Ask HN: What are some of the best written programming books? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best written programming books?

#51

Post by kod » Mon, Jun 22, 2015, 4:38 PM UTC

alphaBetaGamma wrote: post #47

While on this subject, would anybody recommend a book in french? It would be for my nephew who is quite smart, high-school age, and knows java an python. I would like to expose him to something different: lisp, or functional programming.

http://pagesperso-systeme.lip6.fr/Christian.Queinnec/WWW/LiS...

Might be jumping in at the deep end if he's never seen lisp before, but it was originally published in french...

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best written programming books?

#52

Post by mavelikara » Mon, Jun 22, 2015, 4:51 PM UTC

Functional Programing in Scala (http://www.manning.com/bjarnason/)

More recent than most books mentioned here, but I found it remarkably well-written. Irrespective of what happens to Scala, this book has a good chance to be useful 10 years from now.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best written programming books?

#53

Post by henesy » Mon, Jun 22, 2015, 5:12 PM UTC

Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation by David S. Touretzky is solid for learning the fundamentals of thinking in and writing lisp.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/

Bump for the K&R as well, great book, helped me get my feet wet with C quickly and effectively.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best written programming books?

#54

Post by deepaksurti » Mon, Jun 22, 2015, 5:18 PM UTC

The Elements of Computing Systems: http://www.nand2tetris.org. A great, fun, do it yourself projects with subtle hints to move forward. Helps you lay a good foundation for programming.

Helped me a lot when I ventured into 3D graphics and game programming.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best written programming books?

#55

Post by burncycle » Mon, Jun 22, 2015, 5:56 PM UTC

Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo (http://www.amazon.com/Accelerated-C-Practical-Programming-Ex...). One of the best introductory programming books, and one of the best introductory books in general, that I've ever read.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best written programming books?

#56

Post by cosmolev » Mon, Jun 22, 2015, 7:16 PM UTC

It's not even published yet, but based on the 7 of 11 chapters available I can say the book gonna be really fundamental.

Designing Data-Intensive Applications

The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems

By Martin Kleppmann

http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032175.do

http://dataintensive.net/

The author has great sense of humor.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best written programming books?

#57

Post by why-el » Mon, Jun 22, 2015, 7:22 PM UTC

cfeduke wrote: post #44

Any book written by Charles Petzold is an enjoyable read, though particularly the non-MS specific titles Code and The Annotated Turing. Java Concurrency in Practice (2006) is older but relevant and clearly describes concurrency on the JVM. A must read for any Java, Scala, Clojure, etc. software engineer; well-written, enjoyable, concise. Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby by Sandi Metz is a fun read packed with…

I second this recommendation. "Code" is a very enjoyable read indeed.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best written programming books?

#58

Post by brg » Mon, Jun 22, 2015, 9:30 PM UTC

Sukotto wrote: post #3

Programming Pearls: Jon Bentley The Pragmatic Programmer: Hunt and Thomas The C Programming Language: Kernighan and Ritchie

Seconding Programming Pearls by Jon Bentley. Although a bit dated, I reread this book for its insight in to problem solving. It is a great primer for programming problem interviews.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best written programming books?

#59

Post by theGREENsuit » Mon, Jun 22, 2015, 10:49 PM UTC

trequartista wrote: post #11

Some love for - The C Programming Language - Kerninghan & Ritchie - http://www.amazon.com/The-Programming-Language-Brian-Kernigh...

I have this book at home, have read it and although it covers a lot in a short volume, I didn't get out of it as much as I did out of C Programming: A Modern Approach by KN King. Once I bought King's book, C made a lot more sense, the book was fun to read and follow. K&R's book was, to me, less "how & why" but more "how". Pointers, in particular, is what I enjoyed more in King's book. That chapter alone made buying the book worth its money.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best written programming books?

#60

Post by kat » Mon, Jun 22, 2015, 11:20 PM UTC

talles wrote: post #48

jrochkind1 wrote: post #31

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Elements-Reusable-Obje... Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby by Sandi Metz. http://www.poodr.com/

Maybe it's a matter of taste, but I found the GoF book really boring (and a little self hyped TBH).

If you want a good alternative to the GoF book try Head First Design Patterns. I findit much more approachable and much more enjoyable to read. http://www.amazon.com/Head-First-Design-Patterns-Freeman-ebo...