Growing Object-Oriented Software Guided by Tests, by Steve Freeman and Nat Pryce. The examples are, IIRC, in Java, but the ideas about TDD are applicable to any OO language. It'll make you think more about how you write testable code and the test themselves.
Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
71–80 of 344 posts
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#72The Pragmatic Programmer
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#73The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#74Any good book on statistics would be a huge asset, as well as a book about debugging strategies.
Statistics books I liked:
Motulsky's Intuitive Biostatistics - this one goes over all the usual methods used in science from distributions to t-test to ANOVA to regressions etc., the basics, but doesn't introduce the maths (you use R for that) but the assumptions and pitfalls of all of those methods.
Statistics Done Wrong: The Woefully Complete Guide - this is all the stuff that's going wrong in applied statistics, a bit short but enlightening
Discovering Statistics Using R - a whopper of a book (~1000 pages?), it goes through everything while also being funny (the constant humor may not be for everyone). Graphs, correlations, regressions, all the MLMs and GLMs, linear models etc. pp., their assumptions, how to run them in R, how to interpret R's sometimes annoying output, etc. pp. Like Motulsky's, but wayyyyy more in-depth on the language's specifics.
Naked Statistics - an intro to stats for laypeople with a focus on politics/economics, good for interpreting and assessing daily news
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#75Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. I love this book.
Seconded. I'm one of those savages who didn't really find much value in classical tomes like MMM or Code Complete (probably because all their core points have already been distilled into contemporary best practices) - but I love this book, and even recommend it to non-technical friends & family.
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#76- The Pragmatic Programmer
- The Practice of Programming
- The Mythical Man Month
- The Cathedral and the Bazaar
- The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Introduction to Algorithms
- Hackers and Painters
Some of these do contain mixed language code examples, but they are expressed in a way to be agnostic. A problem is a problem; in any language.
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#77Best design pattern book i've read is "Head First Design Patterns: A Brain-Friendly Guide". It's fun and very informative.
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#78- The Pragmatic Programmer - The Practice of Programming - The Mythical Man Month - The Cathedral and the Bazaar - The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Introduction to Algorithms - Hackers and Painters Some of these do contain mixed language code examples, but they are expressed in a way to be agnostic. A problem is a problem; in any language.
The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#79Its odd that no one mentioned it but head first into design patterns is a great/light book on design patterns....
I'd second the Head First Design Patterns. The style of writing is light and fun. There are definitely concepts about abstraction, etc. that may take a while to grok and the different approaches help.
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#80- The Pragmatic Programmer - The Practice of Programming - The Mythical Man Month - The Cathedral and the Bazaar - The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Introduction to Algorithms - Hackers and Painters Some of these do contain mixed language code examples, but they are expressed in a way to be agnostic. A problem is a problem; in any language.
The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?
Zen and the Art...