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Ask HN: What are some of the best well-written books on computer science?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best well-written books on computer science?

#11

Post by boppo1 »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #9
wallscratch wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you like about K&R so much? I was excited to dive into it during the C systems programming class I took in school, and it was fine, but I didn’t understand the hype. And I loved learning C / usually care about things like this.

For at least some people, K&R just "clicks". It's written in a way that is crystal clear (to at least some people). In my case, I read K&R over a Thanksgiving weekend, and I understood all of it[1], even without a compiler to try things out on. [1] Except for passing command-line arguments into a program (argc and argv). Couldn't understand that one without experimental results.

You read it in three days? Did you skip all the exercises or did it not have any?

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best well-written books on computer science?

#12

Post by AnimalMuppet »

boppo1 wrote: post #11
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For at least some people, K&R just "clicks". It's written in a way that is crystal clear (to at least some people). In my case, I read K&R over a Thanksgiving weekend, and I understood all of it[1], even without a compiler to try things out on. [1] Except for passing command-line arguments into a program (argc and argv). Couldn't understand that one without experimental results.

You read it in three days? Did you skip all the exercises or did it not have any?

I don't recall whether it had exercises. If it did, obviously I skipped them, because I didn't have a compiler.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best well-written books on computer science?

#14

Post by tbrock »

blondin wrote: post #3

not sure i know (or remember) any book that covers the entire field. but i never miss a chance to tell people about "the c programming language" by k&r. one of a kind and, for some of us, the best book on programming ever written. i would love to see it updated to modern c.

“The go programming language” ive heard some consider as the modern equivalent and not just because the language is Go.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best well-written books on computer science?

#16

Post by kongolongo »

jleyank wrote: post #15

Mythical Man Month, 2nd edition but either work. Also Code Complete. Honestly, neither of these refer to Computer Science in the way that other cited books do but they are pertinent to the application of it via software.

I'd consider those more software engineering/management books than computer science in the like theoretical and fundamental sense - not to say that they aren't great books though.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best well-written books on computer science?

#17

Post by bear8642 »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #12
boppo1 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You read it in three days? Did you skip all the exercises or did it not have any?

I don't recall whether it had exercises. If it did, obviously I skipped them, because I didn't have a compiler.

K&R C definitely has exercises (solutions available at https://clc-wiki.net/wiki/K%26R2_solutions>) - final one of chapter 1 is write bracket matcher

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best well-written books on computer science?

#20

Post by avl999 »

h2odragon wrote: post #10

Knuth's "art of Computer Programming", especially and specifically for the way it communicates things. I'm quite weak when it comes to reading advanced maths, but the code communicated to me, and taught me most of what i ever learned about how to read the weird squiggles.

This book is recommended (and heavily upvoted) on every such thread about good software books but I would very much doubt more than 5% have read more than a few chapters, probably less than 1% have read one book in the series and probably less than 0.1% have read the entire series.

This is one of those series that everyone thinks they should read but few actually do.

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