THE PRAGMATIC PROGRAMMER, by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas

This books exposes lots of great advice. It is a sort of catalog of tips and pragmatic practices.

I was really glad to read a book where the authors insist so much on Design By Contract, the interest of Crashing Early and the wise use of Assertions. Among all the books I have read, few deal with these effective practices.

The authors insist alot on the DRY principle: Don't Repeat Yourself and on the absolute necessity to reduce coupling and dependencies.
Great advice!

I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.