Laird Scranton is a software designer and I believe a pioneer in the field of "comparative cosmology". The books in his series take you on a journey that details the Dogon cosmology but whose primary purpose is really to find a complete reference cosmology that is applicable to every civilised culture on the entire planet.
Laird's books are a comprehensive primer in the idea of and methods for evaluating cosmologies with a view that various cultures of the world hold more or less snap shots of a larger, missing body of work.
Being a software engineer myself I would use jargon from the field to describe Laird's efforts as "Looking for the system's missing AD*… Read more
I bought this book when I decided to sit the British Citezenship test after living in the UK for 12 odd years. I also bought the official book (Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship) for the test, which is a much thicker book and about 80% of its content is irrelevant for the test - good luck passing the test with that ;)
Henry Dillons' book is a concise no-nonsense "straight-to-the-point" revision of the official book and it teaches all you need to know to pass the test in about 3 chapters. The book is also very small and can be read leisurely in a couple of days. This book also has sample questions at the end of each section (along with answers at the back) which… Read more
You don't know how to take requirements to design to code? This book will show you how.
You don't know what UML diagrams to use in your design? This book will show you how.
However...
This book does not teach you UML (and it is not supposed to) and doesn't teach you design patterns (It is my opinion that it should have gone a little deeper on patterns but many will disagree).
Overall, it is a brilliant book. Buy it and you'll find that it is money well spent.
