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Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?

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Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?

#112

Post by eob »

ludicast wrote: post #27

I 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…

Hey, I wrote the Art of Rails. You just made my day putting it on your list. Thanks a lot, ludicast.

Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?

#113

Post by mronge »

Someone wrote: post #68

There 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…

I second The Soul of A New Machine, what an incredible book.

It follows a team of engineers at Data General around 1980 as they race to build a new computer under incredible pressure. It's an incredible story and anyone who has worked on a tightly knit team under high pressure will relate.

Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?

#115

Post by Rickasaurus »

I'm really enjoying O'Reilly's Beautiful * series. Instead being one of of your run of the mill how-to books they contain stories about some really cool projects.

One of my favorites in Beautiful Data was about the architecture of the Mars lander. Enthralling stuff.

Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?

#116

Post by silentbicycle »

kabdib wrote: post #107

At first I didn't think I had any, so I did a quick scan of my bookshelves: _Anatomy of LISP_. I also did SiCP cover to cover in a few months when it first came out. _SmallTalk 80: Bits of History, Words of Advice_. Fantastic stuff; reading about making those early 80s processors run ST efficiently is like watching early rocketry. _The Unix Programming Environment_. This should date me. _Threaded Interpretive Languag…

Have you read Lisp in Small Pieces? How does Anatomy of Lisp compare?

I have TUPE too (and I was born in '82).

Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?

#117

Post by mahmud »

icosahedron wrote: post #103
silentbicycle wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average programming book is pretty awful - many seem to be sold by weight. If you skew towards those recently published, there's a very high concentration of instantly obsolete books that cover surface details of the current incarnation of rapidly changing technology. There are real incentives for the programming book publishing industry to churn out tedious garbage: People buy 'em, instant obsolescence means the…

I laughed out loud at the attribution asterisks in _The Art of the Interpreter_. Excellent to see humor in an academic paper.

I always crack up at GLS's joke whenever I see the word "fellow".

There is something like "Gerry Susman is a research fellow at MIT. Guy Steele is a jolly good fellow".

Re: Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?

#119

Post by mahmud »

olalonde wrote: post #43

Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig. Not really a programming book though.

We must be REALLY different. AIMA is just one of those books that put me to sleep. Maybe I find vintage AI boring, or the book is just too fat, but I really hated it.
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