Until now I've read:
- The Healthy Programmer
- Clean Code
- Test-Driven Development by Example
What should I add to my library?
Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
1–10 of 344 posts
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#2Effective Java (lots of good generic OOP advice)
Implementing Domain Driven Design
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#3I really like:
- Code Complete by Steve McConnell
- The Effective Engineer by Edmond Lau
- The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#4Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs.
I have attempted some of the problems in Lua, Python, Erlang and Ada. It is very doable. So not just for Scheme.
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#5Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. I love this book.
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#6Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. I love this book.
Agree - this is an amazing book.
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#7An old standard: The Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks.
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#8The Psychology of Computer Programming by Gerald M. Weinberg
It's an old book but the most eye-opening one to me.
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#9Effective Java (lots of good generic OOP advice) Implementing Domain Driven Design
Although I liked Effective Java a lot, and it does contain a lot of advice relevant to many OO languages - it is the opposite of language agnostic: It's very Java-specific. Much of the content is irrelevant except in Java itself; and some of it is the opposite of "Effective language X". For example, it has a section named "Prefer lists to Arrays"; any C++ programmer will tell you the opposite (and that goes down to some of the arguments, such as Java not supporting generic arrays while C++ supports them).
So - good book, but not for this purpose.
Re: Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
#10I really like: - Code Complete by Steve McConnell - The Effective Engineer by Edmond Lau - The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
Second the Pragmatic Programmer, however: I read it when I just started programming (like not much more experienced than basic hello world and some fiddling) and, looking back, didn't really get it. I mean, I got the principles, but couldn't apply it as there was just not enough experience for the higher level abstract stuff. I recently read it again and it makes complete sense now, but I ddn't learn much new from it. So I'd suggest that if you read it, do so after a couple of years of programming.