About 30 years ago, my VW and a thousand dollars of tools, having been stolen and stripped, I left my low budget Malibu bodysurfing, workbench with an oscilloscope, free Lincoln Heights cabin and moved to Berkeley and enrolled in the first UCB extension course for the holy grail (at the time) of learning Unix and C programming.
I started building the best library of computer programming books I could buy and about 1/4 of the books mentioned here were my choice then too.
My recommendation to you is extend your computer science interest by going to college and mastering the fundamentals and also in your junior and senior year join in on the most interesting academic or scientific programming projects you can find. These days a Degree is required and your employer is hoping to benefit from the esoteric work you did in college.
Ask HN: What are the bibles of Computer Science?
41–50 of 57 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are the bibles of Computer Science?
#42"Joel on Software". Much like the bible, it's full of parables that can be interpretted in multiple ways, contains a lot of advice that is no longer relevant and contains enough good parts to cherry pick that I can consider myself a spolskyite.
Re: Ask HN: What are the bibles of Computer Science?
#43Steven Skiena's The Algorithm Design Manual. Especially the "war stories" contained within.
Re: Ask HN: What are the bibles of Computer Science?
#44Lisp in Small Pieces (Cambridge University Press, 1996 ISBN 0-521-56247-3; paperback edition (December 4, 2003) ISBN 0-521-54566-8; translated by Kathleen Callaway) is a book by Christian Queinnec on Lisp, Scheme and other related dialects, their interpretation, semantics, and compilation and contains code for 11 interpreters and 2 compilers.
oh yeah, this one too:
The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis: Techniques for Experimental Design, Measurement, Simulation, and Modeling
Raj Jain ISBN: 978-0-471-50336-1 720 pages April 1991
Re: Ask HN: What are the bibles of Computer Science?
#45These books are all venerable CS standards (AKA bibles) that teach principles well, though probably not the most up-to-date: "Compilers, Principles, Techniques and Tools", by Aho, Ullman, Sethi, Lam "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach", by Russell, Norvig "Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach", by Patterson, Hennessy "Computer Networks", by Tannenbaum "Operating System Concepts", by Silberschatz
Aho's compiler was intimidating, but it's one of my favorite experience of the last 5 years. Not approachable, but every neuron you give is rewarded twice.
Yes, it is a very complex book, but without any doubt THE BOOK if we are talking about compilers. A must if your want to know how a compiler works.
Re: Ask HN: What are the bibles of Computer Science?
#46I would add Clean Code to the list just because the concepts are applicable to many languages
I think Code Complete is much better-Clean Code was more about (IIRC, feel free to correct) praising the glory of agile dev than good coding practices in general.
Both books are good, and I don't believe Clean Code is praising the glory of agile dev, it talks about technical good practices ... practices that can be applied to any objected oriented language in general, doing agile or waterfall or whatever ... IMHO.
Re: Ask HN: What are the bibles of Computer Science?
#47Programming Pearls, by Jon Bentley
The Elements of Computing Systems, by Noam Nisan and Shimon Schocken
and its accompanying website: http://www.nand2tetris.org/
Re: Ask HN: What are the bibles of Computer Science?
#48For cryptography : bruce schneier's applied cryptography
Re: Ask HN: What are the bibles of Computer Science?
#49I would say that the words 'science' and 'bible' do not go well together. The books mentioned in the answers are all worth looking at, but they take you only up to the foothills of the discipline and are no substitute for reading widely and working things out on your own.
Re: Ask HN: What are the bibles of Computer Science?
#50Might I add, "The UNIX Programming Environment" by Kernighan and Pike, 1984. Still the best book on how all the tools of the UNIX command line work together for someone new to the shell, culminating in a parser for a small language using lex and yacc. Just saying.