note
xdg
<p>In addition to the many good suggestions above, I would recommend looking at the following two books:
</p>
<ul>
<li><i>The Pragmatic Programmer</i> by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas -- the subtitle is "from journeyman to master". It's a great book on the craft of programming.</li>
<li><i>Agile & Iterative Development: A Manager's Guide</i> -- this contains a good high level overview of the similarities and differences between different software development methodologies</li>
</ul>
<p>Beyond this, I've personally been experimenting recently with "test-driven development". While I'm not fully "extreme", the process of writing a test first forces me to think about how a user uses interfaces prior to coding. It's led to some streamlined code and really avoided overbuilding. I suggest doing some research and trying it out.</p>
<p>As an additional suggestion, unless you have a great local bookstore, I've found O'Reilly's <a href="http://safari.oreilly.com/">Safari</a> electronic bookshelf to be a great resource for browsing books to get a sense for styles and design methods.
</p>
<p>Best of luck to you</p>
<div class="pmsig"><div class="pmsig-268515">
<p>-xdg</p>
<p><small><i>Code posted by xdg on PerlMonks is <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain">public domain</a>. It has no warranties, express or implied. Posted code may not have been tested. Use at your own risk.</i></small></p>
</div></div>
388478
388478