Reply to: Classic programming books aka Kernighan and Ritchie

[wobbegong]

Anyone read any for other languages?
K&R's "C ...." was brilliant: concise, elegant, comprehensive primer
Computer books seem to be bloatware nowadays.

Kernighan & Pikes' "The Unix programming environment" was another very concise (if a little dry) tome.

[Scary]

Good calls on Programming Pearls, Code Complete and Foley and van Dam.

[NickFitz]

Steve McConnell's 'Code Complete'

+1, and +1 again for the Second Edition.

My own contribution to the original requirement of the thread would be Leo Brodie's Thinking Forth - by succinctly describing and demonstrating how one should think so as to solve problems using Forth, it manages to describe and demonstrate how one should think so as to solve problems, full stop.

The section on Minimizing Control Structures is one that I still draw on today. I love finding a way to get control structures out of my code, which is probably one of the reasons I love XSLT, where one can almost always always eliminate control structures (which are close to meaningless in a declarative language anyway) by judicious use of predicates

I suppose I may as well address the pedants now: I know very well that the techniques one uses to eliminate control structures are just a way of driving the control structures down to a lower level: I am familiar with the way a computer that implements a von Neumann architecture works. The important thing is to get the control flow away from the code that actually says what's being done. Control structures are all about how, not what; but what is the meat.

The fact that one can also increase the potential parallelism of code by eliminating control structures is for another day

[Zippy]

I meant into Formula 1, reading technical computer books, etc. A female geek

It's a fair cop

[SueEllen]

I meant into Formula 1, reading technical computer books, etc. A female geek

They exist.

I'm not one though.

[TimberWolf]

Maybe not typical (WTF does that mean anyway) but female nevertheless.
I couldn't part with that book.

I meant into Formula 1, reading technical computer books, etc. A female geek

[Zippy]

WTF. You aren't typical female. Looks like I threw my copy out when I was culling my library when I moved, together with tombs like Knuth. Didn't think I'd need them again, those things are all done for you now.

Maybe not typical (WTF does that mean anyway) but female nevertheless.
I couldn't part with that book.

[TimberWolf]

K&R was the mutts nuts. I have a great book - Illustrated C - which is at a lower level but still very good.
My favourite is Computer Graphics (Foley, Van Dam,Feiner & Hughes). Lots of dead hard sums but a reet good read.

WTF. You aren't typical female. Looks like I threw my copy out when I was culling my library when I moved, together with tombs like Knuth. Didn't think I'd need them again, those things are all done for you now.

[AtW]

My favourite is Computer Graphics

Whose isn't?

[Zippy]

K&R was the mutts nuts. I have a great book - Illustrated C - which is at a lower level but still very good.
My favourite is Computer Graphics (Foley, Van Dam,Feiner & Hughes). Lots of dead hard sums but a reet good read.

[suityou01]

Anyone read any for other languages?
K&R's "C ...." was brilliant: concise, elegant, comprehensive primer
Computer books seem to be bloatware nowadays.

It seems to be directly proportional to the amount of bolux in the language being taught.

We managed to produce systems without Generics/Hashmaps/XMLvoodoo perfectly well in "the old days"

N the books were concise n all.

[Spacecadet]

Structured Query Language - an introduction.

It was ok, but I'm waiting for the SQL

Surely Structured Query Language is the SQL
Structured English QUEry Language was the SEQUEL

[EternalOptimist]

Structured Query Language - an introduction.

It was ok, but I'm waiting for the SQL

[DimPrawn]

VB for Dummies.

Couldn't get past the intro mind.

[vandiss]

Java/J2EE Job Interview Companion - most useful.