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A list of free programming books

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Re: A list of free programming books

#51

Post by jrs99 »

bbx wrote: post #23
LoneWolf wrote: post #19

Now all I need is an automated way to download them all

I used to have the same reaction when stumbling upon lists like this. But it has never proved to be a great idea. You get easily overwhelmed by the amount and variety of content available. Before even starting reading one of these books, you need to filter them by topic, by scope, by usefulness, and by quality. You inevitably end up starting none of them. I prefer focusing on one subject or programming language, sear…

i had that same experience. most books are good but are usually replaceable. some books i can't understand how good they are because they're beyond my level. And a few are just right, and also take you to that "a-ha moment."

you need to do your research and select that one right book and work through it. If in the middle of a book you think you're not making good progress, you should just drop it and find another one.

Re: A list of free programming books

#52

Post by guiambros »

raganwald wrote: post #14
vhf wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

README.md says : " This list initially was a clone of stackoverflow - List of freely available programming books by George Stocker. Now updated, with dead links gone (hopefully) and new content. " I've had this SO list in my bookmarks for long enough, and there were more and more dead links in it. I felt the need to move it to github in order to keep it up-to-date and to augment it. I apologize if the intention or or…

This is the right thing to do. SO has a very specific vision, that of finding and displaying the definitive answer to an objective question. A resource like this doesn't fit their model, even if you strain it by trying to invent a question that appears to fit their format. "This question exists because it has historical significance, but it is not considered a good, on-topic question for this site, so please do not u…

This is thing I hate about SO. Its view of what is on-topic is completely arbitrary and narrow-minded. I understand that Jeff's initial vision was to create a site for objective questions & answers, but over time SO mods have taken it to the extreme.

The list of best programming books may not be totally objective, but the wisdom of the crowds just should be enough to filter out what's good from what's bad. When mods lock the allegedly non-objective questions, they force content to become stale and rot - but still showing up at the top of search engines.

Re: A list of free programming books

#55

Post by aviraldg »

tikhonj wrote: post #41
justin66 wrote: post #30

It seems worth mentioning specific books by name, since lists of lists don't help people differentiate the great from the good. Algorithms by S. Dasgupta, C.H. Papadimitriou, and U.V. Vazirani looks really promising as an introductory algorithms textbook. I wonder if anyone has experience using it in class? http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~vazirani/algorithms.html I wonder a little about that text's status as a freely ava…

It's basically just the lecture notes for their class bundled up into a book. I took the class it was based off, and, well, it was okay but not great . It lacks any sort of underlying narrative or structure--I think this is common with algorithms texts in general. Probably why I didn't like the course much. It feels like a bunch of disjoint topics held together very loosely by some techniques that get repeated a bit.…

Which book would you recommend for algorithms and data structures instead?

Re: A list of free programming books

#56

Post by alexsb92 »

aviraldg wrote: post #55
tikhonj wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's basically just the lecture notes for their class bundled up into a book. I took the class it was based off, and, well, it was okay but not great . It lacks any sort of underlying narrative or structure--I think this is common with algorithms texts in general. Probably why I didn't like the course much. It feels like a bunch of disjoint topics held together very loosely by some techniques that get repeated a bit.…

Which book would you recommend for algorithms and data structures instead?

As often as this gets recommended, I'd go with Introduction to Algorithms (CLRS)[1]. I'm currently in the process of going through it on my own as I'm taking a semester off, and I find it perfect to study from. It goes in depth, explaining the math behind run times (which some may like about it, while other might not), and it covers a lot of ground. I haven't fully finished it, and I'm only on chapter 6, but so far it's one of my favourite textbooks to study from.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Thomas-H-Corme...

Re: A list of free programming books

#57

Post by Fixnum »

justin66 wrote: post #50
LeafStorm wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two and a half years into my bachelor's, Sipser's Introduction to the Theory of Computation is the only computer science textbook I've had so far that I'd say I really found useful for anything beyond the homework problems, besides K.N. King's C Programming: A Modern Approach . (To keep this on topic, my assembly instructor -- the legendary [to NC State students] Dana Lasher -- posts his course pack online. [1] It's…

How does Sipser's content compare to Ullman's (free) Foundations of Computer Science? http://i.stanford.edu/~ullman/focs.html As far as x86 assembly goes, I found Kip Irvine's book to be pretty great. (not free) It's not a subject I would want to spend more time on, though.

They're not similar at all. FoCS is mostly about introductory programming and data structures (with a tiny bit about automata). Sipser's book is about computation and complexity - it's comparable to Hopcroft and Ullman's Intro to automata theory, languages, and computation, for which Ullman recommends FoCS or equivalent as a prerequisite.

Re: A list of free programming books

#58

Post by guynamedloren »

sygma wrote: post #31
guynamedloren wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. There are huge advantages to a GitHub model over Wikipedia for collecting information. Shameless plug, but highly relevant: I'm trying to make 'git as a platform' more accessible for non-programmers with a project I'm working on - http://www.penflip.com . Wrote about it in detail here: http://madebyloren.com/github-for-writers Glad to discuss it further if anybody's interested.

Have you seen Draft [0]? It seems fairly close to your concept of "github for writers". [0] https://draftin.com

Indeed I have. Nate's got something great going with Draft, but I don't know if I don't think he's shooting for a github-esque platform.

Re: A list of free programming books

#59

Post by wasd »

aviraldg wrote: post #55
tikhonj wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's basically just the lecture notes for their class bundled up into a book. I took the class it was based off, and, well, it was okay but not great . It lacks any sort of underlying narrative or structure--I think this is common with algorithms texts in general. Probably why I didn't like the course much. It feels like a bunch of disjoint topics held together very loosely by some techniques that get repeated a bit.…

Which book would you recommend for algorithms and data structures instead?

I've used Algorithms by S. Dasgupta, C.H. Papadimitriou, and U.V. Vazirani for the course they teach at Berkeley and didn't like it at all. I'm a pretty big fan of Algorithms by Sedgewick. There is a class on Cousera is also taught by Sedgewick and uses the book. The first half of the book follows a traditional data structures course and the second half a traditional algorithms course.

Some people might find it as a downside but the book was written with Java in mind. I personally didn't mind this at all.

http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-4th-Edition-Robert-Sedgewic...

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