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Ask HN: Older textbooks/papers you consider classics still worth studying today?

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Re: Ask HN: Older textbooks/papers you consider classics still worth studying today?

#51

Post by dwd »

ggaughan wrote: post #47

A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks (1970) E. F. CODD https://www.seas.upenn.edu/~zives/03f/cis550/codd.pdf

Nice choice.

I would add: An Introduction to Database Systems - Date

Also a few unmentioned so far: Discrete Mathematical Structures - Kolman

Introduction To Systems Analysis And Design - Hawryszkiewycz

Modern Operating Systems - Tanenbaum

Re: Ask HN: Older textbooks/papers you consider classics still worth studying today?

#55

Post by jharohit »

Something I had read long time ago and also recently recommended by Ed Witten is John Wheeler's essay - "INFORMATION, PHYSICS, QUANTUM: THE SEARCH FOR LINKS" also famously known as the "It from Bit"essay (which now probably is "It from Q-bit" as our current understanding).

http://cqi.inf.usi.ch/qic/wheeler.pdf

Re: Ask HN: Older textbooks/papers you consider classics still worth studying today?

#57

Post by alok-g »

jimhefferon wrote: post #49
The_suffocated wrote: post #27

Modern Higher Algebra by A. Adrian Albert (1937, Dover/Cambridge). It covers both abstract algebra and linear algebra. Most modern textbooks tend to approach linear algebra from geometric perspectives. Albert's text is one of the few that introduce the subject in a purely algebraic approach. With a solid algebraic foundation, the author was able to produce some elegant proofs or results that you don't often see in mo…

Sorry about that. I shall try to do better.

This is the piece I love about HN. A comment refers to an accomplished person and he/she happens to be right there. And either supplying a correction or taking the feedback positively.

Re: Ask HN: Older textbooks/papers you consider classics still worth studying today?

#58

Post by alok-g »

bookofjoe wrote: post #46

"Science and Sanity" — Alfred Korzybski (1933) http://pialogue.info/books/Science-and-Sanity-Korzybski.pdf "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" — Erving Goffman (1956) https://monoskop.org/images/1/19/Goffman_Erving_The_Presenta...

It would help to read your commentary on these.

Re: Ask HN: Older textbooks/papers you consider classics still worth studying today?

#59

Post by alok-g »

I once read original works of Sir William Rowan Hamilton and was amazed at the clarity of thought he demonstrated, a truly open mind to understanding nature.

Books by Max Born (Atomic Physics, and Theory of Relativity) are absolute awesomness.

Re: Ask HN: Older textbooks/papers you consider classics still worth studying today?

#60

Post by The_suffocated »

jimhefferon wrote: post #49
The_suffocated wrote: post #27

Modern Higher Algebra by A. Adrian Albert (1937, Dover/Cambridge). It covers both abstract algebra and linear algebra. Most modern textbooks tend to approach linear algebra from geometric perspectives. Albert's text is one of the few that introduce the subject in a purely algebraic approach. With a solid algebraic foundation, the author was able to produce some elegant proofs or results that you don't often see in mo…

Sorry about that. I shall try to do better.

For those who are reading this, let me stress that it is not that Prof. Hefferon's proof of Cayley-Hamilton theorem is bad (it is actually better than some really horrible proofs that appear in some well-received textbooks), but that Albert's treatment is superb --- it is far better than the treatments of the theorem in most modern textbooks, including Prof. Hefferon's. Also, I was certainly not commenting on the overall quality of Prof. Hefferon's book, and I thank him for offering his textbook for free.
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