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Ask HN: If you would have to choose one book what would it be?

14 points by oscardelben ↗ HN
There are many wonderful programming books that I would like to read and understand. Here are some examples:

* PAIP (Paradigms of artificial intelligence programming) * SICP (I read this but didn't complete ALL the exercises) * TAOCP * Others?

The problem is that each of these books would take me months to go through, but that's ok for me because I know that the benefits are enormous.

My question is: which one would you study first? Are there any other books that I should read first? My goals with programming is to create web and desktop (mac, iphone) apps if that's relevant.

12 comments

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arethuza
I'm probably showing my age, but to me the all time classics are:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language_%28b...

oscardelben
I've read the mythical man month already. I've not yet read the C programming language though.
DrJokepu
The sooner you learn C the better. It (along with assembly) really helps to develop an understanding of how computers really work on a low level, which will be important later when you will try to write efficient code in high level or functional programming languages.

It's always important to understand what's going on under the hood, even if you don't need to open it.

auxbuss
Fowler's, Working Effectively With Legacy Code.

It'll teach you how to write maintainable code.

jefffoster
Minor correction, you mean Feathers. It's a great book!
againanewacount
Don't go down this road. Do you want to be knee-deep in legacy code? Better go out and build your own stuff. Forget about the TAOCP, it really is overrated. Cormen is more recent and to the point. But don't read it cover to cover, but consult it when you need it. Furthermore, read the Dragon book (first one is enough) on compiler construction. Finally, learn to program in Standard ML, for example via the book by Larry Paulson (ML for the working programmer). That should be enough for the basic theory. If you got the above stuff under your belt, then this will take you pretty far. For the rest, rely on your mind and logic and feeling for elegance.
michael_dorfman
First of all, if SICP would take you months to go through, TAOCP will take you years-- let's not kid ourselves.

That being said: I'd definitely start with SICP, for one reason: the video lectures, available at http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-sussma...

They'll take you about 20 hours to go through, and as far as I am concerned, are the best introduction to Computer Science you can get in that short a time-frame.

rsaarelm
Given your goals, you might want start by reading books like The Pragmatic Programmer and Code Complete cover-to-cover, and taking it easier with the theory books. You want your basic software development skills to be solid before you start going into proving algorithm complexities.

Beyond that, off the top of my head the number one theory book for working programmers would be Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest and the new guy.

edw519
My goals with programming is to create web and desktop (mac, iphone) apps if that's relevant.

Then you have it backwards. You should be building, not reading.

Slow way: Read book --> apply what you learn

Fast way: Write code --> Get stuck --> Find a book

I know this is not intuitive, but trust me, it works much better. We all love the feeling of cracking open a fresh new book (or pdf) and bathing ourselves in all this newfound knowledge. But this method is not very efficient. Much of what you read you will never use and much of what you need you will never read about, no matter what the book is.

Better to pick a project and just start building it. Come up for air every once in a while and consult whatever book fills in what you need to know to build your project. True learning comes from building, not reading. This method takes the best of both worlds and gets you to your stated goal much quicker.

oscardelben
Thank you, that does make sense to me indeed. I'll stick with your advice.
buro9
Programming Pearls by Jon Bentley ( http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/pearls/ ) is a pretty easy read and introduces the reader to algorithms quite nicely. There's a few important takeaways from it in how to approach problems, and it's almost universally applicable (even though almost everyone reels at being presented with Visual Basic in the example code).
hotmind
I've never read a book that made programming as simple as "Absolute Beginner's Guide to C".

Although this may not be down your alley, it's perfect for anyone new to programming in general.