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The Computer Science Book (2020)

thecomputersciencebook.com

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Re: The Computer Science Book (2020)

#3

Post by r4victor »

shaftoe444 wrote: post #2

This looks really good. The further reading sections in themselves contain some gold.

Indeed! I found this book completely accidentally via google and it seems to be largely unknown. Let's fix it!

It's really hard to attack such a vast subject and produce something valuable. The author did a great job.

Re: The Computer Science Book (2020)

#4

Post by agomez314 »

It's nice to see the author spent a great deal of time and effort to share with others his learnings. However it's important to note his intention at writing this book: "I’ve chosen to focus on topics and concepts that I’ve encountered in my programming career – things that I know are important." Thus it's not an overview of Computer Science per se (which in my opinion is a fuzzy subject without clear boundaries) but subjects the author frequently encountered and perhaps heard as important things in the field.

I would also caution in how the book presents its chosen subjects as "Computer Science." Like the adage goes, "Computer Science is not so much about computers like petri dishes are about biology, or telescopes are about astronomy." There's so much beauty and variety in the field that it's really hard to just pin down in a curriculum. See "A Mathematician's Lament" [1]

I also challenge the notion that some of these subjects logically proceed from the other (some, not all).

I've got no problem with anyone reading the book, they'll be certainly much more informed about the field of computers in general. I especially appreciated the Further Reading sections to let the reader expand his learning. Thanks for sharing this post!

[1] https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/LockhartsLament....

Re: The Computer Science Book (2020)

#6

Post by 082349872349872 »

agomez314 wrote: post #4

It's nice to see the author spent a great deal of time and effort to share with others his learnings. However it's important to note his intention at writing this book: "I’ve chosen to focus on topics and concepts that I’ve encountered in my programming career – things that I know are important." Thus it's not an overview of Computer Science per se (which in my opinion is a fuzzy subject without clear boundaries) but…

compare https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34296702

Inspired by the title "Sketches of an Elephant", I wonder if practitioners might be interested in a CS book that would be the equivalent of Körner's "The Pleasures of Counting" ( https://books.google.ch/books?redir_esc=y&hl=de&id=wUdtVHBr-... ) which is structured more like a cookbook (inductive presentation) than a textbook (deductive presentation)?

lagniappe: http://www.willamette.edu/~fruehr/haskell/evolution.html

[Edit: come to think of it, what is HN but an institution that throws up a transect of species which may be found within the general —open— interval (CS theory, MBA case studies)?]

Re: The Computer Science Book (2020)

#7

Post by bambataa »

Author here! Thank you to whoever posted this. My 2023 resolution was to market it better so this is a great help :).

The overall intent was to create a single, fairly concise volume sketching out the main areas of computer science so that developers from non-traditional backgrounds (boot camps etc) have at least some kind of map of the territory.

When I started working as a dev I really struggled with the idea that there were so many things that I should know about but I wasn’t even aware of until they blew up in my face in some way.

agomez314’s comment is very valid — my framing was “CS stuff that you will encounter as a developer”.

Happy to answer any questions.

Re: The Computer Science Book (2020)

#8

Post by tunnuz »

bambataa wrote: post #7

Author here! Thank you to whoever posted this. My 2023 resolution was to market it better so this is a great help :). The overall intent was to create a single, fairly concise volume sketching out the main areas of computer science so that developers from non-traditional backgrounds (boot camps etc) have at least some kind of map of the territory. When I started working as a dev I really struggled with the idea that…

Is there any chance to get this as a PDF for offline consumption?

Re: The Computer Science Book (2020)

#9

Post by bambataa »

tunnuz wrote: post #8
bambataa wrote: post #7

Author here! Thank you to whoever posted this. My 2023 resolution was to market it better so this is a great help :). The overall intent was to create a single, fairly concise volume sketching out the main areas of computer science so that developers from non-traditional backgrounds (boot camps etc) have at least some kind of map of the territory. When I started working as a dev I really struggled with the idea that…

Is there any chance to get this as a PDF for offline consumption?

The Leanpub link provides a DRM PDF.

Email me if it’s unaffordable for you.

Re: The Computer Science Book (2020)

#10

Post by bnycum »

tunnuz wrote: post #8
bambataa wrote: post #7

Author here! Thank you to whoever posted this. My 2023 resolution was to market it better so this is a great help :). The overall intent was to create a single, fairly concise volume sketching out the main areas of computer science so that developers from non-traditional backgrounds (boot camps etc) have at least some kind of map of the territory. When I started working as a dev I really struggled with the idea that…

Is there any chance to get this as a PDF for offline consumption?

Looks like you can at the base URL: https://thecomputersciencebook.com/
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