I read and reference older programming books regularly in two areas: Perl and HTML/JavaScript/CSS. Perl has high degree of backwards compatibility, and the Web stuff is helpful for building compatibly with older and retro browsers. Another area where older books are helpful to me is shell scripting. On the other hand, for languages which change and break backwards compatibility regularly, such as Python, not as useful.
Ask HN: Are older programming books useful?
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Re: Ask HN: Are older programming books useful?
#22Some older books might be useful, though I'm not sure how useful older python books might be.
Since you're a librarian, may I suggest some books you might want to consider keeping (not all of these are programming books per se):
Designing Data Intensive Applications, by Martin Kleppmann
K&R for C
K&R The Practice of Programming
The Art of Unix Programming, by Eric S. Raymond
The Cathedral and the Bazaar, by Eric S. Raymond
Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software, by Charles Petzold
The Soul of a New Machine, by Tracy Kidder
The Idea Factory, by Pepper White
The Little Schemer, by Friedman and Felleisen
SICP, by Sussman and Abelson
Introduction to Algorithms, CLRS
The Algorithm Design Manual, by Steven
Introduction to the Theory of Computation, by Michael Sipser
The "dinosaur book", "dragon book" etc.
Re: Ask HN: Are older programming books useful?
#23Huge, huge amounts of kudos to you to ask here about this. My advice to a librarian buying programming books: just stop! There is a deluge of crap that is simply full of wrong information. So even when the topic is still fresh and relevant, those books are still wrong. An expert in the area could have a spot-the-error field day with most of it. To be able to know what the nuggets of gold are in all the dirt, you'd ha…
Can’t that be said almost verbatim about any academic field?
It can't even be said about the academic side of computing.
Programming books aren't academics; they are about the entirely arbitrary and ever-changing conventions of some stuff that is made up of pure information, which someone pulled out of thin air.
An actual computer science text from 1990 can be very useful; so could a book about electronics from 1990, or mechanical engineering.
A programmming book from 1990 is like the repair manual or schematics for some appliance from 1990. Except in the case of the appliance from 1990, at least it was similar to many others: a repair manual for another make and model could actually be useful. We have to imagine a world in which two refrigerators have absolutely nothing in common; the parts look completely different, are hooked up differently and have different names.
Re: Ask HN: Are older programming books useful?
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can’t that be said almost verbatim about any academic field?
It can't even be said about the academic side of computing. Programming books aren't academics; they are about the entirely arbitrary and ever-changing conventions of some stuff that is made up of pure information, which someone pulled out of thin air. An actual computer science text from 1990 can be very useful; so could a book about electronics from 1990, or mechanical engineering. A programmming book from 1990 is…
I just mean there’s tons of shit books published in every field. Computers probably have 10x more, but it’s not a new phenomenon.
Look at medical books that make it into libraries. Same for psychology or any social science. Tons of history books fall into editorializing so similar can be said of them.
And for technical books, (woodworking, drawing, knitting, sewing, etc) they tend to fall into cycles of fads with books that are basically clones of each other.
Re: Ask HN: Are older programming books useful?
#25Great question and many great suggestions here! If I was the librarian facing your task, I would probably try to collect books that 1) cover different programming language paradigms, and 2) books that teach you how to think differently, using a computer language as a medium.
In this regard, I would add "The AWK Programming Language" by Aho, Kernighan and Weinberger. Published in 1988, but it was an excellent introduction to computing for a layman like me around a decade ago. Clear, concise writing; really teaches you to think. Still relevant in 2022, especially considering that awk has gained some attention in recent years. Great warm-up to approaching C via K&R. Can't go wrong with Brian Kernighan as a teacher, I guess.
Another worthwhile book is "Modern Perl, Fourth Edition" by chromatic (2015): https://pragprog.com/titles/swperl/modern-perl-fourth-editio...
Also, "Higher Order Perl" by Mark Jason Dominus (2005). Functional programming techniques with Perl; also ticks the "general thinking book" box. Lots of praise on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Higher-Order-Perl-Transforming-Progra...
Leo Brodie's "Starting Forth" and "Thinking Forth" probably also count as timeless classics in the "thinking book" section.
Lastly, see also Seymour Papert's books "Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas" (1980) and "The Children's Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer" (1993). These are brilliant for anybody who's interested in thinking and learning, or the Logo programming language that Papert developed.