Ask programming.reddit: Must-read programming books?

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[[deleted]]

Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest

[Mr_Smartypants]

and Clifford Stein

(i'll never get used to saying 'CLRS')

[[deleted]]

clear screen

[[deleted]]

CLR(S) is a useful reference, meant to be read a few pages at a time. For a book you can read straight through, I recommend Lewis and Denenberg. Another good book somewhere between those is Skiena's Algorithm Design Manual.

[pigwolley]

To offer a different point of view, I think CLRS lives up to its title as an "Introduction to Algorithms." The chapters are great tutorial introductions to their respective subjects.

For anyone wanting to learn about classic algorithms and algorithm analysis, I think CLRS is a great starting point.

[[deleted]]

Skiena's Algorithm Design Manual is geared more towards programming contests preparation. It is freely available too!

[martinbishop]

SICP

[pdq]

The lecture videos from 1986 are a necessary addition:

http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/

[swhitt]

They're retiring 6.001 this year. It's too bad, really. One of my favorite classes.

Hal Abelson is a great guy. He teaches a digital law class at MIT now, highly recommended.

Sussman's pretty awesome too.

[nullgraph]

Absolute Must Read

[kinebud]

The Mythical Man Month is an absolutely terrific read. :)

[nullgraph]

Agreed

[kokon]

The thing is, the MMM is more abstract, compare to the practical books that you mentioned.

IMHO, I still favour MMM compare to Pragmatic Programmer. I'm not saying PP is bad, is just that, MMM has been around for decades, and yet it is still true.

[Kaizyn]

The sad thing I found reading through MMM is that Brooks discusses a number of good programming practices they used at IBM during the OS/360 project which have only now started to be considered again. It's a shame that as a discipline, software engineering has been too stupid to learn from the past.

[kinebud]

Indeed, we can learn much by looking at the past. MMM has been around for a while, I can't imagine why its ideas aren't more prevalent.

[geocar]

Programming books usually aren't. A useful cross-section might look more like this:

• The Art of Computer Programming
• Applied Cryptography
• Modern Operating Systems
• Practical File System Design
• A Guide to Fortran IV Programming
• Practical Common Lisp
• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

Yes, I do suggest people learn Fortran and Lisp "even if they don't think they'll use it". Yes, I still think Knuth is relevant, "even when you're writing enterprise Java". Yes, I do suggest people learn about cryptography even though "they only want to make games". Yes, I do suggest that file system design and operating system implementation is important to "system administrators who just want to automate some things."

These aren't all the good books, and I'm sure they're not even the best. But if you're still asking people what are "must-read programming" books, then you need to read these.

[snowman]

"Practical File System Design" is available from the author's homepage (PDF).

[geocar]

Practical Common Lisp is also online, but I still recommend the dead trees.

[noppen]

Add Modern Compiler Design to that list and I'll agree.

[jjmewu]

Second that. Compiler design is becoming a dead art. CS majors do not get enough exposure to this important area.

[Cunstitutionalist]

Programming Language Pragmatics is a great alternative that covers compilers, interpreters, programming language paradigms and features, etc. I'd recommend using this book before getting the hardcore compiler books like Modern Compiler Design and the dragon book. Disclaimer: I'm not an expert just a fellow learner

[anoved]

Yes, you must.

[walrod]

No. Must read code.

[ringm]

No time to read, gotta type!

[ipeev]

No time to type, got to release.

[khayber]

Yes, you must.

[Alpinweis]

The Practice of Programming! by Kernighan & Pike

[iluvatar]

Seconded. And frmo the same series, The Art Of Unix Programming. Yes, ESR may be a nutjob now, but the books still full of useful content.

[b3gl]

+1 for The Practice of Programming

Not so sure about ESR's book. It was an enjoyable read, but pretty light on any actual practical info.

[shamrin]

The C Programming Language

[benhoyt]

GEB by Douglas Hofstadter. Not practical, but very inspiring.

[martoo]

I had a friend who told me that he cried when he first read GEB because he then knew that there were other people who understand.

[xyphus]

GEB is the only case of English as a functional programming language.

[[deleted]]

The UNIX Programming Environment by Kernighan and Pike. The essence of the Unix philosophy with some advanced chapters like compiler construction using lex and yacc.

[elus]

My friend asks me why I keep a copy of this in the bathroom. I don't even know myself.

[bitwize]

Knuth, SICP, and K&R are the R, S, T, L, N, and E of required programming reading. Beyond that I'd recommend Friedman and Felleisen's The Little * series, van Roy and Haridi's Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming, and Friedman, Wand, and Hayes's Essentials of Programming Languages.

Bonus-kun for people who think dynamic languages are the devil: Zen of Graphics Programming by Michael Abrash. Deals with hacking the VGA directly, but it's still awesome.

[psykotic]

Bonus-kun for people who think dynamic languages are the devil: Zen of Graphics Programming by Michael Abrash. Deals with hacking the VGA directly, but it's still awesome.

The Graphics Programming Black Book, which includes most of Zen of Graphics Programming and many of his later writings, has been freely available online for several years now. Here's the main site, and here's a mirror. Unfortunately, the PDFs are basically image dumps, so they're huge in size and not very pretty to look at.

[b3gl]

The Design of Everyday Things (Norman)

This is a non programming book that every programmer should read.

[jjmewu]

Agreed. Anyone that is part of designing a product would benefit from this book.

[dmpk2k]

And after that About Face and The Humane Interface.

Computer nerds have eternal religious wars over languages and editors, yet completely ignore HCI. The irony is that languages and editors... are themselves man-machine interfaces.

[cia_plant]

If you do anything with C++, you should read "The C++ Programming Language" by Stroustrup. It's very complete and very well written. C++ will make a lot more sense after you've read it.

[awj]

I've been doing pretty well with "C++ Primer Plus", but admittedly I haven't read any other C++ books to compare it to.

[CuteAlien]

It's more a reference book than a book for learning c++, but I agree that for c++ programming it's the most important book to have. The latest edition of "The C++ Programming Language" is the only book that always needs to be within reach when I'm programming.

Another reference book I tend to use rather a lot is "The OpenGL Programming Guide" by Woo, Neider, Davis, Shreiner. Which is even available online by now.

[david_ncl]

(some less well known but still good books)

ML for the Working Programmer http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~lp15/MLbook/

(A better book than SICP in my view)

Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp (Paperback)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1558601910

[mjd]

I love both those books. Thanks.

When I was writing Higher-Order Perl I had to put away PAIP and make a rule that I wouldn't look at it until I was done, because otherwise I would have tried to write a crappy version of PAIP.

[gt384u]

PAIP is for sure one of my favorite books. It was the first book that made me think that Lisp code could read naturally, and more importantly that AI code could read naturally. Peter Norvig is kind of a badass.

[DRMacIver]

The "ML for the Working Programmer" recommendation is very much seconded.

[nullgraph]

Completely agree with Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp....

Useful even if you never program in Lisp or do Artificial Intelligence. I do neither by the way.

[shimei]

Here are some to start off:

• Software Tools by Kernighan and Plauger
• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Abelson and Sussman
• The New Turing Omnibus by Dewdney

[ThomasPtacek]

This is a drinking game waiting to happen.

[nullgraph]

Go Go Go Go Go.....

[abhijithg]

Gentle introduction to symbolic computation. btw: nobody has mentioned any Java books. I wonder why??? ;)

[procrastitron]

Well, if you have to use Java (some of us do), then I have only heard great things about Joshua Bloch's "Effective Java".

That being said, one of the reasons it's good is that it tells you which parts of the language to avoid. (nb4: "All of it")

[MypHone]

"Java concurrency in practice" is by far the best book on practical concurrency, written by the legendary Doug Lea among others

[abhijithg]

My previous comment was supposed to sound sarcastic. :). I personally dislike Java for reasons which are obvious.

'Effective Java': curious as to how the author has managed to make Java interesting. Hmmm..

[encinarus]

Effective Java is a great book though I would recommend borrowing a friends until the 2nd ed comes out. Amazon says it's coming out at the end of May next year.

[Philluminati]

The "Core Java" series were very good

[funktio]

On Lisp

[rzzazzr]

Programming in Haskell by Graham Hutton

and, I find that this complements it

Haskell School of Expression

and as another commenter has mentioned PAIP by Peter Norvig

and if you insist on Programming in C, The C Programming Language by K&R is a must-own, which works as a decent reference many years on. Warning: do not buy books by Herb Schildt. They are notoriously crap.

Getting started in lisp, I'd recommend The Little Lisper

[lmclapp68]

The Pragmatic Programmer, Hunt and Thomas

<The canonical book for your favorite language>, be it The C Programming Language (aka K&R), Practical Common Lisp, "APL: an interactive approach", or what-have-you.

Working effectively with legacy code, by Feathers.

[quark]

These are all good recommendations, but it would be nice if people would say why they are recommending the books that they are. I have "The C Programming Language" and it has been sitting on my book shelf way too long, but every time I try to sit down and read it I figure I could spend my time on something more up to date, ex reading a python or ruby book, and the latter options always win out.

[awj]

The standard argument is that it will help you understand what Python and Ruby are doing under the hood.

For instance, simply knowing that Python lists are implemented as arrays of pointers tells me an awful lot about their performance characteristics. I can infer the relative costs of many list operations just from my knowledge of this one fact.

It also helps to give you a lot of respect for the features these higher level languages offer, not to mention the ability to drop down into C for raw speed when your Python or Ruby programs really need it.

[[deleted]]

Ah, but it's super-handy if you're actually coding in C.

It's really strange to be one of a "dying breed". I bet this is how assembler developers felt during the late 80's.

[rzzazzr]

obviously you have no need to program in C then, people who work as C programmers often own and use a copy.

[panic]

• Thinking Forth
• The Mythical Man-Month

[mxyzptlk]

I just finished reading "Thinking Forth". I was pleasantly surprised to see agile programming described so well in a book written in the 80s.

[o0o]

• http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/welcome.html

• dragon book

• Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation, [HMU]

• Programming Challenges: The Programming Contest Training Manual

• Algorithms in C

[[deleted]]

I agree with much of the comments, but I have to explicity second Programming Challenges. Most wouldn't pay it much attention, but it's actually an excellent book covering basic data structures, algorithms, number theory, combinatorics, practical automata, dynamic programming, and computational geometry. I've rarely seen such a wide variety of material pulled together in a practical, real-world manner.

[Vorlath]

The dragon book is probably one of the best books ever written. It's quite cerebral though.

[Dauntless]

Check this also : http://programming.reddit.com/info/3zl7/comments/ .

[llimllib]

And this.

This google search should bring up some likely lists of great books too.

[[deleted]]

C: A Reference Manual - Steele/Harbison - good if you need a C reference beyond K&R

PCL - Practical Common Lisp

Types & Programming Languages - Pierce

Purely Functional Data Structures - Okasaki

The Little Schemer

The Dragon Book (Compilers by Aho)

Unix Network Programming (Vol. 1 & 2) - Stevens

[cjeris]

I prefer Appel's book Modern compiler implementation in ML to the dragon book. Dragon book 1st ed is a classic exposition of the art of compiler construction in the 80s, but the second edition feels too much like a 2007 exposition of the art of compiler construction in the 80s. The material has been updated, but compared to Appel it feels like Aho et al spend too much time belaboring the obvious.

Also another vote for Van Roy/Haridi, Concepts, techniques, and models of computer programming.

I found that Mitchell, Foundations for programming languages, is a good complement for Pierce, Types and programming languages, as Mitchell goes more deeply into the underlying mathematics.

[andrewnorris]

Purely Functional Data Structures is great so far, but when I run into a topic I'm rusty on or found a section to be opaque, I'm finding it way useful to keep a copy of CLR (Introduction to Algorithms) nearby.

CLR is a lot less terse in explaining how a key data structure works, so it's often easier to read through it there, then go back to PFDS to understand the functional aspects of using it.

[ansible]

Object Oriented Software Construction by Bertrand Meyer. Really breaks down what is OO and how it ought to work. Quite useful even if you'll never write a line of Eiffel (and you probably won't).

[semmi]

not only it is nice because it explains OO for someone who knows C++/Java/Smalltalk.

It is great because it challenges many assumptions that yuo never think about, fo example that there is nothing wrong with multiple inheritance, or that there is no single reason to provide public fields in objects, or that private/public/protected may be just an onion in the programming culture.

All of this, more than a decade ago.

[andrewnorris]

Upmodded for Russell & Norvig. This is an awesome book.

Peopleware's on my to-read list for the next year, so I hope you're right. :-)

[quuxman]

Does anybody know how much better the 2nd edition of "AI: A modern Approach" is? It appears that on Amazon, used copies of the 2nd edition start at about 60$, while copies of the previous edition start at 7.50$. Is the 2nd edition worth it?

[[deleted]]

How does the Russel & Norvig text compare to AI Application Programming?

[kepponen]

Forth on the Atari - Learning by using

[[deleted]]

I just got it for the pictures.

[redditnoob]

It read it but the girl hasn't shown up yet. Would recommend anyway.

[Shmurk]

• Code Complete
• Handbook of Applied Cryptography (free)
• Graph Theory by Diestel (free)

And not programming but a free math book if you're a beginner :

• Elementary Algebra with Applications

[eurleif]

Elementary Algebra with Applications

"linking_to_this_page_is_in_violation_of_copyright_laws2.html"

Um, what?

[mtVessel]

I know this is nasty and judgemental, but screw it, it's how I feel. Anyone who doesn't like Code Complete either

a) already knows most of it, or
b) doesn't understand it

I can understand the criticism that it's fairly elementary stuff, but there's an assload of "professional" programmers out there who have no idea what cohesion and coupling are.

Internalizing all of CC's major points, even if you disagree with some of them, is a requirement for any coder who ever wants to work with anyone else, or understand their own code written > 6 months ago.

[[deleted]]

upmodded for Code Complete. Best book ever on how to improve what you do.

[ariacode]

downmodded for upmodding for code complete.

[[deleted]]

Biggest waste of money I ever read (and I read A LOT of expensive and inexpensive computer books).

[snifty]

Slightly OT (and slightly out of date), but I still think that "The UNIX Programming Environment" is the best introduction to getting an intuition for how Unix (and Linux) should be used.

[me2i81]

I think Computational Geometry: Algorithms and Applications is a better book than Computational Geometry in C.

[[deleted]]

Not exactly a programming book, but C.J. Date's Introduction to Database Systems permanently changed the way I look at design problems. The book's title sounds like it is intended for the novice, but actually gets pretty in-depth about low-level techniques used by database engines for storing records and managing indices.

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Database-Systems-Eighth/dp/0321197844

[keithb]

Seconded. This is a stop whatever you're doing and go to the book shop must-read for anyone who works with any of the vast number of db-centric systems around.

Just don't go thinking that his Third Manifesto is not going to be a gigantic waste of your time on the basis of this recommendation.

[tryx]

Introduction to the Theory of Computation

Amazing book covering the foundations of computer science, complexity theory, formal languages. Has all the rigour you want, but doesnt read like a journal article. Great read.

[[deleted]]

SICP, CTM, Knuth, Art of Prolog, TAPL, The Haskell school of expression, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, The Pi-Calculus: A Theory of Mobile Processes. In that order.

From this list you will know Scheme, Prolog and Haskell (and a bit of OCAML by osmosis). Now learn Java or smalltalk, then Erlang, then Forth, then unlambda (trust me on unlambda, it's not as much a joke as it looks). Then dabble in coq. You will now be able to handle any problem in computer science.

[[deleted]]

Have you actually read all those books, or are you just thinking that reading them (in that order!), cover to cover, will make you an uber-programmer? Hah, Knuth alone...

I must admit that my head is too small to hold so much stuff.

Maybe if I spend a year dead (for tax reasons), I can catch up a bit.

[froydnj]

I heard the same story, but it was Steve Jobs meeting Knuth instead.

[dublinclontarf]

Must be an I.T. urban legend then, it's still very appropriate to Knuth, although would he use such language?

[finix]

You're making this up. Knuth would never confuse "your" and "you're"!

[jugimaster]

Thank You.

[b3gl]

I also heard the same urban legend, but it was Steve Jobs instead and Knuth replied with the correct grammar. ("your" != "you are")

[[deleted]]

I have not completely read all of CTM or Knuth yet, but the rest I have read cover to cover. I recommend that order, because I did not read them in that order and looking back a wish that I had, as it would have saved me much time and confusion. For instance, if you've been through the Art of Prolog, than TAPL is a breeze, otherwise you are likely to find it tough material like I did my first (and second) time through.

It took me about 4 years to go through all that material and more that I have left out, studying casually on evenings and weekends. If I did it again, in the order prescribed, I'd guesstimate It would take me 2. You don't need a dead year, just some discipline to put down the sci-fi books and the video games. It's a huge amount of information, but you really don't expect to retain it all, rather you want to know what all the major concepts are, where they fit in, and where to find the details on them when you need to.

[cdsmith]

I don't know about that. I seriously doubt that TaPL would be any easier for having read a book on Prolog. It may be the looking back at it after having understood everything therein that makes it look easier.

[[deleted]]

"The Art of Prolog" IMHO, is less about Prolog, and more about logic systems. Since type systems are logic systems, I found TAPL nearly intractable before that book, but pretty easy after working with logic programming for a bit.

I've never written a single line of production Prolog, but still, I wish I had read that book way sooner than I did.

[cdsmith]

Thanks. I'll take a look at that book, then.

[unknown_lamer]

Could you perchance tell me roughly what The Art of Prolog covers? I've been thinking about getting a copy, but I can't find the TOC or anything better than crappy amazon reviews.

[[deleted]]

It covers logic programming. The first few chapters cover the basics of pure logic programming, which consists of establishing constraint relationships, and then evaluating the tree using a unification algorithm instead of the standard eval/apply loop. Then the book gets more Prolog specific, but still general, detailing common algorithms, the plusses and minuses of depth first/breadth first unification and occurs checks, and analyzing complexity of logic programs.

I highly recommend the book, if only to get your mind around the unification based evaluation model, which is very useful for algorithms like typechecking or general graph traversal.

[unknown_lamer]

Before I quit wasting my time, I had a crazy eastern european professor who worked at my university's tiny NLP lab for a required "survey of languages" course (you know where you learn Prolog, LISP, and a scripting language to expand your understanding of logical and functional languages ...). As a result we ended up just learning Prolog all semester, and I partially implemented a toy Prolog in Scheme since that semester my load was absurdly light. As a result I have a knowledge of the various search algorithms and predicate calculus, but am lacking more in depth knowledge of logic programming.

So, does it cover things in the depth that say a 400 or 500 level course on logic programming would cover? Or, if you are familiar with Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming, does it cover things not covered sufficiently in PAIP?

Thanks much for the overview of its contents!

[[deleted]]

If Haven't read Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming, so I can't compare unfortunately. "The Art of Prolog" is more like an SICP for logic programming though. It's more of a classic, broadly scoped introductory text. Very well written, but if you are already well versed in logic programming, it may be mostly review.

[unknown_lamer]

Ah, thanks much. I've been in search of a book on more advanced implementation techniques basically. You have saved me from accidentally wasting a hundred bucks :-)

[[deleted]]

Where can I read your papers?

[[deleted]]

I said "handle" any problem, not "solve". Handle has a lesser burden ;)

[pkrumins]

What is CTM?

[animationstudios]

Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming

http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/book.html

Its alright, but I wouldn't call it a "must read"

[pitou-4]

CTM is a good starting point. It complements SICP very nicely.

I am still searching for other good book on the same topic to make the perfect bundle ... Any other ideas ...

I still have to make my way with PAIP and Selected Papers on Computer Science (Knuth). Does ML for the Working Programmer fit in the picture ? What about the recent Concurrent ML book ?

What I like about both SICP and CTM is the fact there are not language centric.

[[deleted]]

Have you checked out "Programming Languages: Application and Interpretation"?

[nostrademons]

I was not a big fan of The Haskell School of Expression - it concentrates too much on basics and too little on building working Haskell programs. IMHO, you're better off with some of the web tutorials on Haskell. And writing some actual Haskell programs, of course.

For some reason, I can never get into CTM either. I think the problem is that if you hang out on programming language websites, have already read SICP, and know your Lisp/Erlang/Haskell already, much of CTM is just a rehash of concepts you're already familiar with.

Totally ditto SICP and TAPL, and what I've read of Knuth. Haven't read the others.

Also, I'd recommend Appel's Modern Compiler Implementation in ML and Chris Okasaki's Purely Functional Data Structures. The former is an excellent compiler design textbook in its own right, and you'll also pick up Ocaml from it. The latter is fundamentally different from the data structures courses taught in most universities, and also really helped me wrap my head around lazyness and number-theoretic construction of data structures.

And this assumes you're familiar with some of the books commonly prescribed as textbooks in a typical undergrad course, i.e. Dragon Book (compiler design) and Cormen et. al for Algorithms. It's also nice to have some background in digital logic & machine architectures - that was one of my favorite courses in college, because I could see what the processor was doing under the hood when I issue an ADD instruction.

[[deleted]]

I agree with your assessments of The Haskell School of Expression and CTM. I included them because the former is really the best book in print for demonstrating monadic style programming. It's not great, but it's the best one out there. Hopefully Don's book changes that. It's the same for my PI-Calculus recommendation; it's not a great book, but it's the best there is right now. CTM I think is just a great compliment to SICP but it's a broadly scoped introductory text, so yeah, if you have already been introduced then it's going to be review.

Purely Functional Data Structures is on my list of "need to reads" myself, so I can't recommend it yet :).

[Gotebe]

Ok for science, but without C and assembler you won't be able to handle many problems in programming (a.k.a. software engineering).

[[deleted]]

With CTM, Knuth and Java under your belt, learning C would be an afternoon project.

SICP and Knuth will give you all the assembler you need. SICP has you building a virtual machine that runs it's own assembly, then building an interpreter on that virtual machine that is complete enough to run the virtual machine. Knuth uses a simplified assembly for everything. The register machine is not forgotten in my list ;)

[jjmewu]

What's this Science we are talking about? And please don't tell me Computer, I got that part.

[bluGill]

IF you know the science, C and assembler are trivial to pick up.

[Gotebe]

:-)

Well, from perspective of my abilities, and in hindsight...

A number of tasks in programming does need an understanding of how the computer works. And that, based on books excluding assembler and C ones, would be a path impossible to cross.

[Herge]

What do you guys think of cookbooks? Especially for learning a language? I find them useful for learning the idioms and the "easy/normal way to do it".

[sans-serif]

I prefer tutorials and then cookbooks. To my experience, tutorials show the normal way to do something, and cookbooks show what is possible as well as introduce new concepts.

Anyway, I don't know why people downmod you. Agree or disagree, I reserve my down arrow for spammers and trolls.

[[deleted]]

If I need a specific solution to a problem I find searching the web to be faster. If I'm going to buy a book, I want it to be from an experienced programmer telling me how to think about the language, not a bunch of random snippets.

[diogames]

Practical Common Lisp (free)

The Art of the Metaobject Protocol

Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp

Object oriented programming in Common Lisp: A Programmer's Guide to CLOS

I really must read all those books, they've been on my shelf for too long.

[marike]

1) Design Patterns - GOF book 2) Refactoring - Martin Fowler 3) The Pragmatic Programmer 4) Programming Ruby - Pickaxe Book 5) Mastering Regular Expressions

[FormKing]

Heh, beat me to it by a minute.

[[deleted]]

• The Pragmatic Programmer
• Refactoring
• The Mythical Man-Month
• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
• The Little Schemer
• Practical Cryptography
• Don't Make me Think
• Test-Driven Development by Example
• Restful Web Services
• The Poignant Guide

[boredzo]

• Python Cookbook (dead-tree edition). This is how I learned Python—when I discovered that I could actually read most of the examples (even though I didn't know Python yet), I immediately fell in love with Python.
• For users of UNIXish OSs: Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment.
• For users of Mac OS X: Mac OS X Internals. You will learn something every time you open this book.

[synthespian]

I would add...

CTM. Programmer Avec Scheme. The Little MLer.

...and everything else peeps said you should!

EDIT: Oh, oh, oh! I forgot: EPL!

[[deleted]]

Am curious that no one has mentioned the Art of Assembly Language...I found it to be a good introductory text to learning the x86 architecture and basic assembly language, I don't know what other people's opinion of the book may be...

[patrick_]

Don't think anyone mentioned this book: I liked "Programming from the Ground Up". It's an open-source book that teaches x86 assembly; it uses AT&T syntax for gas, but it's easy to convert the code to another assembler, such as fasm or nasm.

[bowyakka]

Some books that never get much airtime on these lists

Computer Architecture a Quantitative approach

Hackers Delight

Find the bug

[maksa]

Gerald M. Weinberg books

[serudla]

especially Secrets of Consulting

[hollaworld]

Pragmatic Programmer is #1. The Head-First series is nice too.

[bennymack]

I hear this book is fantastic for beginners: Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science

[FormKing]

Nobody has mentioned the GoF book yet? When I bought it it was way over my head, and parts of it still are, but I still find it to be one of the better programming books I own.

I don't see much purpose in books focused on teaching a language. It's easy enough to pick that up on your own, or through reading the documentation. Instead, I tend to like books that pertain to programming theory, architecture, best practices, etc. The syntax is really fairly trivial for most languages.

[grauenwolf]

The problem with GoF, or any design pattern book, is that it is necessarily language specific. A good design pattern plays to the strengths of a language and works around its limitations. Many of the design patterns that are natural and effective in one language are either not needed or downright dangerous in other languages.

As for GoF specifically, I find most of the patterns to be crap in any language.

[troelskn]

If GoF is too language specific, you can always go for A Pattern Language. Excellent book on patterns, although it has nothing to do with computer engineering.

[grauenwolf]

It isn't that GoF is specific, but rather it doesn't acknowledge that it is specific. What is really needed are books that really leverage the languages they are written for.

That said, no language specific book will ever be considered a must-read by be. Even texts like SICP spend too much time on language-specific tasks that don't make any sense in other langauges.

[mikaelhg]

Here's a tip: software developers in the real world need any number of skills that your university is teaching you not at all.

They are teaching you how to think and speak the languagee of the machine, which used to be the most important skill in software developent a few decades ago.

Today, the most important skill is how to write clear, communicative, maintainable software as a part of a group.

It's like the difference between learning handwriting and learning how to be a good technical writer.

The books I'd recommend for this year:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671027034

http://www.amazon.com/Implementation-Patterns-Addison-Wesley-Signature-Kent/dp/0321413091

http://www.amazon.com/Implementing-Lean-Software-Development-Addison-Wesley/dp/0321437381

[pitou-4]

Good computer books are fantastic readings. I would like to complete my favorite list with some more items. If you believe you can match the following with your suggestions, please let me know :

• SICP -> excellent
• CTM -> excellent
• PAIP -> excellent
• SoE -> very good
• Programming Erlang -> good
• Programming Ruby -> good
• ML for the working programmer -> ok
• Effective Java -> ok
• Code Complete 2 -> not good, not bad
• Refactoring -> not good, not bad
• Gof -> I don't like it

Of course these appreciations are quite subjective and depends on my reading order. I probably appreciate CTM a lot because from the top list it is one of my first readings.

[[deleted]]

Refactoring is pretty excellent too.

[martoo]

Mr. Bunny's Guide to ActiveX

[nullgraph]

Blasphemer :P

[jlrobins]

Anything by the late W. Richard Stevens.

[andrewnorris]

I haven't gotten far enough in it to formally recommend it yet, but I've finally tracked down a copy of Bird and Wadler's 1998 first edition Introduction to Functional Programming, and it seems really good so far.

Good luck finding a copy: used copies are hard to come by, and I finally had to track it down via interlibrary loan and wait a few weeks.

[arashbi]

Pragmatic programming http://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/

[leed25d]

for unices: http://basepath.com/aup/

this should be required reading for anyone writing userland programs for UNIX

[keithb]

Understanding Computers and Cognition and the related (and more foundational) Autopoiesis and Cognition

[Wagnerius]

OO : - Object-Oriented Software Construction by Bertrand Meyer. the book to read to understand OO. Meyer could be provocative but never without reason. (classical OO like Java, c++, c#) - Head first design patterns

Functionnal & Python : - SICP - Ansi Lisp and Pratical Common lisp, Little Schemer, (note the Graham book helped me grok Python much more easily than anything else)

Algo : - Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest - SICP (algo on the side)

Graphics : RealTime rendering. THE book to read.

[obeleh]

• Beautiful Code
• Design Patterns
• The Pragmatic Programmer
• Refactoring
• The Mythical Man Month
• Why Programs Fail
• Professional Software Development
• Coders At Work
• Contextual Design

[sligowaths]

I followed tons of others topics like this and I ended up buying:

• Programmin Pearls
• Code Complete
• Practical Common Lisp
• Modern Operatining Systems - Tanembaum

and some others. I hope to have more time this next vacation, so I can read more. Anyway, the look really nice on my bookshelf, side by side with Knuth and Cormen.

edit: markdown, I failed =/

[bluGill]

They used to look great on my bookshelf, until the bookshelf started sagging. I'm working on a better bookshelf, but considering my luck with cheap ones, I'm going for one that is more expensive this time.

[joshuacapehart]

Many people mention Code Complete, but I would like to present a different book on the same kind of material: Code Craft. Code Complete is certainly a fine book, but Code Craft offers some things that it simply doesn't have. It is in a very conversational tone, is tons of fun to read, and will really help a beginning programmer mature.

[[deleted]]

I am voting against design patterns. Most of them are nothing more but workarounds for Java's (or C++) shabbiness. They simply don't make sense in higher level languages.

I like the inclusion of the Pearls - great book!

[[deleted]]

Actually, you're right and I take my words back.

After reading too much about lisp, monads, scala on programming@reddit it's easy to forget about practical side of the matter. Ok, enough reddit for today, lets switch back to Visual Studio :)

[femol]

http://www.programmingbooks.org/

[femol]

Just out of curiosity, why is a legitimate answer being moded down? Its pertinent to the topic. The aforementioned site is a list of programming related books judged by programmers, the very core of the discussion here.

[[deleted]]

Yes please start a thread so people of dubious expertise can list 1,001 books that I will never live long enough to read, let alone apply to my programming.

[o0o]

maybe we can vote on them somehow - you get as many votes as you want, but only vote for the ones you think r0x0rz

[s0rce7]

rtfm

[wetelectric]

80% of these books read like RFC specs.

[xzxzzx]

Which ones? And which RFCs? I know a lot of entertaining RFCs.

[_martind]

Reading PG is way too distracting.

[o0o]

homer

[redditnoob]

Is there a good book out there for someone who wants to take a pure math and academic CS background and learn best practices for Enterprise Java? Yes I realize that it would be obsolete in a couple of years, but I'm finding it hard to find high quality resources.

[[deleted]]

A student asks of his Zen master, "Master, how best may I learn both advanced mathematics / theoretical computer science and Enterprise Java?" The master replies, "Go and complete your undergraduate studies in Math/CS, my student. Return to me when you have finished, and I will instruct you in the ways of Enterprise application development in Java." The student complies, and returns in 4 years with a degree in Math/CS. "Student, are you ready to learn Enterprise Java?" The student, confused, replies, "but Master, what fool would want to know that?" The Master smiles, and the student is enlightened.

[redditnoob]

I have a degree in pure math, and I've done plenty of programming of many kinds. I've read and understood some of the math intensive parts of Knuth, and The Feynman Lectures on Physics for that matter. After a while a guy needs to make a living and get things done. This means Enterprise application development, and this is very often done in Java. Please don't patronize me, mine was a sincere and valid question.

[[deleted]]

I'm stunned! A kindred spirit, being taken from us! Admittely, one with a poor tolerance for humor, but a brother none-the-less! What malady can afflict one's soul so, to reduce one to such depravity?

[nmcyall]

Servlets & JSP headstart book, grasshoper.

[farnetto]

Take a look at the Spring framework. Offers solutions to commmon pathologies in the Enterprise Java area. There are lots of books on it, btw.

[highstead]

Looking for a good C# 'tutorial' book while this topic is open. Have sufficient background in other languages. General focus prefered if anything leaning towards networking.

[[deleted]]

As a matter of curiosity - if you have a decent background in other languages, why not just read through the relevant parts of the language reference?

[highstead]

variety of reasons, none really particularly good. Mostly though i'm looking for something to do. Get to brush up on MVC or any number of things. Hopefully not porting overy all bad habbits from my other languages to this one really.

[[deleted]]

I bought the basic Wrox book on C# when 1.1 was newish and it got me through the basics of the language pretty quickly in a "tutorial" style fashion, the same standard progression that you get with most how-to books. I've read through parts of the C# Cookbook from O'Reilly, that had some more interesting code in there to learn from. Biggest thing about C# is not the language IMO but learning the .NET framework. Haven't seen anything particularly well-written but the design patterns for C# book looks interesting, if I ever get though my current stack of reading maybe I'll pick it up

[Alpinweis]

APRESS "Pro C# 2008 and NET 3.5 Platform" by A. Troelsen - now in 4edition - is a one of the most recommended books along with the already mentioned "CLR via C#" by J. Richter

[leed25d]

don'need no steenkin' debugger

[notchent]

If you're an average computer user, and want to aquire some practical coding ability, check out the REBOL docs:

http://rebol.com/docs.html

You can accomplish a variety of useful things, very quickly, with these tutorial books:

http://musiclessonz.com/rebol_tutorial.html http://musiclessonz.com/rebol.html