Six "must have" computer science books…
I own a boat load of computer science books. I have many shelves of wonderful programming and reference books at work and home. If you scanned the shelves, six books would stand out as the most used, abused, and dog eared. These are the six books that, over the years, I have read (and re-read) more than the rest (ordered by the year they were first published).
- Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms (3rd Edition), Donald E. Knuth, ISBN 0201896834 , Addison-Wesley.
- Art of Computer Programming, Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms (3rd Edition), Donald E. Knuth, ISBN 0201896842, Addison-Wesley.
- Art of Computer Programming, Volume 3: Sorting and Searching (2nd Edition), Donald E. Knuth, ISBN 0201896850, Addison-Wesley.
- The Psychology of Computer Programming: Silver Anniversary Edition, Gerald M. Weinberg, ISBN 0932633420, Dorset House Publishing Company, Incorporated.
- The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, 20th Anniversary Edition, Frederick P. Brooks Jr., ISBN 0201835959, Addison-Wesley.
- A Discipline of Programming, Edsger W. Dijkstra, ISBN 013215871X, Prentice Hall.
If you were stuck on a desert island (or an alpine mountain top), what six computer science books would you want to have?
March 31st, 2007 at 1:41 am
You already named 4 of them David, so here are the two which I think should be read by anyone:
"Code Complete 2nd edition", by Steven McConnell
"Writing Solid Code", by Steve Maguire.
They’re both old books, but they opened my eyes to so much things I can’t believe where I’d be without these!
Hmm, funny that both authors have the same initials and almost identical first names!
March 31st, 2007 at 10:08 am
The Tomes of Delphi: Algorithms and Data Structures…
.. Fun to read, academically correct and ïn print".
Why? Apart from being well written this book covers a lot of these classics a long way and academically even more correct… Used to use it everyday, own a copy, know it by hart…
April 1st, 2007 at 1:23 pm
David:
Well, well, well. With all these "must have" computer books, you should be at least for now, proficient enough to start writing the Pi program some of us are still looking forward to seeing? You can pick any language you are comfortable with, even Fortran. Do you need more time or maybe some CodeGear engineers can give this veteran a hand? Any volunteers?
James
April 2nd, 2007 at 2:03 am
I wish I could secure an original copy of Danny Thorpe "Delphi Component Design" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Delphi-Component-Design-Danny-Thorpe/dp/0201461366).
"Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming" by Jeffrey Richter opened my eyes to .NET (http://www.amazon.com/Applied-Microsoft-NET-Framework-Programming/dp/0735614229). Great book.
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:55 am
And 8 for recreational reading:
"Soul of a New Machine", Tracy Kidder
"Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution", Steven Levy
"The First $20 Million is Always the Hardest", Po Bronson
"Cryptonomicon", Neal Stephenson
"The Baroque Cycle, Vol 1,2 and 3" Neal Stephenson
"SnowCrash", Neal Stephenson
"The Long Run: A Tale of the Continuing Time", Daniel Keys Moran
"A Fire Upon The Deep", Vernor Vinge
April 2nd, 2007 at 12:03 pm
once upon a time, in a distant place, far beyond the common reach, we were not even allowed to enroll in superior education programs (phd, etc), unless we knew knuth (at least vol 3) by hearth! read at least vol 3…
a decent / entry level book on algorithms is:
Algorithms and Theory of Computation Handbook - by Michael Atallach
also a decent book on how to write nicely modularized / elegant software (and a little bit of history):
The Art of Unix Programming - by Eric Steven Raymond
and if you know how to read between the rows, you’ll find good (platform independent) hints…
Charles Petzold is also one the "eternals"!
an interesting link I used to evangelize is:
http://freecomputerbooks.com/
where one could find many many nice books…
oh, i almost forgot, an interesting book about the why(s) beyond the what(s) of c++!
The Design and Evolution of C++ - by Bjarne Stroustrup… Which goes beyond the c++ specifics, it’s an excellent guide for young compiler engineers, who still dream on changing the world… (are we all?
anyway, enough for now! good coding everyone!
daniel
April 2nd, 2007 at 12:26 pm
How to build a boat in 24hours
April 2nd, 2007 at 12:35 pm
a good one…
.NET 2.0 for Delphi Programmers - by John Shemitz, ISBN-13: 978-1-59059-386-8 or ISBN-10: 1-59059-386-3, special dedication:
To Anders Hejlsberg, for Turbo Pascal, Delphi, and now C#;
d