Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

What Is the Most Influential Programming Book?

Posted by samzenpus on from the best-of-class dept.

First time accepted submitter AlexDomo writes "If you could go back in time and tell yourself to read a specific book at the beginning of your career as a developer, which book would it be? Since it was first posed back in 2008, this question has now become the second most popular question of all time on StackOverflow. The top 5 results are: Code Complete (2nd Edition), The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, The C Programming Language, and Introduction to Algorithms."

3 of 624 comments (clear)

  1. the Most Influential Programming Book? by MrShaggy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dianetics.

    --
    I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
  2. BBC Micro User Guide by williamhb · · Score: 4, Funny

    And yet, for others of us, it was our starting book back in the 80's.

    More realistically I think for my generation in the UK, this was our starting book. But in mitigation, expecting six year olds to read Knuth might have been a bit much!

  3. Re:K&R C by kayumi · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh my god, I will go and hide for the rest of the month. I blame it all on python, lack of sleep and Fukushima. I have not used C for a year or two and now this happens. Damn. I must have caught this thinking-in-python disease.