I'm interested in books or other resources that can help teach computer science fundamentals and theory for people (me...) who have a strong development background but no formal education.
Since so many CS professors make their course materials available for free, you should take advantage of that and piggyback off of multiple sources. I often search for "[Concept] lecture notes", choose one of the links (based on reputability, amount of math, etc.), and check that the other sources say the same thing. You'd be surprised the extent which an independent explanation can fill in the gaps of your understanding.
CS theory is fairly modular, so there's no need to stick to a single set of course notes or textbook for different topics -- just find whoever does it best for a given topic.
CS is hard for everyone. There are no easy parts. Even for Knuth who has been writing The Art of Computer Programming for almost sixty years. It was started when everybody was self taught. It is still for self-teaching. Even for people with degrees. Even if that degree is a PhD.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying "don't use anything else." But TAoCP is the backbone of everything else. It's all the messy details and the messy details matter a big part of the time. It is good to be fearful of the messy details. It is bad to be afraid of them.
> But TAoCP is the backbone of everything else. It's all the messy details and the messy details matter a big part of the time.
Can you show me an example of the messy detail that taocp discusses, which other textbooks skip and where this messy detail matters in a big way. Since you have been reading this book for 30 years - you should have at least one example.
As an aside, taocp is not the backbone of "everything else".
Taocp is absolutely not a good introduction to computer science and is also not advisable as an undergraduate algorithms book.
It is only partially complete and does not touch concurrency, parallelism, complexity theory or the theory of computation. It is more of a comprehensive reference work for a small selection of topics.
The fact that you think taocp is the backbone for everything else tells me that you have not actually read the book, just like everyone else.
My personal belief if that there really are no rules to how you go about learning a given subject. If reading isn't your preferred method of learning, find an alternative source, on the same subject, in your medium of choice.
Update: by simply checking the video and their site, I can say this book has REAL values, I will definitely read it one day, this is a really really must have book, wow, amazing find for myself today lol, thank you guys for sharing this!
dragon96|5 years ago
CS theory is fairly modular, so there's no need to stick to a single set of course notes or textbook for different topics -- just find whoever does it best for a given topic.
Also do lots of problems.
hookedonwinter|5 years ago
brudgers|5 years ago
CS is hard for everyone. There are no easy parts. Even for Knuth who has been writing The Art of Computer Programming for almost sixty years. It was started when everybody was self taught. It is still for self-teaching. Even for people with degrees. Even if that degree is a PhD.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying "don't use anything else." But TAoCP is the backbone of everything else. It's all the messy details and the messy details matter a big part of the time. It is good to be fearful of the messy details. It is bad to be afraid of them.
Good luck.
random314|5 years ago
Can you show me an example of the messy detail that taocp discusses, which other textbooks skip and where this messy detail matters in a big way. Since you have been reading this book for 30 years - you should have at least one example.
As an aside, taocp is not the backbone of "everything else".
random314|5 years ago
It is only partially complete and does not touch concurrency, parallelism, complexity theory or the theory of computation. It is more of a comprehensive reference work for a small selection of topics.
The fact that you think taocp is the backbone for everything else tells me that you have not actually read the book, just like everyone else.
hejja|5 years ago
rxsel|5 years ago
My personal belief if that there really are no rules to how you go about learning a given subject. If reading isn't your preferred method of learning, find an alternative source, on the same subject, in your medium of choice.
memexy|5 years ago
yesenadam|5 years ago
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
gcoppini|5 years ago
DON'T HAVE A CS DEGREE AND FEEL LIKE YOU SHOULD? Hey I don't have one either and I always managed to get the job done anyway... then again...
https://bigmachine.io/products/the-imposters-handbook/
terrycody|5 years ago
Update: by simply checking the video and their site, I can say this book has REAL values, I will definitely read it one day, this is a really really must have book, wow, amazing find for myself today lol, thank you guys for sharing this!
hackermailman|5 years ago
joyj2nd|5 years ago
millerm|5 years ago
travmatt|5 years ago