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Ask HN: What is the best programming book you've read?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the best programming book you've read?

#41

Post by bluepoint »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #13

K&R. It was the best programming book I read. I have not read many other programming books to be honest. I couldn't finish most rather. It's been years since I even touched C and at this point I am not going back, I know; but as an Android dev I wish I could find a non-lengthy book like K&R that would expose me to Kotlin like I was exposed to C, while helping unlearn a lot of Java.

I was also my first book and I read it carefully and multiple times when I was young. The thing is that this is quite possible with this book and it gives you a feeling of achievement. Most programming books nowadays are 2000 page monstrosities which are never meant to be read as whole.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best programming book you've read?

#42

Post by Someone1234 »

dcchambers wrote: post #39
crossroadsguy wrote: post #13

K&R. It was the best programming book I read. I have not read many other programming books to be honest. I couldn't finish most rather. It's been years since I even touched C and at this point I am not going back, I know; but as an Android dev I wish I could find a non-lengthy book like K&R that would expose me to Kotlin like I was exposed to C, while helping unlearn a lot of Java.

It's kind of a shame that C has fallen out of favor as a language for new programmers these days. I still haven't found another programming book as good as K&R and its hard to convince people to read a book for a laungage they probably won't use.

> It's kind of a shame that C has fallen out of favor as a language for new programmers these days.

I really like C, but I also disagree with that sentiment. C/C++ should be used as minimally as possible. New projects should use something secure by default in 2021 unless they have a specific articulable need (i.e. not "I like C more" or "I don't know [alternative]").

C/C++ usage should fall into three categories:

- New OS and System Utilities (in particular for hardware with no other language support).

- Existing projects written in C/C++.

- Areas where all the resources and support are only currently in C/C++ (e.g. game development).

I'm glad fewer new developers are getting into C/C++. That will increase the costs and make companies less likely to pick it unless they absolutely must.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best programming book you've read?

#44

Post by xupybd »

tacotacotaco wrote: post #40
xupybd wrote: post #30

Domain driven design made functional. It takes the weird world of functional programming and shows how it can be applied to building run of the mill business apps. Instead of being an app that only functional programmers can understand these apps, at least some of the domain modeling can be understood by stakeholders.

This sounds like "Domain Modelling Made Functional" by Scott Wlaschin, maybe? It walks through the software development process of automating a small business starting with requirements gathering, a valuable step that is often overlooked in programming books. It uses F# but I think anyone familiar with a typed language should be fine, and the info can be applied to any functional language. It uses the type system to…

You're correct sorry wrong title.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best programming book you've read?

#46

Post by TanakaTarou »

"Code Complete" by Steve McConnell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Complete

For many years we gave this book to all new employees on day #1. Even the most experienced developers will find something in this book they will find very useful and it will help you to take a step back and evaluate your programming. This book is true gold mine.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best programming book you've read?

#47

Post by yesenadam »

The AWK Programming Language (1988)

https://archive.org/details/pdfy-MgN0H1joIoDVoIC7

Best as in best written, along with K&R—Brian Kernighan co-authoring both can't be an accident!—it's just a pleasure to read. I use it as a model when writing documentation myself. They get you started using AWK literally on page 1. Later they get into the details of particular use cases—profiling, making DSL interpreters/compilers, random text generation, making indexes, a graph-drawing language, databases, data validation etc etc. All in under 200 pages!

And best as in most useful—I use AWK every day for all kinds of things–web scraping, rearranging and creating data for programs, meta-programming etc. So easy to make whatever tool's needed for a job.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best programming book you've read?

#49

Post by atsaloli »

peakaboo wrote: post #38
atsaloli wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like "Understanding Software" by Max Kanat-Alexander. https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Software-Kanat-Alexande...

That looks like a great read. I feel tempted to buy it right away. So few books about this topic our there. Huge thanks for letting me know!

You are welcome!! The author also blogs at https://www.codesimplicity.com/

Re: Ask HN: What is the best programming book you've read?

#50

Post by neoncontrails »

Bitwise: A Life in Code, by David Auerbach.

Among its memorable conceits: debugging as a life-improvement strategy, the weirdly mesmerizing properties of randomness, adversarial cat-and-mouse games that have transpired as a result of dueling software programs. He's a gifted writer and one of the few to consider programming as somewhat spiritually connected to the question of what it means to be a human. (In addition to his literary credentials, the writer is a former technical lead at Microsoft and Google.)

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