Exceptionally explained books
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I'm searching for "exceptionally explained" books regarding whatever topic on computer science (programming in a language, a specific technology or algorithms it doesn't matter, everything can be useful). To bring an example of what I consider a well-explained book, I read "CUDA by Example" some time ago and I was impressed by how the author explains every concept clearly by starting from scratch (it even explain basic math to make sure the reader is able to understand the concepts) and by using redundancy (i.e. no mathematical notations.. they're elegant they're smart but every time you encounter a mathematical formula you need to think over it for a while, in the book I quoted everything is explained in "plain english" and it's readable like a narrative book) Do you happen to know any of such books (obviously a subjective matter)? I mean books you consider "masterfully explained"
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I'm searching for "exceptionally explained" books regarding whatever topic on computer science (programming in a language, a specific technology or algorithms it doesn't matter, everything can be useful). To bring an example of what I consider a well-explained book, I read "CUDA by Example" some time ago and I was impressed by how the author explains every concept clearly by starting from scratch (it even explain basic math to make sure the reader is able to understand the concepts) and by using redundancy (i.e. no mathematical notations.. they're elegant they're smart but every time you encounter a mathematical formula you need to think over it for a while, in the book I quoted everything is explained in "plain english" and it's readable like a narrative book) Do you happen to know any of such books (obviously a subjective matter)? I mean books you consider "masterfully explained"
Ooh, that's a tough one. I would have to go (in no particular order with): The Graphics Gems series[^] The Kernighan and Ritchie C book. Code Complete. Inside ATL (I lived and breathed this book when it came out). Don Box's Essential COM and Effective COM. WPF Unleashed. Windows Phone 7.5 Unleashed (by Code Project author and all round great guy Dan Vaughan). And far too many other great books. I've been lucky, over the years, to read some truly fantastic computer books by amazing authors. I apologise to them for not mentioning them here.
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Any of the 'for dummies' books. Also the '50 Shades' books seemed to go deep in explanation.
TPFKAPB wrote:
Also the '50 Shades' books seemed to go deep in explanation.
From what I understand, they certainly go deep into something Not sure it's "explanation" though... :-O
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I'm searching for "exceptionally explained" books regarding whatever topic on computer science (programming in a language, a specific technology or algorithms it doesn't matter, everything can be useful). To bring an example of what I consider a well-explained book, I read "CUDA by Example" some time ago and I was impressed by how the author explains every concept clearly by starting from scratch (it even explain basic math to make sure the reader is able to understand the concepts) and by using redundancy (i.e. no mathematical notations.. they're elegant they're smart but every time you encounter a mathematical formula you need to think over it for a while, in the book I quoted everything is explained in "plain english" and it's readable like a narrative book) Do you happen to know any of such books (obviously a subjective matter)? I mean books you consider "masterfully explained"
I found that the "Head First" books by O'Reilly are very good at explaining the topic they cover in detail. For example, here is one of the ones I've read: http://headfirstlabs.com/books/hfooad/[^] They have a number of books in this series, and each one is written with learning in mind, not just dissemination of content.
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I found that the "Head First" books by O'Reilly are very good at explaining the topic they cover in detail. For example, here is one of the ones I've read: http://headfirstlabs.com/books/hfooad/[^] They have a number of books in this series, and each one is written with learning in mind, not just dissemination of content.
I find them a bit annoying to read with all the characters, sketches and "comic book" feeling. I think this is at one side, at the opposite one we have calculus III books which are just formalism (and too bad they require a considerable amount of effort to understand every concept explained there)
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I'm searching for "exceptionally explained" books regarding whatever topic on computer science (programming in a language, a specific technology or algorithms it doesn't matter, everything can be useful). To bring an example of what I consider a well-explained book, I read "CUDA by Example" some time ago and I was impressed by how the author explains every concept clearly by starting from scratch (it even explain basic math to make sure the reader is able to understand the concepts) and by using redundancy (i.e. no mathematical notations.. they're elegant they're smart but every time you encounter a mathematical formula you need to think over it for a while, in the book I quoted everything is explained in "plain english" and it's readable like a narrative book) Do you happen to know any of such books (obviously a subjective matter)? I mean books you consider "masterfully explained"
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I'm searching for "exceptionally explained" books regarding whatever topic on computer science (programming in a language, a specific technology or algorithms it doesn't matter, everything can be useful). To bring an example of what I consider a well-explained book, I read "CUDA by Example" some time ago and I was impressed by how the author explains every concept clearly by starting from scratch (it even explain basic math to make sure the reader is able to understand the concepts) and by using redundancy (i.e. no mathematical notations.. they're elegant they're smart but every time you encounter a mathematical formula you need to think over it for a while, in the book I quoted everything is explained in "plain english" and it's readable like a narrative book) Do you happen to know any of such books (obviously a subjective matter)? I mean books you consider "masterfully explained"
"Coming soon"
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I find them a bit annoying to read with all the characters, sketches and "comic book" feeling. I think this is at one side, at the opposite one we have calculus III books which are just formalism (and too bad they require a considerable amount of effort to understand every concept explained there)
I can understand that. I do think they can go too far in the drawings, etc. but to me that is more of an minor gripe because they keep bringing me back to the content in a different way. The constant review and building on what was already learned solidifies my understanding in a way that a "cover it once and you will know it" textbook just doesn't do. The other part of this is how you learn. One of the things I have found is that I learn best when someone shows me how to do it rather than reading about it. That is why I love Pluralsight. They show me how to do various things in a manner that is easy for me to comprehend and retain.
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I'm searching for "exceptionally explained" books regarding whatever topic on computer science (programming in a language, a specific technology or algorithms it doesn't matter, everything can be useful). To bring an example of what I consider a well-explained book, I read "CUDA by Example" some time ago and I was impressed by how the author explains every concept clearly by starting from scratch (it even explain basic math to make sure the reader is able to understand the concepts) and by using redundancy (i.e. no mathematical notations.. they're elegant they're smart but every time you encounter a mathematical formula you need to think over it for a while, in the book I quoted everything is explained in "plain english" and it's readable like a narrative book) Do you happen to know any of such books (obviously a subjective matter)? I mean books you consider "masterfully explained"
'C for Dummies' was a brilliant one that got me started on programming, the light and informal style helped me get around an initially very complicated set of topics, and there's plenty of detail to get at too. For more advanced work, Exceptional C++ was written in such a way that I learnt a lot more from the general concepts explained than the code itself.
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Any of the 'for dummies' books. Also the '50 Shades' books seemed to go deep in explanation.
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:laugh: :laugh: I've done some review work on Manning books, and they've been quite good. I'm not surprised that they tapped Nish as an author... :)
Will Rogers never met me.
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I'm searching for "exceptionally explained" books regarding whatever topic on computer science (programming in a language, a specific technology or algorithms it doesn't matter, everything can be useful). To bring an example of what I consider a well-explained book, I read "CUDA by Example" some time ago and I was impressed by how the author explains every concept clearly by starting from scratch (it even explain basic math to make sure the reader is able to understand the concepts) and by using redundancy (i.e. no mathematical notations.. they're elegant they're smart but every time you encounter a mathematical formula you need to think over it for a while, in the book I quoted everything is explained in "plain english" and it's readable like a narrative book) Do you happen to know any of such books (obviously a subjective matter)? I mean books you consider "masterfully explained"
Autobiography of a flea[^] explains things pretty good?
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'C for Dummies' was a brilliant one that got me started on programming, the light and informal style helped me get around an initially very complicated set of topics, and there's plenty of detail to get at too. For more advanced work, Exceptional C++ was written in such a way that I learnt a lot more from the general concepts explained than the code itself.
My Blog: www.dwmkerr.com My Charity: Children's Homes Nepal
Dan Gookins C for Dummies the summer before uni I was well in advance of most people on the course, the pointers stuff was better than the "proper" text for Embedded Micro's the second year as well! Still trying to get my head around C++, no time these days! I did find the Who's Afraid of C++ quite good though. Glenn
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Doesn't matter, unless you have it signed Nish will squeal on ya like a pig in a barn with the Gatlin Brothers.
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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I'm searching for "exceptionally explained" books regarding whatever topic on computer science (programming in a language, a specific technology or algorithms it doesn't matter, everything can be useful). To bring an example of what I consider a well-explained book, I read "CUDA by Example" some time ago and I was impressed by how the author explains every concept clearly by starting from scratch (it even explain basic math to make sure the reader is able to understand the concepts) and by using redundancy (i.e. no mathematical notations.. they're elegant they're smart but every time you encounter a mathematical formula you need to think over it for a while, in the book I quoted everything is explained in "plain english" and it's readable like a narrative book) Do you happen to know any of such books (obviously a subjective matter)? I mean books you consider "masterfully explained"
Here are some titles to think about: For specific languages, et cetera: Essential C# by Mark Michaelis. Very well explained, at least C# 3.0 version was. Pro ASP.NET 4 in C# 2010 by Matthew MacDonald. Very dry, but easy to follow. Platform specific stuff: Sharepoint 2010 Development with Visual Studio by Eric Carter. Very well explained. Pre-requisite: You need to have Visual Studio and at least Sharepoint 2010 Foundation loaded on your development machine. Android Apps with Eclipse by Onur Cinar (or something like that). It's okay, not too bad to follow. However, particularly fun, because most, if not all of the tools are open-source. General computer science and theory: The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth. Read some of this. Well explained. Some day would like to read all of the volumes. Concrete Mathematics by . The audience needs to have some background in continuous systems (e.g., calculus) and discrete mathematics (e.g., combinatorics, et cetera) Science philosophy: The Structure of Science Revolutions by Thomas Khun. Just learned about this one yesterday. Can't wait to get my hands on it. Computer science related novels: The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder. Dated (1981) but fun reading The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll. Dated (1989) but fun reading.
Whatever you are, be a good one. -- Abraham Lincoln
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I'm searching for "exceptionally explained" books regarding whatever topic on computer science (programming in a language, a specific technology or algorithms it doesn't matter, everything can be useful). To bring an example of what I consider a well-explained book, I read "CUDA by Example" some time ago and I was impressed by how the author explains every concept clearly by starting from scratch (it even explain basic math to make sure the reader is able to understand the concepts) and by using redundancy (i.e. no mathematical notations.. they're elegant they're smart but every time you encounter a mathematical formula you need to think over it for a while, in the book I quoted everything is explained in "plain english" and it's readable like a narrative book) Do you happen to know any of such books (obviously a subjective matter)? I mean books you consider "masterfully explained"
I find the "Learning
<foo>" series from O'Reilly Press to be very well written. These are typically "read once" books to get you boostrapped when using a new (to you) technology. A similar series (but one that caters to a less technical audience) is the "Missing Manual" series, also from O'Reilly. /raviMy new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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I'm searching for "exceptionally explained" books regarding whatever topic on computer science (programming in a language, a specific technology or algorithms it doesn't matter, everything can be useful). To bring an example of what I consider a well-explained book, I read "CUDA by Example" some time ago and I was impressed by how the author explains every concept clearly by starting from scratch (it even explain basic math to make sure the reader is able to understand the concepts) and by using redundancy (i.e. no mathematical notations.. they're elegant they're smart but every time you encounter a mathematical formula you need to think over it for a while, in the book I quoted everything is explained in "plain english" and it's readable like a narrative book) Do you happen to know any of such books (obviously a subjective matter)? I mean books you consider "masterfully explained"
Edward Keningham wrote:
Do you happen to know any of such books (obviously a subjective matter)? I mean books you consider "masterfully explained"
I suspect that depends on knowledge level. I like the following Algorithms by Sedgewick. Patterns by Gof (GoF = Gang of Four) "Dragon Book" by Aho That last isn't necessarily easy to read but is considered the bible on compiler theory so it is what it is.
