Best Computer Books For The Smart

You'll remember last week, I asked for recommendations of the Best Websites for developers. This was a -great- thread and in the story, I mentioned that I was planning on doing the same regarding books this week. So here it is. What do you, the slashdot reader consider seminal works? What would you consider great introductions to technical topics? If you are interested, check it out... As part of this I'm looking for books on C, C++, Perl, Python, PHP , System Administration, anything...you name. As before I have opinions on great books, but I want to see what you think. Also, what do people think is a great introductory book for people new to linux.

Comments

Applied Cryptography

[demi]

by Bruce Schneier. The book is enjoyable and has saved me from several gaffes when using crypto for applications.

Obvious Perl choices....

[markana]

Programming Perl (Camel)
Perl Cookbook (Bighorn sheep)

some good ones....

[jeffy124]

Anything with Knuth's name on it
Dragon Book (Compilers - Principles, Tools & Techniques, Aho et al)
Gang of Four (Design Patterns, Gamma et al)
Andy Tannenbaum's OS book
That thick ass Intro to Algorithms book from the MIT boys
Patterson/Henessey Computer Organization & Design

A couple of suggestions

[astrashe]

Design Patterns, by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides.

Refactoring: improving the design of existing code, by Martin Fowler, Kent Beck, John Brant, William Opdyke, and Don Roberts.

Joe Celko's SQL books.

It's an introductory text, but Jerry Sussman's and Julie Sussman's Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs is pretty good too. It makes you think about things more deeply than many other books do.

Just a few that come to mind....

[BMazurek]

Introduction to Algorithms - Cormen, Leiserson and Rivest
- Great book, little bit of everything.

Code Complete - Steve McConnell
- Must read for anyone serious about programming. Read it.

Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment - Richard Stevens
- Still one of the best UNIX programming books I've seen.

Since the advent of the web, though, I've come of the opinion that language agnostic books are the important ones. Books on particular languages ("Learn Foo in 21 days", "Practical Programming in BarBaz") or technologies date way too quickly. The web is the best source for information like this.

I think we're thankfully seeing more books like "Pragmatic Programmer", the "Extreme Programming" series, "Design Patterns", "Refactoring", "Death March" and other books that transcend particular languages and technologies.

Re:Just a few that come to mind....

[dmiller]

I strongly second reading _Code Complete_ and APUE. Another two excellent books, also by Richard Stevens, are TCP/IP Illustrated (vol 1) and Unix Network Programming. If you do any Unix or network progamming, you need some Stevens books.

Re:Lisp

[xerofud]

You might also mention his book "On LISP", which
is now out of print, but can be downloaded from
his webpage.

On LISP goes into LISP issues much deeper than
ANSI Common LISP.

some recommendations

[g4dget]

If you are looking for a concise book on C++, look at Pohl's "C++ Distilled".

For Java, a smart person with a little computer background should be able to figure it out from the language definition. Any of the more complex topics in Java change so quickly that it isn't worth buying books on them anyway--just use the on-line references. Sun has on-line tutorials ("trails") at developer.java.sun.com, left over from the days when Java wasn't hot yet and when they still had to bother recruiting people to Java.

For Perl, I wouldn't bother with any kind of reference. Just find scripts that roughly do what you want and hack them; it's blind groping around, but that's the way Perl works. If you can't get it to work that way, you probably should be writing in something else other than Perl. If you must, get something like the Perl Cookbook and a quick reference guide.

For Python, I like "Python and Tkinter Programming" and "The Quick Python Book", although O'Reilly's reference is also decent.

For a fun yet challenging introduction to computer programming, "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" is good. What makes it even better is the fact that it's a book that teaches modern abstraction techniques but does not rely on object-oriented programming for everything. Most people coming to computers and computer programming wrongly think that objects are either the best, or even the only, way to build abstractions.

list

[Twister002]

Sorry if I'm too lazy to look up any links or authors.

Thinking in C++/Java

Algorithms in C, the whole series.

Design Patterns by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm,Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides.

Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity and Induction : Processes of Inference, Learning, and Discovery both by John Holland - father(?) of the genetic algorithm - not necessarily computer books, but they do provide a different perspective on how you can write software to do thing.


The Art of Computer Programming, Volumes 1-3 by Donald E. Knuth

Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming"

[prospective_user]

I have no doubt that if you want to have a more theoretical background on many subjects regarding Computer Science, you have to read (or, at least, take a glance at) Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming.

His books give an excellent introduction to many subjects, including many of the hardest problems in Computer Science. The first volume of his "The Art of Computer Programming" gives a very concise and comprehensive review of Mathematics needed for the remaining volumes. You might even learn about mathematical objects you never heard of (if you don't have higher education in Mathematics).

If you need something ligther on the Mathematics needed for Computer Science, then you might want to read his "Concrete Mathematics". Quite a beatiful book (typographically speaking), with an outstanding expostion of some advanced topics in Mathmematics neede for Computer Science and also quite funny to read.

I should also mention that his books are also a prime example of how someone should write a book. His books, while mostly technical, show a clear style of writing, direct and also entertaining, while discussing deep subjects.

The "problem" with Knuth's books are that they are intended for serious readers. You know if you are serious if you can read the first pages of his first volume. :-)

Another book that I would recommend is Andrew Tanenbaum's "Modern Operating Systems" (which is a bit more practical than Knuth's books) gives an overview of the structure of some common Operating Systems, including DOS and Unix.

I could give you many other recommendations, but you'd have to specify if the other recommendations that you want are more practical or more theoretical.

I hope this helps.

Books:

[Alex Belits]

1. K&R, The C Programming Language, 2nd ed.
2. R. Stevens, Unix Network Programming, 2nd ed.

After that one should decide what to choose. If it's C++:

B. Stroustrup, The C++ Programming language

After that people usually can find their way around books on their own.

What book could be better to reccomend

[SuperKendall]

under the circumstances, than "SQL For Smarties"? ;-)

No joke, it really is a good book!

C++ In depth series

[eddy]

For everything (well, almost) C++, you need the C++ in depth series. Get it, it's a great package.

Contains More Exceptional C++, Exceptional C++, Essential C++, Accelerated C++ and Modern C++ Design.

Accelerated C++ is the best book teaching C++ from the ground up that I have ever seen. It's worth getting and reading even if you think you already know the basics. Really.

Richard Stevens books

[Chemical Serenity]

Specifically Unix Network Programming (vols 1 + 2) and Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment. Basically the holy bibles of all things unix-programish.

Aside from that, same as what others have mentioned... Applied Cryptography, Unix System Administration, Practical Unix & Internet security...

Oh yeah, "The Complete Canadian Small Business Guide" has come in handy in many instances indirectly related to programming... ;)

Four sweet little letters...

[Succa]

SICP.

(Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, a fine book that'll teach you more about programming than should be allowed by law)

More C++ suggestions

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

A decent list of C++ books is in this newsgroup posting.

A brief list

[moebius_4d]

Aho, et. al. "Compilers"
Alexandrescu, "Modern C++ Design"
Bentley, "Programming Pearls", 2nd ed.
Brown, et. al. "Antipatterns"
Cooper, "About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design"
Fowler, "Refactoring"
Gamma, et. al. "Design Patterns"
Hanson, "C Interfaces and Implementations"
Johns & Lins, "Garbage Collection"
Josuttis, "The C++ Standard Library"
Kernighan & Pike, "The Practice of Programming"
Kernighan & Ritchie, "The C Programming Language" 2nd ed.
Knuth, "The Art of Computer Programming" vol 1-3
Meyers, "Effective C++"
Meyers, "More Effective C++"
Meyers, "Effective STL"
McConnell, "Code Complete"
McConnell, "Rapid Development"
Plauger, "The Standard C Library"
Stroustrup, "The C++ Programming Language"
Stroustrup, "The Design and Evolution of C++"

For specific topics:
Foley, et. al. "Computer Graphics"
Kernighan & Pike, "The Unix Programming Environment"
Schneier, "Applied Cryptography"
Stevens, "Unix Network Programming"
Stevens, "Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment"
Also the Graphics Gems and Game Programming Gems series are superb. Maybe my list makes me old-school, but I like to understand what is happening from the use case all the way down to the register allocation algorithm. Of course, I can't always do that.

I don't mention any Java books because they get outdated so fast. The language hasn't changed much since 96, but the class library api is in constant flux.

Re:A brief list

[bmajik]

Excellent list. Two domain specific ones i'd add are:

Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets

This is the orange book with a blue fish on the cover. the guy that wrote it worked for Sun on the c-compiler or the kernel (dont recall, honestly).

This book is hillarious and manages to tackle all the ugliest quirks of C.

Next (hold your breath)

Inside Windows 2000, 3rd Edition.

This was written by the guy that does the Sysinternals website. If you have any NT/2k/XP machines at _all_, this book is like the bible. All the guts of everything in the architecture and implementation of windows 2000 is explained. Want to know what csrss.exe does ? It's in there. Want to know how kernel debug your windows machine ? included on cd. This book lives on my work bookshelf. I answer more questions for people out of it than anything else i have. Everytime i go to the can, i take the book with me and read a little bit more. It's a good read for no other reason than to stop making stuff up when you want something to insult microsoft for :) I'd much rather read well reasoned technical arguments about the shortcomings of W2k than "it sucks d00d" and "BS0D city!". And maybe, just maybe, you might learn something about your quirky w2k box :)

Some light summer reading!

[shooz]

Not sure if these are for "the smart" but here are a few books that I've enjoyed. They make for nice easy summer reading -- and ya might learn somethin too!

The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master -- A excellent guide to help you go from spagetti coder to a professional programmer.

Programming Pearls (2nd Edition) -- Elegant solutions to interesting problems.

The Practice of Programming -- Coding style, algorithms, etc.

Titles that are more meaty would include Code Complete, Design Patterns, Refactoring, Applied Cryptography, Knuth, etc., but I'm sure these will be mentioned ad nauseam.

"The Visual Display of Quantitative Information"

[dpbsmith]

The three Edward R. Tufte books...

"The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" Graphics Press; ISBN: 0961392142; 2nd edition (May 2001)

"Envisioning Information" Graphics Press; ISBN: 0961392118; (May 1990)

"Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative"; Graphics Press; ISBN: 0961392126; (March 1997)

Python recommendations

[PeterClark]

Two books stand out: "Python: Essential Reference" (2nd edition) for the ins-and-outs of all of Python's built-ins and most of the major modules, and "Python Visual Quick Start Guide," which is sort of like a Python cookbook of the basics, if you're new to it all. These two books have taken care of all my needs.
:Peter

good books and the best publisher

[fermion]

For Complete non-MS perverted C++:
The C++ Programming Language by Stroustrup(Addison)

A quick introduction to Fundamental Design:
Composite/Structured Design by Myers (ReinHold)

For on-time software projects:
Debugging the Development Process by MacGuire (MS Press)

For TCP/IP protocols and issues
TCP/IP Illustrated by Stevens (Addison)

For numerical programming:
Numerical Recipes in C/Fortan/etc by Press, et al (Cambridge)

For what a computer might be like:
The Humane Interface by Raskin (Addison)

For advance C:
C Traps and Pitfalls by Koenig (Addison)

For object-oriented design
Design Patterns by Gamma, et al (Addison)

For general reference:
The CRC handbook by the editors at the Chemical Rubber Company

Now, I have a question. Who is the most reliable publisher of computer books. It seems that O'Reilly is all the craze, but I have been disappointed with their accuracy and editing of late, though I buy their books if they are on discount or the only good text. For example, I bought their PHP book and I saw several mistakes in the programming examples, mistakes which would totally confuse an inexperienced coder. IMHO, the most consistently good books are published by Addison-Wesley. I would like to hear what other people think.

Re:good books and the best publisher

[elflord]

Now, I have a question. Who is the most reliable publisher of computer books. It seems that O'Reilly is all the craze, but I have been disappointed with their accuracy and editing of late, though I buy their books if they are on discount or the only good text.

The best publisher depends on the subject matter. Addison Wesley have by far the best lineup of C++ books (almost a monopoly on good C++ books), while Prentice Hall have most of the good C books. O'Reilly have most of the good UNIX-centric books: Python, Perl, and general UNIX stuff,

Addison Wesley are probably the most consistent of publishers, and have one of the highest signal to noise ratios. They published at least one of the Stevens titles (Advanced Programming in the UNIX environment)

'How To Solve It', George Polya... (and 9 more)

[pmorrison]

... great, classic, book on how to think about problem-solving.

'Godel, Escher, Bach', Douglas Hofstader - for melting down, spinning around and reshaping your mind.

'Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs' - Abelson and Sussman - read the negative reviews at Amazon to realize how sophisticated a book this is. I found it my senior year in Computer Science and realized I'd hardly learned a thing yet. Deep stuff.

'The Pragmatic Programmer', Thomas and Hunt - wish I'd had it at the start of my career, it'd be even more fun, profitable and far less painful.

'Code Complete', McConnell - The bible of 'how to code it'.

'Software Project Survival Guide', McConnell - got me through my first independent project, with plenty of room for growth. Great book for a newly appointed project manager. Helps developers (and everyone else) figure out if their project is going gold or down the tubes pretty accurately.

'The Mythical Man Month' - Fredrick Brooks. Should be read regularly by anyone who manages software professionals. It's an interview question I ask any hiring manager. Ones who care about the field say 'Yes'.

'Programming Pearls' (any edition), Jon Bentley - Great fun, great exercises, great quotes. When you start feeling like programming is drudgery, a great tonic to renew your appreciation. Full of little techniques and large wisdom.

'Programmers At Work' - Interviews with 1985's leading lights of the software development industry. Great inspiration, now with historical relevance.

'The C Programming Language' - my vote for the most influential computer book ever(Hello?), and full of worthwhile knowledge. Anything Kernighan's involved in is worth picking up, an author who really cares about writing well.

My List is Bigger than Your List

[KidSock]

The Standard C Library,P.J. Plauger
I use this book *all* the time. It's very informative to see how a C library implementation works, and it has the important sections of the C standard reprinted with discussion. My #1 pick.

Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment,W. Richard Stevens
The comp.unix.programmer bible. A must have for UNIX programmers.

UNIX Network Programming Networking APIs: Sockets and XTI, W. Richard Stevens
Another classic from Stevens. I have not done a tremendous amount of socket programming in C but I have extensively in Java and I am confident that I can in UNIX after having read select portions of this obviously high quaility book.

Lex & Yacc, John R. Levine
I think yacc (the GNU version is called bison) is an extreemly usefull tool. I started writing yacc grammers for all sorts of configuration files on my system while reading this the first time. Great fun, and potentially very usefull. A good yacc grammer can save tremendous amounts of time and is often the proper way to handle a problem. And I'm not recommending the book just because it's the only of it's kind. It's genuinely good.

Algorithms on Strings, Trees, and Sequences Computer Science and Computational Biology, Dan Gusfield
This is a tough book. Be prepared to ponder the presentation of each algorithm and skip the proofs (I believe you Dan). If you find yourself getting stuck in spegetti string manipulation, implement a few of these algorithms like calculating the edit distance of two sequences or Boyer-Moore. You'll be a better programmer after and there are very practical application hidden in this book. Again, the presentation is of the highest quality.

Introduction to Algorithms, Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest
I have three algorithms books. This one's the best and that's not a compermise. It's a great book.

The C Programming Language, Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis M. Ritchie
Of course.

The Art of Computer Programming (Vols 1-3), Donald E. Knuth

The C++ Programming Language (Third Edition and Special Edition), Bjarne Stroustrup

Xlib Programming Manual, Adrian Nye

Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C, 2nd Edition, Bruce Schneier

X Window System Toolkit, A Complete Programmer's Guide and Specification, Paul J. Asente, Donna Converse, Ralph R. Swick, Paul Assente

Expert C Programming, Peter van der Linden

Life with UNIX, Don Libes and Sandy Ressler

Programming Pearls, Jon Bentley

Structured Computer Organization, Andrew Tanenbaum

The Code Book, Simon Singh

Etudes for Programmers, Charles Wetherell

Secrets and Lies, Bruce Schneier

The Pragmatic Programmer, Andrew Hunt and David Thomas

TCP/IP Illustrated, Richard Stevens

Exploring Expect, Don Libes

UNIX System Administration Handbook, Evi Nemeth et al
If you use UNIX, you need this book. Forget Running Linux. This is much better and the latest edition covers Red Hat as well as BSD, Solaris, and HP/UX.

Digital Woes, Lauren Wiener

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, Richard P. Feynman
This was a pretty funny book. Very readable for anyone. A NYT Bestseller.

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, Harold Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman, and Julie Sussman

Essentials of Programming Languages, Daniel P. Friedman, Mitchell Wand, and Christopher T. Haynes

Software Fundamentals: Collected papers, David L. Parnas, Daniel M. Hoffman and David M. Weiss

The Invisible Computer, Donald A. Norman

Lion's Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, with Source Code, John Lions

Envisioning Information, Edward R. Tufte

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Edward R. Tufte,
I think I have this book. I was disappointed.

Visual Explanations, Edward E. Tufte

The Design of the UNIX Operating System, Maurice J Bach

Algorithms in C, Robert Sedgewick
Not that great. Having lot's of code samples is nice but the comments are unbelieveable. Their HUGE. Really ruins and otherwise good book. I'd rather go with the Cormen book on Algorithms and just write c from there (done just that many times actually).

Introduction to Computer Theory, Daniel I A Cohen

Compilers, Principles, Techniques and Tools (The Dragon Book), Alfred V Aho, Ravi Sethi, and Jeffrey D Ullman

The Practice of Programming
Kernighan, Brian W., and Rob Pike

The Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition : Essays on Software Engineering, Frederick P. Brooks

"Calculus Made Easy"

[John Jorsett]

As I interpret the question, seminal works on technical topics of all sorts qualify. In that spirit, I most highly recommend "Calculus Made Easy" by Silvanus Thompson. Originally written in 1910 (I think. It's recently been republished), this is the book that finally enlightened me. After 3 years of advanced mathematics and an engineering degree, everything I knew about calculus was rote: I could come up with the answers, but not because I understood the underlying principles or basis, but because I could memorize procedures. After I got this book and read it, I finally understood what the hell it was all about. I don't know whether I was just a bad student before, had bad teachers, or simply was presented the material in a way that was incompatible with the way I learn. In any case, this book did it for me, and perhaps it will do the same for others.

One caveat: I read the original, not the current version, which Amazon says "In this major revision of the classic math text, Martin Gardner has rendered calculus comprehensible to readers of all levels." I'm loathe to recommend a book that I considered perfect in its earlier incarnation and that someone has 'revised,' so perhaps you'll want to search for the original.

Re:For applied C++ YEAH!

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Also, it's MORONIC that NOT A SOUL is recommending a book that'll teach you even ONE of the Top Ten most important algorithms of the 20th century.

If you truly believe that those are the ten most important algorithms of the 20th century, you really need a change in perspective. Quicksort could certainly be put forward as one of the most important algorithms of all time in computer science. Most of the remaining algorithms mentioned are important for their mathematical basis and/or their contribution to the field of engineering, not for their contribution to computer science.

And of course, in order to make any use of these algorithms, it is important to have a good implementation of them. If you don't know how to write those "frickin for loops" and how to make use of your development tools of choice, you're going to get nowhere real fast. It's true that from a computer science perspective, many development languages or features in them are isomorphic and once you've learned it once, the rest is mostly just a different syntax. But you do have to learn it once, and well.

Databases!

[crucini]

I work on server-side business apps, so that colors my response. The single biggest error in business programming is probably underestimation or misunderstanding of relational databases. Used properly, the database takes on much of the burden of storing, indexing and searching the data and prohibiting the entry of inconsistent data, thereby lightening the load on the application programmer. It's generally best to make the database the center of gravity, and use the "host language" (perl/java/python) as a thin layer of authentication, validation, business rules and logging between the database and the network. To do this, you need a good understanding of:

• database design. Read Graeme Simsion's Data Modeling Essentials. This explains how to analyze proposed and existing business activities and accurately reflect them in a database schema. Knowing a lot about SQL or Oracle is not a substitute! A strong schema forces the database to do much of the work for you. A weak schema reduces the database to expensive passive storage.
• SQL. Read Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties. Work through the examples with Postgres or Oracle. (Knowledge is in the fingers.) Main benefit: the ability to craft a SELECT statement that generates a desired report with little or no postprocessing in the "host" language. On average, the database is going to be faster and less buggy at extracting, correlating and sorting data than any custom-written code. If you ever perform two SELECTs and knit the results together with custom code, your SQL knowledge may have room for improvement.

Geeks love introverted, clean, mathematical problems and hate ugly, fuzzy business-driven problems. That bias is reflected in the responses here - Knuth is the hands down favorite. While I don't dispute Knuth's value, the focus on algorithms reinforces the lamentable tendency to reinvent the database for each major application. The programmer with a knowledge of C and a head full of algorithms has in a sense a complete toolkit to take on the world, but the programmer with a high-level language and a relational database operates at higher leverage because he need not reinvent fundamental parts each time.
For example, I learned many sorts in school. I have never used any of them at work. Perl has a built-in quicksort, and SQL has ORDER BY. I think you can assume that more energy and expertise went into Oracle's implementation of ORDER BY than you can bring to bear on average on a homemade sort.