There’s an intriguing new book out called Dreaming in Code by Scott Rosenberg (a cofounder of the Salon Web site), which centers on a group of engineers struggling to create a piece of personal productivity software called Chandler. I make an appearance in the tale, although I wasn’t involved with this particular project. The book’s title refers to a problem I used to have after intense periods of programming: I remember waking up to find I had been dreaming in computer code—eight-bit machine language, no less.
There wouldn’t be a story worthy of a whole book if Chandler came together easily and everyone went home happy. Indeed, Dreaming is an examination of the stressful mysteries of software. Why do some software projects sail to completion while so many others seem cursed? Why must software development be so difficult to plan?
