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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

    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

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    jhaga
    wrote on last edited by
    #57

    C# and the .NET Platform by Andrew Troelsen

    jhaga

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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

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      Andrew Leeder
      wrote on last edited by
      #58

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

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      • 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

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        • P PIEBALDconsult

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

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          Martin ISDN
          wrote on last edited by
          #60

          the best

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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

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            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

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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

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              obermd
              wrote on last edited by
              #62

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

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              • A Andrew Leeder

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

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                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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                • H honey the codewitch

                  The dragon book is in the running for me but minus points because it could have been written to be far more accessible.

                  Real programmers use butterflies

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                  Member 9311455
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #64

                  K&R from decades gone by.

                  “If only you could see what I’ve seen with your eyes”

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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

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                    Dan Neely
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #65

                    Back in the office I have a half dozenish of them. Several are stacked under the non-height adjustable monitor I left there back in march (I liked my spare monitor at home better), and the other half were used to put my laptop screen at a similar height to my monitors (at home I'm using a 6-pack of Coke :-\ ).

                    Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt

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                    • J Jon McKee

                      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 Offline
                      Sander RosselS Offline
                      Sander Rossel
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #66

                      I read Leslie Nielsen because I didn't expect to see any other Leslie on CP. Had to read it twice :laugh:

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

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                      • P PIEBALDconsult

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

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                        David Carta
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #67

                        I found Code to be amazing for the first half of the book, but it lost clarity for me in the second half. It just seemed that he lost the desire to make his more advanced information approachable. "Qulatiy is Job #1"

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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

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                          gervacleto
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #68

                          The C Programming Language by Kernigan and Ritchie I read this book in mid 80's and it was inspirational to me. At that time I had an Amiga, with Aztec C Compiler and used this book to travel through the mechanics of programming. Very well explained and not too much technical (… sure?). But for me, this book was a trap, because C is in itself a very hard matter to learn well and those guys put it as a if it was like a stroll on a farm and not like climbing the Everest.

                          The day you do not learn something new, is a wasted day!

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                          • R RDM Jr

                            For me, it's a toss up between Kernighan & Ritchie's The C Programming Language, and Aho, Kernighan and Weinberger's The AWK Programming Language. Other books I remember from college days include Fortran IV With Watfor and Watfiv, and a two book set of Shelley & Cashman on Cobol. Those are all still around, somewhere in the attic, along with a lot of seriously outdated hardware. I know there's a 300 baud modem with the acoustic couplers for a standard Bell desk phone's handset up there, and a couple of cases of 80-column cards.

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                            David Carta
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #69

                            Plus one for this choice: Kernighan & Ritchie's The C Programming Language I taught myself C by reading and re-reading the second edition and everything was approachable, right through the end. "Qulatiy is Job #1"

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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

                              H Offline
                              H Offline
                              henrin
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #70

                              Yes I do: Méthodes de programmation (2nd ed. Eyrolles 1986) by Bertrand Meyer (who created the Eiffel programming language and the idea of design by contract), and Claude Baudoin

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                              • Kornfeld Eliyahu PeterK Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter

                                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

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                                Lost User
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #71

                                For nostalgia, I still have IBM's Guide to Operations, and Technical Reference, for the PC; which included a source listing of the BIOS, printer codes, memory addresses, etc. Now you just go and buy a chip.

                                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

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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

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                                  sasadler
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #72

                                  I haven't touched it in a few decades but Starting Forth by Leo Brodie. And yes I am old!

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                                  • S sasadler

                                    I haven't touched it in a few decades but Starting Forth by Leo Brodie. And yes I am old!

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                                    honey the codewitch
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #73

                                    Wow, Forth. There's a blast from the past! Unlike Cobol, I don't usually hear a lot about old software written in Forth. I can't remember the last time I've even heard it. :)

                                    Real programmers use butterflies

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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
                                      Lucas Vogel
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #74

                                      Dan Appleman's Developing COM/ActiveX Components With Visual Basic 6. That book launched my career and did more to help me understand COM/ActiveX than anything else at the time. It didn't help me so much with C++ when I started learning it, but it helped me understand what I was trying to do with it at the time by quite a bit.

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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

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                                        M Offline
                                        Member_5893260
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #75

                                        "A Discipline of Programming" by Dijkstra. He says in just a few pages what Knuth takes five volumes to express. https://www.amazon.com/Discipline-Programming-Edsger-W-Dijkstra/dp/013215871X/[^]

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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

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                                          C Offline
                                          Choroid
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #76

                                          The Waite Group's Visual Basic 6 Interactive Course Published by SAMS in 1998 I am Old and this was my First Book and Language Books are not written like this today Why ? The Cost and you can make more money with a 100 YouTube Videos

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