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Ask Slashdot: What Should Every Programmer Read?

Posted by Soulskill on from the green-eggs-and-dereferenced-pointers dept.

An anonymous reader writes "There's a blog post floating around right now listing articles every programmer should read. I'm curious what articles, books, etc., Slashdot readers would add to this list. Should The Art of Computer Programming, Design Patterns, or Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs be on the list? What about The Mythical Man-Month, or similar works that are about concepts relating to programming? Is there any code that every programmer should take a look at? Obviously, the nature of this question precludes articles about the nitty-gritty of particular languages, but I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in those, too. So if you can think of a few articles that every C++ programmer (or Perl, or Haskell, or whatever) should know, post those too."

18 of 352 comments (clear)

  1. The Joy of C by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's rather out of date but "The Joy of C" was my first programming book and I attest its style to easing me in to the development mindset.

    1. Re:The Joy of C by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I've read both, and I still don't understand how to insert pointers into doubly linked lists.

  2. The story of Mel by quietwalker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For example, here; http://www.catb.org/jargon/htm...

  3. Books to read by Dionysus · · Score: 5, Informative

    Clean Code by Robert C. Martin, Working Effectively with legacy code by Michael C. Feathers, Refactoring by Fowler, Design Patterns by the gang of four. If you are a C++ programmer, anything by Sutter or Meyers.

    --
    Je ne parle pas francais.
    1. Re:Books to read by AuMatar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem with that book is that too many people read it the wrong way. Instead of using it as a language to describe design, they attempt to find ways to force their code into patterns or to add patterns because they think they should use them. The result is worse code than if they had never read it. This is especially true of those who read the book before they've seen enough code to understand design. It should be read, but only at the proper time and in the proper way.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  4. TFM by NIK282000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Everybody should RTFM.

    --
    Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
  5. Obviously... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Funny

    An arbitrarily long strip of tape, divided into sections on which there appear symbols drawn from some finite alphabet. They should be able to work the rest out from that.

    1. Re:Obviously... by VortexCortex · · Score: 4, Funny

      They should be able to work the rest out from that.

      Actually, you can't make such a generalized determination. Surely some of them will halt.

  6. Code Complete by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Code Complete is the #1 thing every programmer should read.

  7. If you haven't read The Myythical Man-Month... by Troy+Baer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...you don't get to call yourself a "software engineer" or talk about others' software engineering practices.

    --
    "My life's work has been to prompt others... and be forgotten." --Cyrano de Bergerac
    1. Re:If you haven't read The Myythical Man-Month... by gweihir · · Score: 5, Informative

      Nonsense. The Mythical Man-Month is mostly about team-building, project management and a bit about software architecture. It has almost no software engineering content. Sure, it is a highly valuable source, but not a software-engineering one.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  8. Dilbert. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Dilbert.

  9. Two unexpected computer science books by bugnuts · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm gazing across my bookshelf full of O Reilly books, Knuth's series, TCP/IP Illustrated, and others... but the most important books are more mundane:

    Godel Escher Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, and Alice in Wonderland

    Both of these books encompass the thinking and mindset which will make you a better programmer by planting the seed of logic, states, and recursion, and nourishing the hell out of it. It will massage the pathways to make someone actually want to be a programmer.

  10. The Fortran Coloring Book by davidwr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wish I'd read Roger Kaufman's book before I started programming. It would've helped a lot.

    Here's a few pages to get a taste of the style: http://www.cs.utsa.edu/~wagner...

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  11. Strunk & White: The Elements of Style by RandCraw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The best preparation for becoming a good programmer (or scientist or engineer) is to learn how to organize your thoughts and then address only what is necessary and sufficient to accomplish a given task.

    I know no book that teaches clarity of thought better than Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style". Clear writing and great coding share a common wellspring.

  12. Code Complete by Steve McConnell by Hangtime · · Score: 4, Informative

    My boss gave me this book when I started by my first job out of college. By far one of the best books on software development and construction out there. It is timeless and even though I no longer write code for a living, I refer back to it on many occasions still. You want a book to make a you a better programmer; you can't go wrong here.

  13. How about reading your code? by NemoinSpace · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After a year i go back and realize what a horrible programmer i am. It happens every year. But i'm getting better. I also spend a lot of time reading other people's code. I've found that if you are writing "new" code you haven't already seen in action, you just might wind up killing somone someday.

  14. In other words... by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nonsense. The Mythical Man-Month is mostly about team-building, project management and a bit about software architecture

    In other words the mix of work for a programmer of every company I have been at.

    You think you came to write code? Ha Ha! Let me acquaint you with Mr Process.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley