sureshjayaraman

This gives a nice, quick summary of different techniques!

Does "A Philosophy of Software Design" need some experience to appreciate what the author is talking about?

Looks like a good list to start with.

Honestly, I have found reading "How do Design Programs" challenging. May be it doesn't flow perhaps because of the use of an unfamiliar language? Do you have a specific approach that helps you?

I would pay too..

Have tried kmail long time ago, but currently on a gnome based desktop. I'm afraid install kmail would mean that I need to pull a load of dependencies..