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Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

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Re: Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

#201

Post by pjmlp »

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 was certainly fine doing Java with one book + Javadoc.

Java Unleashed, first edition 1996.

Re: Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

#203

Post by brnt »

hibikir wrote: post #156
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…

When we go back to early Java, the death of books just came from better IDEs, not even stack overflow (which wasn't there) or Google search (which had little to find). Something like IntelliJ made the very large reference section irrelevant, as you got to see source and Javadocs right there. Intellisense also found most of what you needed blindly. That was 90% of those 6 java books. You'd still see a need for specifi…

> Compare that to looking inside a C++ standard library: It's not impossible, but it's of a completely different nature of normal C++ we might write for a business.

C++ isn't a language, it's a script. Like Latin, it can be used to express English, Polish and Indonesian.

Re: Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

#206

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

#208

Post by geraneum »

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 sometimes wonder if we’re losing HN for good.

Re: Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore

#209

Post by damethos »

I still read programming books, especially if I want to check out a new language and get the gist of its capabilities and how are things are done in that specific environment. Also I prefer to read a book written by an author that I know has the experience and the insight to actually write the book than read random sources on the internet. Or maybe I am just used to it.
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