosen , will be built to last, will perform specific jobs with little overlap with other tools, and, perhaps most importantly, will feel right in the budding woodworker's hands.

Then begins a process of learning and adaptation. Each tool will have its own personality and quirks , and will need its own special handling. Each must be sharpened in a unique way, or held just so. Over time, each will wear according to use, until the grip looks like a mold of the woodworker's hands and the cutting surface aligns perfectly with the angle at which the tool is held. At this point, the tools become conduits from the craftsman's brain to the finished productthey have become extensions of his or her hands. Over time, the woodworker will add new tools, such as biscuit cutters, laser-guided miter saws, dovetail jigsall wonderful pieces of technology. But you can bet that he or she will be happiest with one of those original tools in hand, feeling the plane sing as it slides through the wood.

Tools amplify your talent. The better your tools, and the better you know how to use them, the more productive you can be. Start with a basic set of generally applicable tools. As you gain experience, and as you come across special requirements, you'll add to this basic set. Like the craftsman, expect to add to your toolbox regularly. Always be on the lookout for better ways of doing things. If you come across a situation where you feel your current tools can't cut it, make a note to look for something different or more powerful that would have helped. Let need drive your acquisitions.

Many new programmers make the mistake of adopting a single power tool, such as a particular integrated development environment (IDE), and never leave its cozy interface. This really is a mistake. We need to be comfortable beyond the limits imposed by an IDE. The only way to do this is to keep the basic tool set sharp and ready to use.

In this chapter we'll talk about investing in your own basic toolbox. As with any good discussion on tools, we'll start (in The Power of Plain Text ) by looking at your raw materials, the stuff you'll be shaping. From there we'll move to the workbench, or in our case the computer. How can you use your computer to get the most out of the tools you use? We'll discuss this in Shell Games. Now that we have material and a bench to work on, we'll turn to the tool you'll probably use more than any other, your editor. In Power Editing, we'll suggest ways of making you more efficient.

To ensure that we never lose any of our precious work, we should always use a Source Code Control systemeven for things such as our personal address book! And, since Mr. Murphy was really an optimist after all, you can't be a great programmer until you become highly skilled at Debugging.

You'll need some glue to bind much of the magic together. We discuss some possibilities, such as awk, Perl, and Python, in Text Manipulation.

Just as woodworkers sometimes build jigs to guide the construction of complex pieces, programmers can write code that itself writes code. We discuss this in Code Generators.

Spend time learning to use these tools, and at some point you'll be surprised to discover your fingers moving over the keyboard, manipulating text without conscious thought. The tools will have become extensions of your hands.