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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."

4 of 624 comments (clear)

  1. Bah! Pretenders! by leftover · · Score: 5, Informative

    Everyone knows it: Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming"

    Now get off my lawn!

    --
    Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
  2. One underrated book... by jonwil · · Score: 3, Informative

    For anyone doing OS and BIOS level programming on the PC in the DOS days (and not writing games), the "Peter Norton Programmer's Guide to the IBM PC & PS/2" was a great book for understanding BIOS and DOS calls.

    Peter Norton was one of the visionaries of the IBM PC software days and the DOS versions of the Norton Utilities were a godsend for things like repairing a damaged floppy disk or doing low-level hex editing.

    It wasnt until Norton sold his company to Symantec that the Norton product line became the piece of junk it is today.

  3. Also in this regard... by KingAlanI · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.amazon.com/Dating-Design-Patterns-Solveig-Haugland/dp/0974312002/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315193378&sr=8-1
    _Dating_ Design Patterns.

    --
    I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
  4. Re:Bah! Pretenders! by bonch · · Score: 3, Informative

    You're totally wrong about goto statements.