Author: Andreas M. Antonopolous
ISBN: 978-1491954386
Publisher: O’Reilly – Safari Books
Published: June 2017
The second edition of this text is aimed directly at software developers and programmers but many technically savvy readers who are not coders report that it helped them understand the technology much better than any of the more general introductions.
It deals in detail with the requirements of coding distributed apps and software to take advantage of the blockchain. To achieve this, it describes in detail how each of the components work before delving into the code itself.
While the background and the introduction to each concept is general, the examples are all in Python and C++. Most programmers will find that the examples are translatable to the code of their choice but If that represents a serious challenge, you may need to look elsewhere.
The book evolved from a published set of documents on GitHub and the many participants who contributed to the evolution of the text are acknowledged up front. As with all collaborative projects the maturity that comes with the robust use, testing and feedback shows in the quality of the examples and the depth of the discussion around challenges and reasons for things being developed in particular ways.
There is nothing shrill or hyped about this text, it is considered, well reviewed and recently updated.
At $US11.95 for the Kindle edition and $US21.53 for the paperback this is a full-priced text, but it represents real value for money. I thoroughly recommend it as a solid technical overview and a good guide for developers and programmers serious about considering a move into distributed application development.