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Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

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Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#41

Post by frfl »

aballo wrote: post #19

Does anyone have recommendations for how to read books like these? Looking for advice around note taking / annotating / skimming.

I've been using Xournalpp[1] for many years, highlighting books as I read them, adding in text/hand drawn annotations in whitespaces if necessary. Unlike other PDF readers/annotators, it saves a separate file, so the original PDF is untouched. It can also export the annotated PDF as a new PDF with highlights and annotations. I've used Xournalpp with a convertible laptop with a builtin digitizer+pen, but you can also use it with a mouse to highlight stuff, drawing would be awkward with a mouse though.

Obsidian[2] also has PDF support, where you can open a markdown document side by side with the PDF to take notes as you read. I think it also lets you highlight the PDF itself.

Emacs I think has a similar feature, via plugins/org-mode(?) to the Obsidian setup.

And of course your typical PDF reader probably has support for highlighting PDFs too, but I find them clunky and they save by exporting a PDF, which can be a bit heavy-handed IMO compared to just saving the annotations/highlights as a separate file as Xournalpp does.

[1]: https://github.com/xournalpp/xournalpp/

[2]: https://obsidian.md

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#42

Post by RecycledEle »

rramadass wrote: post #39
bawolff wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this depends on the person. Personally i find studying from a pdf basically impossible. Everyone is different though, what is important is finding what is right for you.

> Personally i find studying from a pdf basically impossible. Agreed. Until and unless i can get a e-ink/e-paper display (minimum A4 size, 13" or more is better) which will not cause eye strain/fatigue it is impossible to read any kind of technical book electronically for long periods of time. And this i say as a person who owns a 27" iMac, a iPad, a Nexus10 and a couple of 10" and 16" inch laptops. I have a huge col…

Learning to study a PDF on-screen is a skill. It is a skill that can be learned.

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#43

Post by wolverine876 »

bawolff wrote: post #24
wolverine876 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use PDFs of the books (pay for them, of course). Searching and bookmarking make navigation much faster and easier, including for cross-referencing, glossaries, etc. Annotations are far more powerful; they are editable, copyable, come in many forms (highlight, underline, text boxes, draw, hyperlinks, etc etc.). You can type much faster and fit much more than you can write with a pen. PDFs are of course far more portab…

All this depends on the person. Personally i find studying from a pdf basically impossible. Everyone is different though, what is important is finding what is right for you.

Why? That's what will inform your fellow commenters.

We can find people of every opinion; your existence and mine are not news. The 'why' or 'how' is what makes a difference.

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#44

Post by tptacek »

ahartmetz wrote: post #30
tptacek wrote: post #2

Stevens (APUE and Network Programming) doesn't hold up. You'd do better with Beej. They weren't all that great even at the time; what they were were book-length treatments of the topics that you could reasonably expect to find on the shelf in a suburban Borders bookstore. Even the motivation for those books is obsolete! Varghese is much too situational a book for this list; it's like bringing a trebuchet to your stre…

Alexandrescu's "Modern C++ Design" is a collection of mostly impractical "clever" tricks that should be avoided in most situations. Like design patterns books, none of its advice should be used unless it solves a real problem that you noticed while not looking for a place to use the technique you just read about. I kinda hate the book, it's about the exact opposite of what I consider good programming: trying to make…

For what it's worth, I agree; I don't think Alexandrescu changed my C++ for the better, but it did sort of serve as an object lesson for overly nerding out on PL capabilities.

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#45

Post by tptacek »

heads wrote: post #12

Anderson, Security Engineering (Wiley) would make an excellent addition to this list. (The blog post omitted anything infosec saying the field is “part of QA” but it’s not like this list is pure CS — a lot of engineering topics aka “applied computer science” are on the list already.) Security economics is important when building real world software because one has to know one’s enemy in order to decide what to defend…

For people who call it "infosec", it probably is, or an admixture of QA and IT.

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#46

Post by bawolff »

RecycledEle wrote: post #42
rramadass wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Personally i find studying from a pdf basically impossible. Agreed. Until and unless i can get a e-ink/e-paper display (minimum A4 size, 13" or more is better) which will not cause eye strain/fatigue it is impossible to read any kind of technical book electronically for long periods of time. And this i say as a person who owns a 27" iMac, a iPad, a Nexus10 and a couple of 10" and 16" inch laptops. I have a huge col…

Learning to study a PDF on-screen is a skill. It is a skill that can be learned.

Everything is a skill that can be learned. That doesn't mean you should force yourself to learn in an unnatural way if you don't have to.

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#47

Post by wolverine876 »

bawolff wrote: post #46
RecycledEle wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Learning to study a PDF on-screen is a skill. It is a skill that can be learned.

Everything is a skill that can be learned. That doesn't mean you should force yourself to learn in an unnatural way if you don't have to.

> hat doesn't mea you should force yourself to learn in an unnatural way if you don't have to.

Who said otherwise? Is someone forcing you to use PDFs?

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#48

Post by bawolff »

wolverine876 wrote: post #43
bawolff wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this depends on the person. Personally i find studying from a pdf basically impossible. Everyone is different though, what is important is finding what is right for you.

Why? That's what will inform your fellow commenters. We can find people of every opinion; your existence and mine are not news. The 'why' or 'how' is what makes a difference.

I'm not a neuroscientist, i have no idea.

If i had to guess, its because i have never found highlighting particularly useful (whether in physical or digital form), and i generally find it easier to read things in order first and then go back to fill in gaps of understanding instead of constant cross referencing which breaks the flow of thought. So in essence i personally find most of the benefits of digital form is lost on me leaving just the downsides (not lugging around 100lb book would be nice though) But to each their own.

The point im trying to make is that there is no one true way. Reasons why probably aren't fully portable between people and blindly copying what other people do wont get you very far. What one should do is try all the different possibilities and figure out what works for yourself. There is no magic formula.

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#49

Post by wolverine876 »

frfl wrote: post #41
aballo wrote: post #19

Does anyone have recommendations for how to read books like these? Looking for advice around note taking / annotating / skimming.

I've been using Xournalpp[1] for many years, highlighting books as I read them, adding in text/hand drawn annotations in whitespaces if necessary. Unlike other PDF readers/annotators, it saves a separate file, so the original PDF is untouched. It can also export the annotated PDF as a new PDF with highlights and annotations. I've used Xournalpp with a convertible laptop with a builtin digitizer+pen, but you can also…

> Unlike other PDF readers/annotators, it saves a separate file, so the original PDF is untouched.

Just to give people another perspective on these issues [edit: not to deny the parent's perspective, just to add another]:

In PDFs, annotations are effectively (or actually?) on a separate layer from the document. It's not like marking up a paper book; in a PDF the annotations leave the original untouched, and can be easily hidden or removed.

Another advantage of using PDF annotations is that they are retained, readable, and editable for decades. There's no other file to retain. And if Xournalpp stops being developed, what happens to your annotations?

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#50

Post by frfl »

wolverine876 wrote: post #49
frfl wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using Xournalpp[1] for many years, highlighting books as I read them, adding in text/hand drawn annotations in whitespaces if necessary. Unlike other PDF readers/annotators, it saves a separate file, so the original PDF is untouched. It can also export the annotated PDF as a new PDF with highlights and annotations. I've used Xournalpp with a convertible laptop with a builtin digitizer+pen, but you can also…

> Unlike other PDF readers/annotators, it saves a separate file, so the original PDF is untouched. Just to give people another perspective on these issues [edit: not to deny the parent's perspective, just to add another]: In PDFs, annotations are effectively (or actually?) on a separate layer from the document. It's not like marking up a paper book; in a PDF the annotations leave the original untouched, and can be ea…

Fair enough. I was providing alternatives, not prescribing a single solution. You'll notice I said what I use and also provided suggestions that I don't use.

Xournalpp uses layers as well, hiding annotations is also possible there.

Just a different solution to the same problem.

Xournalpp, is free and open source. It is actually a fork of an older software called Xournal. If it stops being developed, C++ compilers aren't going anywhere, I'll compile it myself -- beyond that it's just pedantic to discuss what and what won't be possible in decades.

PDF readers on the other hand, especially proprietary ones have a bad habit of, for lack of a better word, enshitifying (cloud, saas, subscription, etc). I've had PDF a editor corrupt my PDF as well (sample size 1, so not indicative of all PDF editors), my fault for not having backups I suppose, but I've avoided them since.

But whatever works for you, I'm not here to dictate what you can or should use. Just providing ideas as the OP originally asked in the root comment.

Anyhow, the only solution that will survive ultimately is plain text. All others rely on abstractions upon abstraction (C++, compilers, libraries, etc). Plaintext is bits and bytes you can decode by hand if you wanted.

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