Best books on Software ever. Please vote or add! [modified]
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Dear reader, I really got a lot out of codeproject. Codeproject is invaluable. For a long time now I want to contribute, but nothing really good came in my mind. So I want to present my top-favorite list of books here that influenced me most heavily as a software-professional. I hope this list is usfull also for others. If you have your top-favorite book, please reply and I will update this list. Also I kindly ask you to provide me some text which should be attached to the books. Attention: Sorry, I didn't expect such an overwhelming number of responses. Now I have a problem: How to manage this thread ! ! ! I'm not able to to it in a reasonable way via "tagging" some text. Any ideas? Can I upload some document here?
Architecture
Rank 1: J. Lakos: Large scale C++ design
By far the best book on SW I've ever read (even of much more value for me then the most prominent one, E. Gamma, see below) This book is on C++, yes, but the techniques provided here hold for any language. It covers design and architecture at any scale. Did you have the same experience as I did? I applied the rules of OO heavily, I applied patterns extensively, but my SW was hardly maintainable, testable, understandable. I did not understand why, until I read this book. Now I'm can write SW at any scale in less time which is testable from the beginning. What are the reasons? Let me say, there are two "secretes" which are addressed in this book: The first is "physical design" and the second is "decoupling methods". Detailed very thoroughly with lots of examples (in C++) Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 1 Good: 0 Medium: 0
Rank 2: E. Gamma, et all: Design Patterns
Nothing more to say. Nobody can invent all. Whithout the knowledge presented in this book in your bag you cannot say you are a Software-Developer/-Architect. Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 1 Very Good: 0 Medium: 0
Programming Languages
Rank 1: S. Meyers, Effective C++, two Volumes
Once you mastered the basics of C++. Memorize the roughly 70 topics of these two books and you are prepared for almost any szenario. The techniques inside are a must for any serious C++ programmer. Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 0 Very Good: 1 Medium: 0
Rank 2: S. Meyers, Effective STL
You want get
When I was in College the Deitel and Deitel series of books were fantastic and I would highly recommend them to anyone who is just starting out. They show you the code and then go through it step by step. My all time favorite book is called Dynamic HTML by Shelly Powers pub. IDG Books. While many of you might think that technology has grown beyond this book, I would still recommend it to anyone just starting out building web pages. It is informative, gives examples and ALL the examples work right out of the book. However, it may not be in book stores or even in print anymore. Dealing with new ASP.Net technology I would say the ASP.Net 3.5 Unleashed is a very good book. My ...environment... is not exactlly up-to-date (I think they are still using .Net 1.0) but I can still make many of the examples work from this book and once you understand the vocabulary of ASP.Net C# this book becomes much clearer and it so far appears that all the examples work. So, for ratings, I would have to put them as follows: 1. ASP.Net 3.5 Unleashed, pub.SAMS 2. Dynamic HTML, auth., Shelly Powers, pub., IDG Books 3. Deitel and Deitel series (many different subjects, pick yours)
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Dear reader, I really got a lot out of codeproject. Codeproject is invaluable. For a long time now I want to contribute, but nothing really good came in my mind. So I want to present my top-favorite list of books here that influenced me most heavily as a software-professional. I hope this list is usfull also for others. If you have your top-favorite book, please reply and I will update this list. Also I kindly ask you to provide me some text which should be attached to the books. Attention: Sorry, I didn't expect such an overwhelming number of responses. Now I have a problem: How to manage this thread ! ! ! I'm not able to to it in a reasonable way via "tagging" some text. Any ideas? Can I upload some document here?
Architecture
Rank 1: J. Lakos: Large scale C++ design
By far the best book on SW I've ever read (even of much more value for me then the most prominent one, E. Gamma, see below) This book is on C++, yes, but the techniques provided here hold for any language. It covers design and architecture at any scale. Did you have the same experience as I did? I applied the rules of OO heavily, I applied patterns extensively, but my SW was hardly maintainable, testable, understandable. I did not understand why, until I read this book. Now I'm can write SW at any scale in less time which is testable from the beginning. What are the reasons? Let me say, there are two "secretes" which are addressed in this book: The first is "physical design" and the second is "decoupling methods". Detailed very thoroughly with lots of examples (in C++) Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 1 Good: 0 Medium: 0
Rank 2: E. Gamma, et all: Design Patterns
Nothing more to say. Nobody can invent all. Whithout the knowledge presented in this book in your bag you cannot say you are a Software-Developer/-Architect. Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 1 Very Good: 0 Medium: 0
Programming Languages
Rank 1: S. Meyers, Effective C++, two Volumes
Once you mastered the basics of C++. Memorize the roughly 70 topics of these two books and you are prepared for almost any szenario. The techniques inside are a must for any serious C++ programmer. Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 0 Very Good: 1 Medium: 0
Rank 2: S. Meyers, Effective STL
You want get
My vote will also go for "The Annotated C++ Reference Manual" and C++ Primer by Stanely Lippman.
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I do love Code Complete. I think the design pattern book is good, the trouble is, it's caused a mania for patterns as some sort of silver bullet, and a mania to invent patterns where none exist.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
I love Code Complete, too - especially since Steve doesn't just claim, but supports it with facts. I am not sure how to rate it in "importance", though. It not really a beginners book, as a beginner will have a hard time understanding the reach of the problems mentioned. An old timer will have learnt most of it the hard way. so there's certainly a window of opportunity where the book is excellent - but maybe that window is not very big.
Personally, I love the idea that Raymond spends his nights posting bad regexs to mailing lists under the pseudonym of Jane Smith. He'd be like a super hero, only more nerdy and less useful. [Trevel]
| FoldWithUs! | sighist -
Dear reader, I really got a lot out of codeproject. Codeproject is invaluable. For a long time now I want to contribute, but nothing really good came in my mind. So I want to present my top-favorite list of books here that influenced me most heavily as a software-professional. I hope this list is usfull also for others. If you have your top-favorite book, please reply and I will update this list. Also I kindly ask you to provide me some text which should be attached to the books. Attention: Sorry, I didn't expect such an overwhelming number of responses. Now I have a problem: How to manage this thread ! ! ! I'm not able to to it in a reasonable way via "tagging" some text. Any ideas? Can I upload some document here?
Architecture
Rank 1: J. Lakos: Large scale C++ design
By far the best book on SW I've ever read (even of much more value for me then the most prominent one, E. Gamma, see below) This book is on C++, yes, but the techniques provided here hold for any language. It covers design and architecture at any scale. Did you have the same experience as I did? I applied the rules of OO heavily, I applied patterns extensively, but my SW was hardly maintainable, testable, understandable. I did not understand why, until I read this book. Now I'm can write SW at any scale in less time which is testable from the beginning. What are the reasons? Let me say, there are two "secretes" which are addressed in this book: The first is "physical design" and the second is "decoupling methods". Detailed very thoroughly with lots of examples (in C++) Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 1 Good: 0 Medium: 0
Rank 2: E. Gamma, et all: Design Patterns
Nothing more to say. Nobody can invent all. Whithout the knowledge presented in this book in your bag you cannot say you are a Software-Developer/-Architect. Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 1 Very Good: 0 Medium: 0
Programming Languages
Rank 1: S. Meyers, Effective C++, two Volumes
Once you mastered the basics of C++. Memorize the roughly 70 topics of these two books and you are prepared for almost any szenario. The techniques inside are a must for any serious C++ programmer. Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 0 Very Good: 1 Medium: 0
Rank 2: S. Meyers, Effective STL
You want get
"The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering" and the paper "No Silver Bullet — Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering", both by Fred Brooks, is where I found the most valuable lessons on how to build software. (+1.5) GoF is for sure the second one. (+1.5) It showed me the full potential of OO concepts (Inheritance, Polymorphism, Encapsulation, etc.). "Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code" was a book that I've never read, but i know every concept there from people that read. Although I don't feel the need to read it now, I think it is a important book that brought important practices to light. (+1)
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Dear reader, I really got a lot out of codeproject. Codeproject is invaluable. For a long time now I want to contribute, but nothing really good came in my mind. So I want to present my top-favorite list of books here that influenced me most heavily as a software-professional. I hope this list is usfull also for others. If you have your top-favorite book, please reply and I will update this list. Also I kindly ask you to provide me some text which should be attached to the books. Attention: Sorry, I didn't expect such an overwhelming number of responses. Now I have a problem: How to manage this thread ! ! ! I'm not able to to it in a reasonable way via "tagging" some text. Any ideas? Can I upload some document here?
Architecture
Rank 1: J. Lakos: Large scale C++ design
By far the best book on SW I've ever read (even of much more value for me then the most prominent one, E. Gamma, see below) This book is on C++, yes, but the techniques provided here hold for any language. It covers design and architecture at any scale. Did you have the same experience as I did? I applied the rules of OO heavily, I applied patterns extensively, but my SW was hardly maintainable, testable, understandable. I did not understand why, until I read this book. Now I'm can write SW at any scale in less time which is testable from the beginning. What are the reasons? Let me say, there are two "secretes" which are addressed in this book: The first is "physical design" and the second is "decoupling methods". Detailed very thoroughly with lots of examples (in C++) Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 1 Good: 0 Medium: 0
Rank 2: E. Gamma, et all: Design Patterns
Nothing more to say. Nobody can invent all. Whithout the knowledge presented in this book in your bag you cannot say you are a Software-Developer/-Architect. Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 1 Very Good: 0 Medium: 0
Programming Languages
Rank 1: S. Meyers, Effective C++, two Volumes
Once you mastered the basics of C++. Memorize the roughly 70 topics of these two books and you are prepared for almost any szenario. The techniques inside are a must for any serious C++ programmer. Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 0 Very Good: 1 Medium: 0
Rank 2: S. Meyers, Effective STL
You want get
To comment on your choice first: Lakos, Meyers: good. Gamma at all: bad. I would add: Stroustrup: TC++PL, and (even better) "The Design and Evolution of C++" Sutter: pretty much everything he wrote. Steve Maguire: "Writing Solid Code". Stevens: "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment" K&R: "TCPL" (one of the best language books ever)
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Because you added MFC, I'd like to add my 2 cents as well on the same topic: MFC: "Programming Windows with MFC" and "MFC Internals". There are numerous other good books, but these two are very important. Windows programming: "Programming Windows" by Charles Petzold - I found it to explain the very fundamentals of windows programming. One must start with this, really. "Programming Visual C++" by David Kruglinski - A good book. "Windows via C/C++" by Jeffrey Richter and Chrisopher Nassare, and "Windows Internals" by Mark Russinovich. Both of these books explains the nuts and bolts of several aspects of Windows operating system in great detail. IMHO, these two are must have references if you really want to know how things work internally in Windows. [Added] Not related to MFC, but The Timeless way of building[^] is an excellent book.
It is a crappy thing, but it's life -^ Carlo Pallini
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
"Programming Windows with MFC"
Agree
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
"Programming Windows" by Charles Petzold
Maybe I heard too much good about that book before I actually read it so I set my expectations too high, but when I did read it I was pretty dissapointed.
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
Windows via C/C++" by Jeffrey Richter and Chrisopher Nassare, and "Windows Internals" by Mark Russinovich
Very good ones - especially the former.
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Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
"Programming Windows with MFC"
Agree
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
"Programming Windows" by Charles Petzold
Maybe I heard too much good about that book before I actually read it so I set my expectations too high, but when I did read it I was pretty dissapointed.
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
Windows via C/C++" by Jeffrey Richter and Chrisopher Nassare, and "Windows Internals" by Mark Russinovich
Very good ones - especially the former.
Nemanja Trifunovic wrote:
Maybe I heard too much good about that book before I actually read it so I set my expectations too high, but when I did read it I was pretty dissapointed.
It could be that you already knew most of the (or all of the) things that the book had to explain. That could be another possibility. In my case, I was a complete rookie as far as Windows programming was concerned. I just saw the book casually in the company library and started reading it. I felt that it was all that I needed to start with Windows programming. :)
It is a crappy thing, but it's life -^ Carlo Pallini
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Dear reader, I really got a lot out of codeproject. Codeproject is invaluable. For a long time now I want to contribute, but nothing really good came in my mind. So I want to present my top-favorite list of books here that influenced me most heavily as a software-professional. I hope this list is usfull also for others. If you have your top-favorite book, please reply and I will update this list. Also I kindly ask you to provide me some text which should be attached to the books. Attention: Sorry, I didn't expect such an overwhelming number of responses. Now I have a problem: How to manage this thread ! ! ! I'm not able to to it in a reasonable way via "tagging" some text. Any ideas? Can I upload some document here?
Architecture
Rank 1: J. Lakos: Large scale C++ design
By far the best book on SW I've ever read (even of much more value for me then the most prominent one, E. Gamma, see below) This book is on C++, yes, but the techniques provided here hold for any language. It covers design and architecture at any scale. Did you have the same experience as I did? I applied the rules of OO heavily, I applied patterns extensively, but my SW was hardly maintainable, testable, understandable. I did not understand why, until I read this book. Now I'm can write SW at any scale in less time which is testable from the beginning. What are the reasons? Let me say, there are two "secretes" which are addressed in this book: The first is "physical design" and the second is "decoupling methods". Detailed very thoroughly with lots of examples (in C++) Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 1 Good: 0 Medium: 0
Rank 2: E. Gamma, et all: Design Patterns
Nothing more to say. Nobody can invent all. Whithout the knowledge presented in this book in your bag you cannot say you are a Software-Developer/-Architect. Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 1 Very Good: 0 Medium: 0
Programming Languages
Rank 1: S. Meyers, Effective C++, two Volumes
Once you mastered the basics of C++. Memorize the roughly 70 topics of these two books and you are prepared for almost any szenario. The techniques inside are a must for any serious C++ programmer. Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 0 Very Good: 1 Medium: 0
Rank 2: S. Meyers, Effective STL
You want get
On my bookshelf: Beautiful Architecture, 1st Edition By Diomidis Spinellis; Georgios Gousios If your feeling unmodivated this will get you excited about our industry again. The other titles in the "Beautiful" series are well worth reading also. Core Web Programming By Marty Hall; Larry Brown Out of date now but one of my favorites back in the day The Art of SQL By: Stephane Faroult; Peter Robson Database tech might be out of scope for this thread but regardless Art of SQL is a masterpiece (database architect as Napoleon!)
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Dear reader, I really got a lot out of codeproject. Codeproject is invaluable. For a long time now I want to contribute, but nothing really good came in my mind. So I want to present my top-favorite list of books here that influenced me most heavily as a software-professional. I hope this list is usfull also for others. If you have your top-favorite book, please reply and I will update this list. Also I kindly ask you to provide me some text which should be attached to the books. Attention: Sorry, I didn't expect such an overwhelming number of responses. Now I have a problem: How to manage this thread ! ! ! I'm not able to to it in a reasonable way via "tagging" some text. Any ideas? Can I upload some document here?
Architecture
Rank 1: J. Lakos: Large scale C++ design
By far the best book on SW I've ever read (even of much more value for me then the most prominent one, E. Gamma, see below) This book is on C++, yes, but the techniques provided here hold for any language. It covers design and architecture at any scale. Did you have the same experience as I did? I applied the rules of OO heavily, I applied patterns extensively, but my SW was hardly maintainable, testable, understandable. I did not understand why, until I read this book. Now I'm can write SW at any scale in less time which is testable from the beginning. What are the reasons? Let me say, there are two "secretes" which are addressed in this book: The first is "physical design" and the second is "decoupling methods". Detailed very thoroughly with lots of examples (in C++) Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 1 Good: 0 Medium: 0
Rank 2: E. Gamma, et all: Design Patterns
Nothing more to say. Nobody can invent all. Whithout the knowledge presented in this book in your bag you cannot say you are a Software-Developer/-Architect. Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 1 Very Good: 0 Medium: 0
Programming Languages
Rank 1: S. Meyers, Effective C++, two Volumes
Once you mastered the basics of C++. Memorize the roughly 70 topics of these two books and you are prepared for almost any szenario. The techniques inside are a must for any serious C++ programmer. Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 0 Very Good: 1 Medium: 0
Rank 2: S. Meyers, Effective STL
You want get
since i am just an amateur in this coding world i can not add on much but what i hv studied so far i will definitely go for 'the complete Reference Java' Herbert Schildt. Every thing is written so nicely that a dumb like me can understand what is it about :-D
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Dear reader, I really got a lot out of codeproject. Codeproject is invaluable. For a long time now I want to contribute, but nothing really good came in my mind. So I want to present my top-favorite list of books here that influenced me most heavily as a software-professional. I hope this list is usfull also for others. If you have your top-favorite book, please reply and I will update this list. Also I kindly ask you to provide me some text which should be attached to the books. Attention: Sorry, I didn't expect such an overwhelming number of responses. Now I have a problem: How to manage this thread ! ! ! I'm not able to to it in a reasonable way via "tagging" some text. Any ideas? Can I upload some document here?
Architecture
Rank 1: J. Lakos: Large scale C++ design
By far the best book on SW I've ever read (even of much more value for me then the most prominent one, E. Gamma, see below) This book is on C++, yes, but the techniques provided here hold for any language. It covers design and architecture at any scale. Did you have the same experience as I did? I applied the rules of OO heavily, I applied patterns extensively, but my SW was hardly maintainable, testable, understandable. I did not understand why, until I read this book. Now I'm can write SW at any scale in less time which is testable from the beginning. What are the reasons? Let me say, there are two "secretes" which are addressed in this book: The first is "physical design" and the second is "decoupling methods". Detailed very thoroughly with lots of examples (in C++) Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 1 Good: 0 Medium: 0
Rank 2: E. Gamma, et all: Design Patterns
Nothing more to say. Nobody can invent all. Whithout the knowledge presented in this book in your bag you cannot say you are a Software-Developer/-Architect. Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 1 Very Good: 0 Medium: 0
Programming Languages
Rank 1: S. Meyers, Effective C++, two Volumes
Once you mastered the basics of C++. Memorize the roughly 70 topics of these two books and you are prepared for almost any szenario. The techniques inside are a must for any serious C++ programmer. Votes (Total: 1) Nothing comparable: 0 Very Good: 1 Medium: 0
Rank 2: S. Meyers, Effective STL
You want get
LaMothe's
Tricks of the Game Programming Guruschanged my life. Might have just been the right book at the right time, though... Lee Holmes'Powershell Cookbook, andIron Python in Actionby Foord & Muirhead are probably my two favorite reads of the last year or two, and the languages are a blast to write in. As far as truly great works of programming knowledge... What about Kernighan'sThe C Programming Language? I think that little white book with the big blue "C" was on a lot of people's bookshelves. Like Strunk & White's Elements of Style, but for code... -Phil