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Ask HN: What's the best computer science book you've read recently?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the best computer science book you've read recently?

#73
post #44

Type-driven development with Idris ( https://www.manning.com/books/type-driven-development-with-i... ). It was a real eye-opener of what types can do.

I've been looking at this but I don't really know Haskell (just f#). In your opinion is it worth trying before knowing a Haskell? I'm mostly interested because I wish to learn f-star as well, which also has dependent types.

I don't know Haskell either, but the book starts from scratch. It can be followed with no problem.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best computer science book you've read recently?

#74

The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles by Noam Nisan and Shimon Schocken Basically it has you hands on work through the basics of every concept active in a modern computer save for networks and web. You use software tools provided with the book to design memory, ALUs, intepreters, VMs, compilers Operating Systems and applications. Available as a free online class at http:/…

Working through the class on Coursera now, and it's a lot of fun. https://www.coursera.org/learn/build-a-computer

Re: Ask HN: What's the best computer science book you've read recently?

#78

Like others in this thread, this is more (only, in fact) about programming but I found The Go Programming Language to be an absolutely perfect introduction to Go with fantastic examples and succinct prose. It's beautifully typeset as well, which doesn't hurt. http://www.gopl.io ISBN: 978-0134190440

I found this to be helpful for learning basics of web development, https://github.com/thewhitetulip/web-dev-golang-anti-textboo...

Re: Ask HN: What's the best computer science book you've read recently?

#79

The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles by Noam Nisan and Shimon Schocken Basically it has you hands on work through the basics of every concept active in a modern computer save for networks and web. You use software tools provided with the book to design memory, ALUs, intepreters, VMs, compilers Operating Systems and applications. Available as a free online class at http:/…

10 years in my to-read pile and going strong.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best computer science book you've read recently?

#80
post #49

Engineering a Compiler 2nd Ed by Cooper & Torczon I used it to supplement my prescribed compiler construction textbook and it's incredibly useful! Also surprisingly easy to read compared to some texts with a very math-heavy approach.

This book was my greatest buy ever! I once went to Fry's electronics to their book section - my expectation was to find only popular books there, when lo and behold, I see this book on compilers. I turn it over to look at the price tag, thinking I'll have to shell out something like $80 for the book and to my shock and surprise the tag says,... wait for it... $0.01 That's right one cent! At first I think this is some…

Wow, that's awesome! I picked up mine second hand at a textbook distributor for the equivalent of about $30.

For anyone interested in other books on compiler construction, I would recommend these:

- "The Basics of Compiler Design" by Torben Mogensen

- "Modern Compiler Implementation in C" by Andrew Appel (ML and Java versions available too)

- "Modern Compiler Design" by Grune, Bal et al.

The Dragon Book is obviously infamous for this topic, but I would recommend covering at least two slightly more basic texts before taking it on.

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