Allen Holub

Short description: American author/consultant

Allen I. Holub (born 1955) is a computer author who was published in Dr. Dobb's Journal in the 1980s and then again in the 2010s. He also wrote for SD Times. His 1990 book Compiler Design in C was praised as an accessible reference. He is also a teacher, consultant, and speaker.

## Contents

* 1 Career
* 2 Writing
* 3 Speaking and advocacy
* 4 Personal life
* 5 References

## Career

Allen Holub received double Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, in Computer Science and Medieval European History.[1] In 1982, he became an instructor for the University of California Berkeley Extension,[2] where he has continued teaching periodically to the present day.[3] He started his consulting company "Holub Associates" in 1983,[2] which has also continued to the present day.[3][4]

Holub was the Chan-Norris Distinguished Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Mills College for the 2021-2022 academic year,[5][6] teaching a computer science elective course among other duties.[5][7]

## Writing

Holub is a prolific author and has written many books and articles. His "C Chest" column appeared in Dr. Dobb's Journal from 1984 to 1988.[8] His "Java Toolbox" column appeared in JavaWorld from 1998 to 2004. His bi-monthly "JavaWatch" column was in SD Times from May 2004 to September 2006. Holub also blogged on Agile for Dr. Dobb's Journal from 2011 until its shutdown in 2014.[9]

Compiler Design in C Author| Allen I. Holub

|

Cover artist| Allen I. Holub and Lundgren Graphics Ltd.
Publisher| Prentice Hall, Inc.

Publication date

| 1990
Pages| 984
ISBN| 0-13-155045-4
LC Class| QA76.76.C65H65
Website| https://holub.com/compiler/

His 1990 book Compiler Design in C is a 984-page reference book, recommended by several library services at the time,[10][11] as well as trade publications[12][13][14] and the comp.compiler Usenet group FAQ.[15] It is now out of print, but available as a download on his website.[16] One reviewer stated he preferred it to the "dragon book",  Principles, Techniques, and Tools, as its code examples made the material more approachable.[12]

Holub's book Taming Java Threads is an edited re-print of a 9-part series from his Java Toolbox column.[9] It has some good information, although is not as broad in coverage as other books.[17] Holub's book Holub on Patterns: Learning Design Patterns by Looking at Code contains a few of his more popular Java Toolbox articles, but is mostly new content.[18] It is a valuable resource for Java software developers.[19]

## Speaking and advocacy

Holub signed the Agile Manifesto in March 2014.[20] As of 2023, Holub positions himself as well-versed in Lean/Agile methodology.[1] He has made several controversial statements, such as that software development teams do not need a bug tracking system,[21] do not need estimates,[22] indeed should avoid most of the practices of Scrum,[23] and not deploying on Friday is a huge red flag.[24]

## Personal life

In addition to his work in the software industry, Holub is also a composer, musician, artist, and pilot. As of 2023 he resides in Berkeley, CA.[1]

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Holub, Allen. "Allen Holub". https://holub.com/allenholub/.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Allen I. Holub, Biography.". 5 November 1996. http://www.holub.com/bio.htm.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Allen Holub - Principal - Holub Associates". https://www.linkedin.com/in/allenholub.
4. ↑ "Allen Holub: Clients". 22 November 2017. http://holub.com/company/clients.html.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Allen Holub | Mills College". https://www.mills.edu/faculty/allen-holub.php.
6. ↑ "Allen Holub". https://holub.com/.
7. ↑ "Mills College Job Posting: Distinguished Visiting Professor of Computer Science - Essential". https://mills.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=131060.
8. ↑ "Allen Holub: Published works". 22 August 2015. http://holub.com/company/published.html.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Allen Holub: Online publications". https://holub.com/publications/articles/index.html.
10. ↑ (in en) Computer Book Review. CBR Publications. 1990. https://books.google.com/books?id=0IU_AQAAIAAJ&q=COMPILER DESIGN IN C.
11. ↑ (in en) Choice: Publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a Division of the American Library Association. American Library Association. 1990. https://books.google.com/books?id=_fM8AQAAIAAJ&q=holub.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Schulman, Andrew (October 1992). "Programmer's Bookshelf: Slaying the Dragon". Dr. Dobb's Journal. https://archive.org/details/DDJDVD6.
13. ↑ (in en) CommUNIXations. UniForum. 1990. https://books.google.com/books?id=iZEkAQAAIAAJ&q="Compiler+design+in+C"+holub+review.
14. ↑ Blunden, Bill (2002) (in en). Virtual Machine Design and Implementation in C/C++. Wordware Pub.. ISBN 978-1-55622-903-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=kfUrpHUiO8kC.
15. ↑ "Reading list from comp.compilers FAQ". http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~pjj/cs211/list.html.
16. ↑ Holub, Allen (17 March 2017). "Compiler Design in C". https://holub.com/compiler/.
17. ↑ Zukowski, John (15 December 2000). "Java threads: A comparative book review" (in en). InfoWorld. https://www.infoworld.com/article/2076263/java-threads--a-comparative-book-review.html.
18. ↑ Holub, Allen (27 September 2004) (in en). Holub on Patterns: Learning Design Patterns by Looking at Code. Apress. ISBN 978-1-4302-0725-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=uR1es8pL8XwC.
19. ↑ Dave, Maulik A. (13 April 2005). "Holub on patterns: learning design patterns by looking at code". http://www.computingreviews.com/review/review_review.cfm?review_id=131116.
20. ↑ "Agile Manifesto Signatories". https://agilemanifesto.org/display/000000305.html.
21. ↑ Holub, Allen (25 February 2022). "Don't track bugs, fix them". https://holub.com/bugs/.
22. ↑ Holub, Allen (9 July 2016). "#NoEstimates, An Introduction.". https://holub.com/noestimates-an-introduction/.
23. ↑ "Agile & Scrum Don't Work | Allen Holub In The Engineering Room Ep. 9" (in en). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxXmTnb3mFU.
24. ↑ "Allen Holub @allenholub.bsky.social" (in en). https://x.com/allenholub/status/1637111242610610182.

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