121–130 of 256 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I heard a story from an AI professor a few years ago, who had an interesting heuristic for picking grad student applications to trash: if it mentions GEB, off it goes into the circular file. Fun book. Hofstadter actually doesn't like computers, apparently: this is in the record, and I've heard him mention that fact multiple times. He just likes playing with ideas.
> if it mentions GEB, off it goes into the circular file Why?
I've been sitting in on Monica Lam's Stanford CS 243 lectures and she's covering scheduling and software pipelining right now. Lam definitely knows her material; she wrote the papers before she re-wrote the book. She's an excellent lecturer to all of 15 students and one who asks perhaps more than his fair share of questions.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think that's fair. The driving point of that book was that developers needed a higher level language to talk about these patterns than simply at the code level, and showed people how to put together a vocabulary. Yes, it came with a library of sample patterns useful for Java developers, but they weren't egregious examples, nor were they the main point of the book. They were just taken to an extreme by people…
This book was written before Java for C++ developers (amazon shows 1994). Edit: I agree with your opinion. Just wanted to show that this problem is much older and related to other languages too (probably with the similar OOP implementation).
I'm really happy to see "Java Concurrency in Practice" at #4 on the list. It's a great intro to concurrent programming with lessons that apply to virtually any high-level programming language. The chapter on the Java memory model is the best practical description of how languages map to multi-processor memory models I have ever read. (Chapter 16 in my edition.) After reading this book it's easy to understand why conc…
If you're dealing with any kind of concurrency -- especially in Java -- then it's pretty much a must-read.
Its explanation of the Java Memory Model is what got me interested in looking at JVM implementations and related shenanigans.
Didn't see SICP (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs) on that list. Surprised considering how often I hear it quoted on SO. You would think it was the bible of computer science. A little old in the tooth i'd imagine.
I'm surprised that Peopleware (DeMarco and Lister) isn't in there somewhere.
Also, what's up with the phrase "I'm surprised" that always comes up in threads like this: If you believe a book should be higher up, tell us why! Or do you question the author's methodology?
If you misjudge the current significance or influence of a thing, ... so what?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry for the confusion. (I've edited my comment for clarity so people don't think I was insulting SH.) I wasn't saying Hawking's prose was dry. That attribute was intended solely for the DP book. With ABHOT, I was comparing the ratio of readers aware of the book vs actually reading it. ABHOT has become sort of a "poster child"[1] among bibliophiles for books owned for vanity and I thought HN readers would get that r…
If you own ABHOT and haven't read it, do yourself a favor and give it a shot. It's extremely interesting and a fairly easy read. Context: My formal physics education ended in high school.
It is fast paced and packs a lot of information into each episode, so I do end up rewinding sometimes. And being a passive video, I think retention won't be as high. However, the short videos are very approachable and bite sized. It's very well done and the host is quite entertaining. The past year, my interest in space and physics has increased a bunch. It feels like learning the deeper history and context in which all of humanity is embedded.
Although not directly development related. The most impressive book I've had the pleasure of reading is "Gödel Escher Bach: An eternal golden braid" (also known as GEB) from Douglas Hofstadter. It's hard to explain what it is about exactly, but it contains ideas and concepts from mathematics, computer science, philosophy and conscience. All of it is explained in very clear and interesting way. I can recommend it to a…
wow, this book has the soaring rating on Amazon. I added to my "to read" list, 10x for suggestion
Should be a short list since Stack Overflow is not the place for book recommendations.