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Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?

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Re: Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?

#22

Post by Beltalowda »

noufalibrahim wrote: post #17
GrumpyYoungMan wrote: post #13

K&R (" The C Programming Language ") still stands out, at least to me, for its clarity and conciseness. I have yet to see a programming language manual that equals it.

Seconded. However, I would add that most books which have Brian Kernighan as an author are of comparable quality. I'm yet to find a book that hasn't taught me something useful written by the man. I can quite confidently say that if he wrote a cook book, I'd go and buy it. Other books by him. 1. The UNIX programming environment 2. The Practice of Programming 3. The Go Programming Language

The AWK book is also pretty good; I read through it a few months ago, and pretty much all of it still works with a modern AWK (such as GNU AWK).

The Go book was mostly written by Alan Donavan, according to Kernighan anyway (as stated in some interviews), but he's not the bragging sort so he might be underselling his contribution.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?

#26

Post by bewuethr »

noufalibrahim wrote: post #17
GrumpyYoungMan wrote: post #13

K&R (" The C Programming Language ") still stands out, at least to me, for its clarity and conciseness. I have yet to see a programming language manual that equals it.

Seconded. However, I would add that most books which have Brian Kernighan as an author are of comparable quality. I'm yet to find a book that hasn't taught me something useful written by the man. I can quite confidently say that if he wrote a cook book, I'd go and buy it. Other books by him. 1. The UNIX programming environment 2. The Practice of Programming 3. The Go Programming Language

Two older ones:

The Elements of Programming Style

Software Tools / Software Tools in Pascal

I have read Elements and Software Tools in Pascal, and while partially definitely outdated ("avoid FORTRAN's three-way if"), excellent writing. Especially Software Tools in Pascal, which in large parts describes and explains source code; I was very impressed by the way the descriptions added lots of insights on top of just the code. Kernighan also manages to smuggle subtle bits of humour into texts about otherwise dry topics.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?

#28

Post by eveningtree »

https://poignant.guide/

"why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby"

All right, this one is not purely technical. It's technical, but mixed with comics, art and a lot of personality.

It is an old classic in the community, and something that I aim up towards. Opened up my imagination to what a unique thing a technical book can become.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?

#29

Post by jmknoll »

andrenotgiant wrote: post #5

https://www.prisma.io/dataguide/ Over the past few years, Prisma has been quietly building a complete zero to advanced guide to databases that I've started to refer people to and use as reference myself. It stands out to me because it is focusing on a broader topic than what you typically find in docs, it's written simply, it is super comprehensive, and it's not trying to sell something.

Replying to say thank for a great share, and also to point out this cool map linked at the end of the guide. https://www.prisma.io/dataguide/just-for-fun/us-most-popular...
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