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  3. Do you have a favorite programming book and if so, what is it?

Do you have a favorite programming book and if so, what is it?

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  • H honey the codewitch

    I like my code dirty like a martini. :laugh: kidding of course

    Real programmers use butterflies

    Sander RosselS Offline
    Sander RosselS Offline
    Sander Rossel
    wrote on last edited by
    #44

    You say you're kidding, but you also use single-line if-statements. Those are mutually exclusive :D

    Best, Sander Azure Serverless Succinctly Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

    H 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • H honey the codewitch

      Mine would be Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo. It's mercifully short, and it teaches C++ the Right Way(TM) - the way Bjarne intended it to be used, and how it works best. It's suitable for beginners to C++ and in fact I recommend it for teaching C++, and it's the only one I'll recommend for that.

      Real programmers use butterflies

      J Offline
      J Offline
      Jon McKee
      wrote on last edited by
      #45

      I was going to say Clean Code by Robert C. Martin but Sander beat me to it, so I'm gonna go with [Specifying Systems by Leslie Lamport](https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/tla/book.html). Not only is it a really interesting book but it's also pretty good for brushing up on discrete mathematics.

      Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

        You say you're kidding, but you also use single-line if-statements. Those are mutually exclusive :D

        Best, Sander Azure Serverless Succinctly Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

        H Offline
        H Offline
        honey the codewitch
        wrote on last edited by
        #46

        In all seriousness, I adopt a more relaxed style for my personal projects versus my professional projects. The thing is, after years of confining myself to the house style (whatever shop i'm at) working my own way is liberating. Maybe I'm a bit extreme about it. The other thing is, and maybe I shouldn't admit this here but I often am not thinking when I'm writing code. It just comes to me, and I let it. I've written some of my best code that way, so I don't fight it, but it's a bit like free association writing so it's going to reflect my underlying style preferences.

        Real programmers use butterflies

        Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • H honey the codewitch

          Mine would be Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo. It's mercifully short, and it teaches C++ the Right Way(TM) - the way Bjarne intended it to be used, and how it works best. It's suitable for beginners to C++ and in fact I recommend it for teaching C++, and it's the only one I'll recommend for that.

          Real programmers use butterflies

          A Offline
          A Offline
          Amarnath S
          wrote on last edited by
          #47

          One book I would like to add is Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction, Second Edition: McConnell, Steve[^]

          H 1 Reply Last reply
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          • H honey the codewitch

            Mine would be Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo. It's mercifully short, and it teaches C++ the Right Way(TM) - the way Bjarne intended it to be used, and how it works best. It's suitable for beginners to C++ and in fact I recommend it for teaching C++, and it's the only one I'll recommend for that.

            Real programmers use butterflies

            L Offline
            L Offline
            Lost User
            wrote on last edited by
            #48

            Algorithms, by Robert Sedgewick and Kevin Wayne

            It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it. ― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food

            1 Reply Last reply
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            • A Amarnath S

              One book I would like to add is Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction, Second Edition: McConnell, Steve[^]

              H Offline
              H Offline
              honey the codewitch
              wrote on last edited by
              #49

              I used to have that book. Steve McConnell is great!

              Real programmers use butterflies

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • H honey the codewitch

                PIEBALDconsult wrote:

                Which is the only real value of the book.

                I've gotten some mileage out of the visitor pattern but I didn't learn it from that book. In fairness though, they describe it for people that didn't already learn it, and it's one of the more useful patterns to know, IMO.

                Real programmers use butterflies

                Greg UtasG Offline
                Greg UtasG Offline
                Greg Utas
                wrote on last edited by
                #50

                That's interesting, because I don't recall using Visitor. It probably depends on your problem domains. The patterns that resonated most with me were Chain of Responsibility, Abstract Factory, and Observer, and the simpler Singleton and Flyweight. I'd already used them but now had good names for them.

                Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
                The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

                <p><a href="https://github.com/GregUtas/robust-services-core/blob/master/README.md">Robust Services Core</a>
                <em>The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.</em></p>

                H 1 Reply Last reply
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                • Greg UtasG Greg Utas

                  That's interesting, because I don't recall using Visitor. It probably depends on your problem domains. The patterns that resonated most with me were Chain of Responsibility, Abstract Factory, and Observer, and the simpler Singleton and Flyweight. I'd already used them but now had good names for them.

                  Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
                  The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

                  H Offline
                  H Offline
                  honey the codewitch
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #51

                  Yeah it really depends on what you're doing. I've just had several occasions where I basically need to query an object model, and a visitor can be a foundation of that.

                  Real programmers use butterflies

                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                    Zen and The Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance (Robert M. Pirsig)[^] And it's about as much about programming as it is about Zen Buddhism or motorcycle maintenance. But ... learn the right lessons from it, and you can cope with development (and make a start of fixing motorcycles as well).

                    "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

                    V Offline
                    V Offline
                    Vikram A Punathambekar
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #52

                    X| It's one of the few highly acclaimed books I was not able to finish. Couldn't go beyond 20 odd pages. Another is Catch 22.

                    Cheers, विक्रम "We have already been through this, I am not going to repeat myself." - fat_boy, in a global warming thread :doh:

                    1 Reply Last reply
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                    • H honey the codewitch

                      Mine would be Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo. It's mercifully short, and it teaches C++ the Right Way(TM) - the way Bjarne intended it to be used, and how it works best. It's suitable for beginners to C++ and in fact I recommend it for teaching C++, and it's the only one I'll recommend for that.

                      Real programmers use butterflies

                      J Offline
                      J Offline
                      Jacquers
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #53

                      Not a programming book, but I have a copy of A+ core hardware on my desk. It's underneath my monitor to raise it's height ;) :P

                      1 Reply Last reply
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                      • H honey the codewitch

                        Mine would be Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo. It's mercifully short, and it teaches C++ the Right Way(TM) - the way Bjarne intended it to be used, and how it works best. It's suitable for beginners to C++ and in fact I recommend it for teaching C++, and it's the only one I'll recommend for that.

                        Real programmers use butterflies

                        Kornfeld Eliyahu PeterK Offline
                        Kornfeld Eliyahu PeterK Offline
                        Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #54

                        Not that I reading it anymore, but have a special place for my copy of PC Intern - System Programming by Michael Tischer... It is about DOS so mostly irrelevant, but I've learned a lot about how to see things from that book...

                        "The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012

                        "It never ceases to amaze me that a spacecraft launched in 1977 can be fixed remotely from Earth." ― Brian Cox

                        L 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • H honey the codewitch

                          Mine would be Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo. It's mercifully short, and it teaches C++ the Right Way(TM) - the way Bjarne intended it to be used, and how it works best. It's suitable for beginners to C++ and in fact I recommend it for teaching C++, and it's the only one I'll recommend for that.

                          Real programmers use butterflies

                          S Offline
                          S Offline
                          Stepan Hakobyan
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #55

                          Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries by Krzysztof Cwalina, Jeremy Barton, Brad Abrams

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • H honey the codewitch

                            Mine would be Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo. It's mercifully short, and it teaches C++ the Right Way(TM) - the way Bjarne intended it to be used, and how it works best. It's suitable for beginners to C++ and in fact I recommend it for teaching C++, and it's the only one I'll recommend for that.

                            Real programmers use butterflies

                            M Offline
                            M Offline
                            M Vo
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #56

                            Yes. "Clean Code" by Robert C. Martin. His central point is that most of the time you READ code, so you have to write it in a way that you can read it easily. And he shows how to do this - and wrote the book in a way that you can read even the book easily.

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • H honey the codewitch

                              Mine would be Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo. It's mercifully short, and it teaches C++ the Right Way(TM) - the way Bjarne intended it to be used, and how it works best. It's suitable for beginners to C++ and in fact I recommend it for teaching C++, and it's the only one I'll recommend for that.

                              Real programmers use butterflies

                              J Offline
                              J Offline
                              jhaga
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #57

                              C# and the .NET Platform by Andrew Troelsen

                              jhaga

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • H honey the codewitch

                                Mine would be Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo. It's mercifully short, and it teaches C++ the Right Way(TM) - the way Bjarne intended it to be used, and how it works best. It's suitable for beginners to C++ and in fact I recommend it for teaching C++, and it's the only one I'll recommend for that.

                                Real programmers use butterflies

                                A Offline
                                A Offline
                                Andrew Leeder
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #58

                                'C' Programming, K & R, first edition.

                                F 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • H honey the codewitch

                                  In all seriousness, I adopt a more relaxed style for my personal projects versus my professional projects. The thing is, after years of confining myself to the house style (whatever shop i'm at) working my own way is liberating. Maybe I'm a bit extreme about it. The other thing is, and maybe I shouldn't admit this here but I often am not thinking when I'm writing code. It just comes to me, and I let it. I've written some of my best code that way, so I don't fight it, but it's a bit like free association writing so it's going to reflect my underlying style preferences.

                                  Real programmers use butterflies

                                  Sander RosselS Offline
                                  Sander RosselS Offline
                                  Sander Rossel
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #59

                                  honey the codewitch wrote:

                                  I adopt a more relaxed style for my personal projects versus my professional projects.

                                  "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." —Aristotle I couldn't even adopt a relaxed style if I wanted to. I have one style and it's as relaxed as can be. And I've used this style in multiple teams and I never had complaints. Well, no complaints on my style at least :laugh:

                                  honey the codewitch wrote:

                                  I often am not thinking when I'm writing code

                                  So consistent with your posting here? ;p But seriously, if single-line if-statements are your worst crime you're doing a pretty good job! I've seen 100+ line functions, 3000+ line classes (WinForms even), completely absurd and ridiculous database designs that weighed the whole project down, etc. In that perspective, style really isn't that important.

                                  Best, Sander Azure Serverless Succinctly Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • P PIEBALDconsult

                                    I was thinking about that just the other day. "Code" by Charles Petzold.

                                    M Offline
                                    M Offline
                                    Martin ISDN
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #60

                                    the best

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • H honey the codewitch

                                      Mine would be Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo. It's mercifully short, and it teaches C++ the Right Way(TM) - the way Bjarne intended it to be used, and how it works best. It's suitable for beginners to C++ and in fact I recommend it for teaching C++, and it's the only one I'll recommend for that.

                                      Real programmers use butterflies

                                      M Offline
                                      M Offline
                                      Martin ISDN
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #61

                                      "The C Programming Language" 1st edition 1978 by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie. it's absence of restrictions and it's generality. notable mentions "Foundations of Python Network Programming" 2004 by John Goerzen "The Principles of Object-Oriented JavaScript" 2004 by Nicholas C. Zakas

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • H honey the codewitch

                                        Mine would be Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo. It's mercifully short, and it teaches C++ the Right Way(TM) - the way Bjarne intended it to be used, and how it works best. It's suitable for beginners to C++ and in fact I recommend it for teaching C++, and it's the only one I'll recommend for that.

                                        Real programmers use butterflies

                                        O Offline
                                        O Offline
                                        obermd
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #62

                                        I'd have to go with Charles Petzold's Windows (C) Programming book.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • A Andrew Leeder

                                          'C' Programming, K & R, first edition.

                                          F Offline
                                          F Offline
                                          Forogar
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #63

                                          This was one of the first programming books I ever bought.

                                          - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

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