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Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

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Re: Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

#311

Post by markus_zhang »

SL61 wrote: post #33
markus_zhang wrote: post #13

Curiously, I do buy and read tech books. My hobby is legacy OS kernel research so I bought some second handed books on old Linux (kernel 1.2) and NT (3.1). It is fun to research so I don’t use AI often for side projects.

I enjoy reading really old programming books, the 1997 edition of Learning Perl mentioned in the article being a perfect example. I don't fret over the exercises, but if it's well-written it gives a glimpse into how people thought about technology/code/computers at that point in time, like the tech equivalent of flipping through old newspapers.

I agree. I also read a few books written by Microsoft people back then. I really enjoyed the writing style and the more hardcore programming environment back then. Wish I could live through that era.

Re: Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

#312

Post by superdisk »

kajaktum wrote: post #74
troad wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did anyone actually like StackOverflow? Any question asked would be edited beyond recognition (and usually into brash rudeness). Half the answers were demanding ever increasing proof of work, and the other half told the OP that they shouldn't even be trying to do what they're doing. The only useful thing were opinion based posts from people with domain expertise, and SO kept trying to ban and remove those. It was the…

I had a pretty good time asking a question about Prolog. It was a really interesting experience knowing that there's someone out there that high proficiency in a very niche language, patiently explaining to me an issue that they have probably heard a million times from yet another imperative programmer. They even have their own website advocating for Prolog, etc. Now, I could imagine an LLM would be able to do the sa…

I see you ran into Markus Triska. He's indeed a legend and his StackOverflow posts were super high effort and illuminating.

Re: Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

#313

Post by nottorp »

skydhash wrote: post #304
nottorp wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unfortunately even in the old days, a truly good programming book like you’re describing was depressingly rare. And when you got past the beginner stuff, non existent. I've randomly tried to improve my $LANGUAGE_I_ALREADY_SHIPPED_SOMETHING_IN knowledge across the years, but if you look at books there's a plateau, and it's not too high. With the internet, there are random posts here and there with pieces of info tha…

You’re better off learning foundational knowledge. Languages are notations, not intent. What has been useful for me are Computation theory, Algorithms, Concurrency, Distributed Systems, Operating Systems theory, Practical system administration, Computer Organization, Networking,… I do get language books, but only as a reference. For anything more advance, I usually read the sources.

You’d think someone would write about the tricks you learn breaking your teeth on the language though.

And they do, in random forum and blog posts though.

Re: Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

#315

Post by floxy »

atribecalledqst wrote: post #275
Animats wrote: post #134

The decline of programming books removed a constraint on programming language complexity. At one point, the basic set of books for Java was six volumes. That's when language books broke down from sheer complexity. The combination of Google search and Stack Overflow allowed programming to become more complex than anyone could keep in their head. C++ bloated to the point that people who used to be C++ language lawyers…

I still find myself hoping (probably futilely) that Bjarne Stroustrop will come out with a new edition of The C++ Programming Language, to help me understand all the features that have been added to it since C++14...

If you haven't seen "A Tour of C++":

https://stroustrup.com/tour3.html

Re: Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

#316

Post by floxy »

trollbridge wrote: post #154
badc0ffee wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't just buy a horse and park it in a garage. You need to exercise it, give it vet care, shoes, feed it, deal with poop, etc. Or, pay someone to do that. Unless you live in a place with dirt roads, or really love horses, I think a beater Toyota would win in terms of time and cost.

Well, you can't really just buy a beater car and park it in a garage. You have to perform maintenance on it, and the worst thing for a car is to just sit a long time. A horse has the unique feature that it can create more horses, which is something a car doesn't do. Horses are also unique in being an appreciating asset, which cars are most definitely not.

>Horses are also unique in being an appreciating asset

Anyone have a chart showing horse value over time? I'd think there would be a pretty sharp drop in value at around the 30 year mark.

Re: Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

#317

Post by tomwheeler »

joseda-hg wrote: post #279
jonbodner wrote: post #143

I'm the author of O'Reilly's "Learning Go". Here are the last 13 months of paperback book sales: - Mar 2026: 124 - Feb 2026: 140 - Jan 2026: 157 - Dec 2025: 306 - Nov 2025: 484 - Oct 2025: 218 - Sep 2025: 176 - Aug 2025: 136 - Jul 2025: 317 - Jun 2025: 230 - May 2025: 237 - Apr 2025: 165 - Mar 2025: 367 Sales are certainly down, but it has gone up and down in the past. Since the 1st edition came out in 2021, it has s…

This is not a jab at you (or your book), But I always assumed O'Reilly's per book sales would be significantly larger, like 4 figures at the minimum

Aside from any downward trend attributable to LLMs, technical book sales were always lower than most people would have imagined.

I've known a few authors who published with O'Reilly and other major publishers and most told me that they made less than minimum wage in the end. There were other benefits, such as increased name recognition and credibility that let them charge more as consultants, but the direct proceeds from writing a technical book seldom paid off even two decades ago.

Re: Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

#318

Post by tomwheeler »

baron1405 wrote: post #104

I type this comment flanked by my shelves of computer books. Most I keep for sentimental or historical value. My first edition K&R, the first PostScript Red Book, the volumes of The Art of Computer Programming, and many animal books. In addition to what the author said, what saddens me is that most developers today will not have these milestones of their growth as a software engineer to look back upon. Our history is…

> the volumes of The Art of Computer Programming

I'd speculate that the number of people who own these outnumber the people who have actually read them by a pretty wide margin.

Re: Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

#319

Post by SilentM68 »

NetMageSCW wrote: post #287
SilentM68 wrote: post #107

I do, actually. Trying to find good material to read for Odin programming language. Most books, are just hard to follow, not newbie-friendly, always gushing with bloat, with things that make the book fatter, making it easier to up the price. Student's usually end up paying the price :( Sol, Off-Topic: If I suspect that somebody in a company, or message board is tampering with a user's account, when they are not suppo…

Off-topic: There is no remedy. What law is being broken?

This behavior, is unprofessional. It erodes YCombinator's reputation as a company and the trust of its users as a whole, whether they realize it or not. As for there not being a remedy, sure there is. FCC’s Section 230 has no teeth at the moment, but with a little persuasion, a little tugging or whispering in the right ears, 230's teeth can be sharpened just enough to become a somewhat financial annoyance. Now I just need to find the right ear to tug.

I appreciate the honest feedback, Sol

Re: Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

#320

Post by floxy »

I will mourn the loss of programming books. I have maybe 100 of them. But I'm assuming that any books from 2024+ will be heavily AI written, so I'm pretty dubious of buying anything more recent than that. Unless some publisher has some pretty strict no-AI stance.
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