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The most mentioned books on Stack Overflow

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Re: The most mentioned books on Stack Overflow

#211

Post by andrepd »

dvt wrote: post #193
Kiro wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if it mentions GEB, off it goes into the circular file Why?

Because GEB is, in many regards, pop-science (or pop-math). It's a fun introductory read, but it won't really (and by really I mean rigorously) explain (and by explain I mean prove) much of anything. Any reference to it in the context of academia is a bit on the nose. It's like trying to study piano and saying you love Mozart. Like, yeah, okay.

What's wrong with Mozart? He is popular for a reason: he is freaking great. I hate that some people smugly dismiss things that are popular as beneath them, or conversely, that you have to like hyper-obscure artist or else you're not into real art. Bullshit, Mozart is great.

Re: The most mentioned books on Stack Overflow

#212

Post by xpe »

xpe wrote: post #210

The results from the "Compiler-Construction" are not good. You'll find better results from a search engine, Q&A site, or bookseller: Here are the top 10: #1 Design Patterns - Ralph Johnson, Erich Gamma, John Vlissides, Richard Helm #2 Clean Code - Robert C. Martin #3 The C Programming Language - Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis M. Ritchie #4 CLR Via C# - Jeffrey Richter #5 Modern C++ Design - Andrei Alexandrescu #6 Large-s…

A quick search on Amazon gives:

Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools

Engineering a Compiler, Second Edition

Writing Compilers and Interpreters: A Software Engineering Approach

Compiler Construction: Principles and Practice

Compilers: Principles and Practice

Language Implementation Patterns

Crafting a Compiler with C

Compiler Design in C

Principles of Compiler Design

Modern Compiler Implementation in Java

Re: The most mentioned books on Stack Overflow

#214

Post by ssalazar »

jasode wrote: post #51
dragonwriter wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> >, the good old Design Patterns book, responsible for more atrocious over-abstracted, > This is a misunderstanding of the DP book. It is discussing an effect of the book, not the intent . > It would be similar to saying that the existence of TVTropes.com is responsible for terrible scripts of tv shows and movies. Which would be entirely accurate if script writers were widely using TVTropes pages as templates and cr…

>It is discussing an effect of the book, not the intent. Do you truly believe that specific DP book caused that effect? I don't. The DP book is extremely dry reading and most programmers have not actually read it. ([In terms of readership/ownership ratio] It's a book like Stephen Hawking's "Brief History of Time" ... everybody knows about it and some might have it on the coffee table but very few actually read it.) I…

> Do you truly believe that specific DP book caused that effect?

GoF/Design Patterns was published in 1994. Java, the standard-bearer of overapplying Design Patterns, was first released in 1995, and it only grew into the AbstractAdapterFactoryImpl cliches after that. Based on that timeline Im not really sure how you can argue that GoF had nothing to do with DP madness, at least as exemplified by Java.

Just because GoF was originally meant to be descriptive does not mean that it can't be interpreted as prescriptive, especially by your stock work-a-day software engineer or peter-principle'd software architect. Despite whatever intentions the GoF may have had, by giving these patterns a name, they in a sense codified them, giving people something to point to when justifying otherwise poorly thought out design decisions.

> The DP book is extremely dry reading and most programmers have not actually read it.

The thing about GoF is that you don't really have to read it to apply it--and not actually reading it only increases the odds of mis-applying patterns if youve encountered them elsewhere.

Re: The most mentioned books on Stack Overflow

#215

Post by smogcutter »

lebca wrote: post #191
JelteF wrote: post #79

Although not directly development related. The most impressive book I've had the pleasure of reading is "Gödel Escher Bach: An eternal golden braid" (also known as GEB) from Douglas Hofstadter. It's hard to explain what it is about exactly, but it contains ideas and concepts from mathematics, computer science, philosophy and conscience. All of it is explained in very clear and interesting way. I can recommend it to a…

While I have not read the book, when I've spoken about it to reputable Bach musicologists and logicians, one group says Hofstadter misinterprets Bach's work and tries to create something that actually isn't there while the other says he oversimplifies Gödel's work to the point that it is uninteresting and misleading. I haven't found a visual artist who's read it to discuss the Escher parts. These opinions steered me…

I really enjoyed the book, but suspect (with no authority other than a gut feeling based on experience) that it's in the same genre as Guns, Germs & Steel - an attractively complete system that would not hold up to an expert in the field.

Re: The most mentioned books on Stack Overflow

#216

Post by nickpsecurity »

jasode wrote: post #51
dragonwriter wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> >, the good old Design Patterns book, responsible for more atrocious over-abstracted, > This is a misunderstanding of the DP book. It is discussing an effect of the book, not the intent . > It would be similar to saying that the existence of TVTropes.com is responsible for terrible scripts of tv shows and movies. Which would be entirely accurate if script writers were widely using TVTropes pages as templates and cr…

>It is discussing an effect of the book, not the intent. Do you truly believe that specific DP book caused that effect? I don't. The DP book is extremely dry reading and most programmers have not actually read it. ([In terms of readership/ownership ratio] It's a book like Stephen Hawking's "Brief History of Time" ... everybody knows about it and some might have it on the coffee table but very few actually read it.) I…

I'm actually with the others on this. I've been looking at CompSci papers, engineering methodologies, and real world code going back a long time. I saw a few patterns in use like Parnas' information hiding or state machines. I didn't see GoF patterns until I saw Java people using them while recommending the book. Also, many people in industry forgot about prior methodologies that got results without over-abstraction such as Cleanroom but were all over GoF patterns and latter Agile methodology. It seems their work was pretty influential.

Re: The most mentioned books on Stack Overflow

#217

Post by DigitalJack »

amargado wrote: post #192
DigitalJack wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this mindset baffling. I mean that earnestly. Can you try to explain why other people making money bothers you? It seems pretty clear that amazon thinks affiliates provide a useful service. And if you go to amazon because someone shared something that interested you enough to buy it, they've provided you with a service. What exactly is the problem?

Because it is a undisclosed conflict of interest.Imagine you go with a friend to a bookstore , and he recommends to you several books. Since you seem to trust your friend and you have the money, you buy the books. Unbenknownst to you, your friend receives a 5% commission, and he never disclosed it to you. Same principle. It is a whole different game if he mentions this to you in advance, since now you consider your f…

I would see a conflict if it was selective as to which book. But this gives no preference to one book over another.

So I'm still not getting it. I see no conflict.

Re: The most mentioned books on Stack Overflow

#218

Post by amargado »

DigitalJack wrote: post #217
amargado wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it is a undisclosed conflict of interest.Imagine you go with a friend to a bookstore , and he recommends to you several books. Since you seem to trust your friend and you have the money, you buy the books. Unbenknownst to you, your friend receives a 5% commission, and he never disclosed it to you. Same principle. It is a whole different game if he mentions this to you in advance, since now you consider your f…

I would see a conflict if it was selective as to which book. But this gives no preference to one book over another. So I'm still not getting it. I see no conflict.

So? He can overhype all the books without giving preference to one. He can pontificate about how important is to read books, how all the geniuses at HN read these very important books and so on.He only needs to maximize the money spent on the books, not the selling of a particular one. He is advertising beers (and get money from all of them) not just Budweiser.

Re: The most mentioned books on Stack Overflow

#219

Post by reso »

JelteF wrote: post #79

Although not directly development related. The most impressive book I've had the pleasure of reading is "Gödel Escher Bach: An eternal golden braid" (also known as GEB) from Douglas Hofstadter. It's hard to explain what it is about exactly, but it contains ideas and concepts from mathematics, computer science, philosophy and conscience. All of it is explained in very clear and interesting way. I can recommend it to a…

Screw the haters in this thread. GEB is wonderful.

Re: The most mentioned books on Stack Overflow

#220

Post by kod »

xpe wrote: post #210

The results from the "Compiler-Construction" are not good. You'll find better results from a search engine, Q&A site, or bookseller: Here are the top 10: #1 Design Patterns - Ralph Johnson, Erich Gamma, John Vlissides, Richard Helm #2 Clean Code - Robert C. Martin #3 The C Programming Language - Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis M. Ritchie #4 CLR Via C# - Jeffrey Richter #5 Modern C++ Design - Andrei Alexandrescu #6 Large-s…

#20 Lisp in Small Pieces

This is absolutely relevant to compiler construction.

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