There was a small handbook from Digital Equipment Corp, I think the title was something along the lines of 'PDP-11 Assembler Programming'. I loved it.
Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?
71–80 of 156 posts
Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?
#72I loved Stevens' books:
TCP/IP illustrated Unix network programming Advanced Programming in the unix environment
Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?
#73"Understanding Unix/Linux Programming: A Guide to Theory and Practice" by Bruce Molay does a wonderful job of diving into the workings of the Linux kernel without any prerequisite knowledge beyond an understanding of C. This book focuses on deconstructing common commands such as "tail" and "who" and explaining almost line-by-line how they work and interact with the rest of the system.
It appears to be a bit expensive at the moment, but it's commonly used as a textbook, so there's a plentiful used market for it.
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-UNIX-LINUX-Programming-P...
Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?
#74"Coders at Work" is very well written and flows like a good novel. You must be a real hardcore hacker to enjoy it, though :) [Edit: I've actually posted a short review of it after I finished reading it - http://eli.thegreenplace.net/2010/01/09/book-review-coders-a... ]
> You must be a real hardcore hacker to enjoy it, though
Why do you say this? I thought it was very accessible.
Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?
#75_The Little Schemer_, _The Seasoned Schemer_, _The Little MLer_. Those are made to be burned through, though. Probably not one sitting (many ideas need time to sink in), but only a couple sessions each. More recently, _Land of Lisp_. I already knew much of the material, but a very fun read. (Nice stickers, too!) I'd suggest this as a starting point for people new to Lisp, maybe even before _The Little Schemer_ (!). I…
The Little/Seasoned Schemer books where the first programming/technical books that when I finished them I had that same feeling you get when you finish a good novel. Land of Lisp is the first book I've picked up since then that's given me the same feeling so far.
Since the first 2 schemer books can each be read in about a week (they shouldn't be read faster) it's a shame for anyone not to read them.
Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?
#76Project Oberon by Niklaus Wirth & Jorg Gutknecht:
http://www-old.oberon.ethz.ch/WirthPubl/ProjectOberon.pdf
From the preface: "This book presents the results of Project Oberon, namely an entire software environment for a modern workstation. The project was undertaken by the authors in the years 1986-89, and its primary goal was to design and implement an entire system from scratch, and to structure it in such a way that it can be described, explained, and understood as a whole. In order to become confronted with all aspects, problems, design decisions and details, the authors not only conceived but also programmed the entire system described in this book, and more."
Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?
#77There was a time that I read every programming book front to cover (no Internet, few programming books in public libraries, not enough money to buy zillions of books, and loving reading all contributed to that) but some are more addicting than others. Looking at my bookshelves, I find many that stand out not only because I read them front to cover, but also because of their quality. Examples: Inside Macintosh (especi…
Effective C++ and More Effective C++ are both extremely well-written and technically informative. Importantly, they are also pretty approachable to non-whizes, but they teach important lessons (patterns and antipatterns, but very practical.)
Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?
#78For Mac/iOS types, anything by Aaron Hillegass is an entertaining/insightful page turner.
Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?
#79Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig. Not really a programming book though.
> Not really a programming book though.
I agree with that, but it made me program. Inspiring overview over the field.
Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?
#80I tend to get too distracted to give many books the cover-to-cover treatment. Some great ones that made the cut were: 1) Metaprogramming Ruby. 2) The Art of Rails. 3) Ruby Design Patterns 4) Services-Oriented Architecture in Ruby These stick out for me. Even if the last one in the list felt a little "rushed to production", it still covered important topics you won't find anywhere else. Plus I find when a book has typ…
> Plus I find when a book has typos (either in the text or in the code), that just makes me engage with it a little bit more. Really? I wasted almost an hour double-checking my code due to a typo in an algorithm in _Programming Collective Intelligence_ (pg. 35, should end in "return num/den", not "return 1.0-num/den".) That's just sloppy. I added it to the errata page ( http://oreilly.com/catalog/errataunconfirmed.cs…
that book is full of errors =/ I'm not a regular python user, but I've also heard that the code contained within the book is not very "pythonic" and is really meant as a pseudocode. still no excuse for it to be incorrect.
when a book has typos, it makes me want to throw it in the fire.