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What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?

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Re: What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?

#81

Post by [deleted] »

azylman wrote: post #72
jamesbritt wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Design Patterns needs to be read with the understanding that the patterns are for specific types of languages and are not universally applicable. Also, it should have a short appendix explaining that you do not get geek brownie points simply by using as many patterns as you can think of. I realize these are not problems with the book per se, and it's worth reading, but some developers seem to get the wrong message fr…

I read Design Patterns and was unimpressed. Maybe it's because I'm used to large codebases that are already well designed, but all I got out of Design Patterns was formal names for patterns that I already used in my code because they're intuitively the correct thing to do.

[deleted]

Re: What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?

#82

Post by nickik »

timr wrote: post #77
jamesbritt wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Design Patterns needs to be read with the understanding that the patterns are for specific types of languages and are not universally applicable. Also, it should have a short appendix explaining that you do not get geek brownie points simply by using as many patterns as you can think of. I realize these are not problems with the book per se, and it's worth reading, but some developers seem to get the wrong message fr…

"Design Patterns needs to be read with the understanding that the patterns are for specific types of languages and are not universally applicable." Not really. I've found a use for design patterns in just about every language I've used. They're not all equally useful, but that was never the book's claim. It's become a little fashionable to be cynical about Design Patterns, but most of them have held up well. A few of…

> trivially implemented in newer languages

Well this is just wrong! I would call them good languages but that just my opinion.

I have never really found it helpful to think about these patterns. Witch one do you find helpful to think about?

Re: What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?

#85

Post by billpatrianakos »

The one that helps you most. I hate questions like this because there's really no answer. If the question were which books would you recommend to me that had a big impact on you then I'd feel differently but as it stands I hate this question.

What's the best widget to help me get a random task done? Let the "definitive" answers be spewed.

Re: What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?

#86

Post by kahawe »

timr wrote: post #31

The ranking of this list is extremely suspect. Code Complete is a fine book. The Pragmatic Programmer is okay. But neither book holds a candle to Introduction to Algorithms for career-long usefulness. For that matter, neither one holds a candle to Design Patterns for the ability to expand your mind and improve your ability to think about code (I read both at the same time, and Design Patterns is the only one whose le…

Judging by the "The Pragmatic Programmer" book on subversion alone, this series of books has got to be absolutely horrible because they literally half-copied the svn redbook and dumbed it down so you pay good money for so very little information which you could all very easily find by spending 10 minutes with the svn redbook.

Re: What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?

#88

Post by buro9 »

For me it's not even a programming book... which is what I felt the people who have answered have artificially limited themselves to.

For me, it's: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0195019199

Pattern Language

It's about architecture, buildings, towns. How to make them work, to serve all the needs of them, and how to allow them to grow.

What is important to me and influenced me heavily is the thinking behind it. All parts of a large system in harmony, well-separated concerns, and working together to achieve a common goal.

In architecture (computer as well as construction), there is also politics. We pour ourselves into these systems, our beliefs come out in their design and implementation.

There was a lot that I learned from that book, and a lot that I still go back and refer to.

GOF took their inspiration here, it's obvious from the structure... perhaps you should see why?

Re: What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?

#89

Post by elemeno »

kahawe wrote: post #86
timr wrote: post #31

The ranking of this list is extremely suspect. Code Complete is a fine book. The Pragmatic Programmer is okay. But neither book holds a candle to Introduction to Algorithms for career-long usefulness. For that matter, neither one holds a candle to Design Patterns for the ability to expand your mind and improve your ability to think about code (I read both at the same time, and Design Patterns is the only one whose le…

Judging by the "The Pragmatic Programmer" book on subversion alone, this series of books has got to be absolutely horrible because they literally half-copied the svn redbook and dumbed it down so you pay good money for so very little information which you could all very easily find by spending 10 minutes with the svn redbook.

You can't really judge a book solely by the imprint it belongs to or, in the case of "The Pragmatic Programmer", stated. They're all written by different authors so their style and quality will naturally differ.

For what it's worth, it's the same imprint that gave us the pickaxe book (Programming Ruby), so perhaps that ought to be a point in it's favour.

Re: What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?

#90

Post by yvdriess »

azylman wrote: post #72
jamesbritt wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Design Patterns needs to be read with the understanding that the patterns are for specific types of languages and are not universally applicable. Also, it should have a short appendix explaining that you do not get geek brownie points simply by using as many patterns as you can think of. I realize these are not problems with the book per se, and it's worth reading, but some developers seem to get the wrong message fr…

I read Design Patterns and was unimpressed. Maybe it's because I'm used to large codebases that are already well designed, but all I got out of Design Patterns was formal names for patterns that I already used in my code because they're intuitively the correct thing to do.

Indeed, that is the only correct use of Design Patterns.
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