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Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

nick-black.com

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Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#61

Post by throwaway81523 »

runeblaze wrote: post #13

I really would like to street-fight with TAPL and Purely Functional Data Structures. Imagine a different world where competitive programming is about proving theorems in Coq and people play with finger trees instead of segment trees.

I'll have you know that Pugs, the first implementation of Perl 6, was written as a result of Audrey Tang reading TAPL and then getting interested in Haskell. Audrey was at that time known as Autrijus but she later underwent a sex change. I guess I'm no longer allowed to joke "this is what Perl 6 does to people".

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#62

Post by rramadass »

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.

No, it has nothing to do with any "skill".

I mentioned/implied three things; a) The nature of the display causing eye-strain/fatigue b) The size of the display being inadequate and c) The needs of a technical book/paper rendering. This trifecta has not been solved (i believe intentionally) by the Industry at reasonable cost. All i am asking for is A4 (or larger) size display using some technology which does not cause eye-strain/fatigue and some software which can render pdf/epub/whatever correctly.

My current setup is iBooks on iPad, MoonReader Pro on Android and Adobe on desktop/laptop none of which is optimal for reading/studying for long periods of time.

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#63

Post by ramimac »

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…

https://againsthimself.medium.com/security-engineering-proce...

A recently published commentary on Security Engineering would be a good supplement, naming the flaws seems a meaningful mitigation for them

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#64

Post by dankamongmen »

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…

great feedback; i shall check out Beej and see what's up. it was many years ago that i learned my basic UNIX work.

networking algorithmics is a classic, and there's nothing else quite like it. i stand by that one for sure. he also has a lot of the great networking algorithms in there that you can't get collected anywhere else.

haven't looked at strang, either--axler did well by me!

appreciate the informed and quality comments. --nick

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#65

Post by anta40 »

agileAlligator wrote: post #28
anta40 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I do, some of them. But only for studying a few specific topics. I used to have the copy of TAOCP vol 1 - 3, and eventually only read vol 2 because I was interested in (pseudo) random number at that time.... :D

> eventually only read vol 2 because I was interested in (pseudo) random number at that time Your comment comes at the perfect time, I am looking at learning about random number functions and tests of randomness myself. Do you have any other resources about these topics?

Some statistics books, perhaps? I think there are some references on them. I don't study random numbers anymore because my interest changed few years ago.

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#66

Post by anta40 »

techbro92 wrote: post #15
anta40 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I do, some of them. But only for studying a few specific topics. I used to have the copy of TAOCP vol 1 - 3, and eventually only read vol 2 because I was interested in (pseudo) random number at that time.... :D

How long did it take you to read these 3 books and did you read them in depth?

I never finished them, mainly because I treated them as references, e.g for in-depth mathematical analysis :D

Say for studying data structures, I'd recommend a general text book like Weiss or Sedgewick. It's very rare I study Knuth directly.

Re: Book list for streetfighting computer scientists (2022)

#67

Post by ahartmetz »

tptacek wrote: post #44
ahartmetz wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Reading the O'Reilly Perl book when I wanted to get more serious about programming did something similar for me. I knew very little at the time, but enough to conclude that Perl is the opposite of what I want.
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