8 resources to help you become a better developer

Are you looking for sources to fine-tune your development skills or learn a new language? We've got you covered.

At Sunscrapers, we always encourage our team members to broaden their horizons using our in-house library, participating in industry events and conferences, and taking advantage of online resources.

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We decided to line up our favorite books, online courses, and platforms that have supported our professional development in the past.

Here are 8 resources to help you boost your developer skills and expand your knowledge.

Clean Code by Robert C. Martin

Have you ever heard of Uncle Bob? That's right, the author of this book is the revered Uncle Bob.

He's admired by the developer community for his conference speeches and online contributions where he shares tips on how to develop an organized and maintainable code.

Reading this book will help you consider your practices – why you code in a particular way and what your style says about your approach to the craft.

Uncle Bob presents a number of principles that help to identify code smells and offers a range of processes we can all use to clean up and refactor code to make it more readable and maintainable. A must-read.

CodeSchool

CodeSchool access to experienced instructors who take learners through the course material step-by-step directly in their browsers.

The courses are designed in a way that helps test what you've learned and receive instant feedback. You get points for participating in challenges and earn badges as you complete each course level.

The goal is reaching the final course completion badge. It's easy to keep track of your learning activities on the platform – you can always check the points and badges you gained, and courses you've completed.

Ultimately, CodeSchool is an excellent tool for boosting your problem-solving abilities and deepening your knowledge about software development.

Software Craftsmanship: The New Imperative by Pete McBreen

An excellent follow-up to Clean Code, this book talks a lot about the art of software development.

If you'd like to learn how to deliver value to customers through software, this book is for you.

It addresses topics like stakeholder collaboration, project management, and the role of soft skills in development.

At Sunscrapers, we value soft skills and that an excellent book is one we keep on our shelves at all times.

7 Languages in 7 Weeks: A Pragmatic Guide to Learning Programming Languages by Bruce Tate

Being able to learn fast and pick up new languages will give you a competitive advantage in today's developer market.

This book helps to develop the ability to read the code of seven different languages and understand the role they play in programming, even if you're not planning to become proficient in them.

The idea behind learning these bits and pieces about the languages is to gain a general overview. That way you'll be able to compare and contrast them and – if you start using some more regularly – master them.

The book examines Clojure, Haskell, Io, Prolog, Scala, Erlang, and Ruby. If you like to learn what type of languages are best suited to solving particular challenges, this book is for you.

Mozilla Developer Network

Designed by developers for developers, the Mozilla Developer Network supports Mozilla's mission to promote innovation on the web.

The resource is an open, community-driven wiki where developers, designers, and team writers get to access documentation, tutorials, and developer tools. Basically anyone can add and edit content to improve its quality.

It's one of the most popular resources for developers on the web that gets over 4.5 million page views and 2 million visitors each month.

The MDN is the best place to look for JavaScript reference documentation. Moreover, each month the Dev Derby provides the community with a new challenge where a panel of recognized judges gets to choose the prize-winning entries from developers all over the world.

The Art of UNIX Programming by Eric S. Raymond

Unix is considered as one of the engineering accomplishments of the second half of the 20th century for a reason.

The book argues that the excellence of Unix comes from the community effort because over the years it has gathered so many smart people to design and build it.

Eric Raymond is, in fact, the author of the famous open-source manifesto the Cathedral and the Bazaar. In this book, he primarily aims to show Unix programmers why it's smart to follow principles of good software design and code sharing.

You will also find plenty of valuable practical information in the form of case studies that discuss various aspects of Unix in action.

• You may be interested in: How to contribute to Python open-source projects

We hope these resources help you in crafting your skills as a developer and deepening your knowledge about the art of developing software.

Do you know any other resources that are really helpful for developers? Please share them in comments to help the community learn best practices for delivering quality software.