Re:Books programmers don't really read
by silentbicycle on Monday December 15, 2008 @02:22PM
(#398668)
In short: "Please stop recommending books to others that you haven't read yourself."
I've really wondered how many people have actually read TAOCP, in particular. I haven't. I'm still trying to finish SICP (which is fantastic, IMHO, as is CTM), among others. It's too easy to just start reading yet another book, but the real value comes when you get past the first chapter or two - that's usually just rehashed intro material, anyway.
For discussion's sake, what are some programming books people consider worth reading that aren't Big Highly-Regarded Tomes?
I'm really fond of _The Little MLer_ (for understanding types), _Thinking Forth_ (a lot of good ideas about refactoring and general program design), and _Programming in Lua_ (as concise and well-written as K&R, lucidly covers material like coroutines and prototype-based OO). Any of them could also be mostly read in a weekend. Also, _Peopleware_, though it's more about the industry, project management, working in teams, etc.
Re:Books programmers don't really read
by russell on Monday December 15, 2008 @05:27PM
(#398927)
I have, first edition even. :-) The first algorithms book that I really found readable was Sedgewick's Algorithms now updated to C, C++ and Java. Even now I will read Sedgewick first for clarity and go back to TAOCP or CLRS for analysis.
I've really wondered how many people have actually read TAOCP, in particular. I haven't. I'm still trying to finish SICP (which is fantastic, IMHO, as is CTM), among others. It's too easy to just start reading yet another book, but the real value comes when you get past the first chapter or two - that's usually just rehashed intro material, anyway.
For discussion's sake, what are some programming books people consider worth reading that aren't Big Highly-Regarded Tomes?
I'm really fond of _The Little MLer_ (for understanding types), _Thinking Forth_ (a lot of good ideas about refactoring and general program design), and _Programming in Lua_ (as concise and well-written as K&R, lucidly covers material like coroutines and prototype-based OO). Any of them could also be mostly read in a weekend. Also, _Peopleware_, though it's more about the industry, project management, working in teams, etc.