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Recommended Reading List for Developers [pdf]

161 points| nkurz | 12 years ago |noggin.intel.com | reply

60 comments

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[+] eliasmacpherson|12 years ago|reply
I know people say this all the time, but I nearly did not click the link, because it said scribd.

It turns out it's a pdf served at this address, along with another link to scribd in the brackets:

https://noggin.intel.com/sites/default/files/Intel-Recommend...

"I think the title should read [pdf] and [scribd]"

[+] noselasd|12 years ago|reply
I'll bite - what's wrong with scribd ? (besides the fact you might "stumble" upon documents you're not supposed to read)
[+] Cederfjard|12 years ago|reply
Isn't this done automatically with all submitted PDFs? At least I seem to recall that there is some integration between HN and Scribd (YC '06 incidentally, which might explain it), but there's nothing in the FAQ or anything.
[+] perfunctory|12 years ago|reply
It reminds me of the blog post: "A Complete Understanding is No Longer Possible" [http://prog21.dadgum.com/129.html]
[+] chrissmithuk|12 years ago|reply
This is why I still like old Unix systems (early BSD/v7 etc). It is possible to get a complete understanding of the system in a relatively short amount of time and they're still pretty productive.

xv6 reflects this from an educational perspective: http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2012/xv6.html

[+] lowglow|12 years ago|reply
I think we now have to settle for "a pretty good understanding of a lot of things, just never the things you immediately need."
[+] nashequilibrium|12 years ago|reply
Reading the link felt like watching a movie that gets interesting and stops midway. I wanted a bit more, i hope the author expands on the article & turns it into a longform one.
[+] polskibus|12 years ago|reply
I am slightly disappointed by the list - for example C# threading is a book from 2003 and .NET has evolved a lot since then (Task, async, etc.). There are other, more recent books that represent current state of art in C#. Perhaps the reading list shouldnt state the year for which it is intended for?
[+] radicalbyte|12 years ago|reply
Concurrent Programming on Windows by J. Duffy is a great place to start, followed by the latests edition of In Depth or Nutshell..
[+] minikomi|12 years ago|reply
What's everyone's recommended readings? I'm halfway through thinking forth at the moment and want to keep the ball rolling!
[+] a3n|12 years ago|reply
I'm reading Programming in Scala. The free online, out of date but good enough to help you decide to go further or not first edition. I have the scala repl open alongside. Never programmed in Scala, don't know that I ever will, but it's interesting. http://www.artima.com/pins1ed/

I'm also re-reading Niven's Ringworld series, as a bridgehead to the rest of his Known Space material; I've never gone beyond Ringworld before. I'm in the third book at the moment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Known_Space

[+] mindcrime|12 years ago|reply
What's everyone's recommended readings? I'm halfway through thinking forth at the moment and want to keep the ball rolling!

Not so much hardcore technology stuff, but here's a reading list I put together a while back, aimed at IT executives, CIOs, etc.

http://fogbeam.blogspot.com/2013/05/10-essential-reads-for-c...

http://fogbeam.blogspot.com/2013/05/essential-reading-for-it...

Not on that list (I had not read it at the time), but one I'd highly recommend is Eric Beinhocker's The Origin of Wealth. http://www.amazon.com/The-Origin-Wealth-Remaking-Economics/d...

[+] dded|12 years ago|reply
For a beginner's introduction to C++, I really liked Koenig and Moo's Accelerated C++. It's from 2000, I don't know if there's a newer edition.

Speaking of Koenig, I also like his C Traps and Pitfalls (1989).

Sedgewick's Algorithms is excellent. My copy is 30 years old, but I know there are newer editions. I believe it's multi-volume now.

I liked two by Richard Stevens: Unix Network Programming and Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment.

And I like Bentley's Programming Pearls.

These are all old, but I'm old. :-)

Addenda: I've really liked everything I've read by Brian Kernighan. K&R is my favorite programming book bar none.

Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences by Bevington and Robinson. Very approachable introduction.

div grad curl and all that by Schey. Read it before taking Fields, instead of after like I did.

[+] benwen|12 years ago|reply
Looks like C++ got a bit of an upgrade in the canon...

The Programming Language Bjarne Stroustrup

ISBN 9780321563842

[+] pjmlp|12 years ago|reply
Besides the update on the official book, Bjarne has written a new one that teaches how to write modern and secure C++, instead of using the unsafe C underpinnings.

A Tour of C++

ISBN-10: 0321958314 ISBN-13: 978-0321958310

http://www.stroustrup.com/Tour.html

[+] blt|12 years ago|reply
I laughed. Glad somebody else noticed that.
[+] chid|12 years ago|reply
Are there any other recommended reading lists? (For example for web development/windows programming etc.)
[+] a3n|12 years ago|reply
I am certain you will find any number of lists, narrow and broad, on Reddit, GoodReads, LibraryThing, O'Reilly (blog posts), Amazon listmania, StackOverflow, HN etc.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-content-search/results/re...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=reddit+web+programming

Some stackoverflow tags have a really good info tab, e.g. http://stackoverflow.com/tags/scala/info

Others, not so much: http://stackoverflow.com/tags/web/info

Hacker News: https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=%22reading+lis...

[+] prav|12 years ago|reply
There are some good books in there for embedded/firmware engineers. "Making Embedded Systems: Design Patterns for Great Software" and "Multi-Core Embedded Systems" look interesting.
[+] dded|12 years ago|reply
Hennessy and Patterson is in its 5th edition. That makes me feel old. I can only vouch for earlier editions, but this is a good book.

(I'm only familiar with the 1st and 2nd editions of this book, and of the two, I greatly prefer the 1st. The 2nd has a lot more information (and of course is somewhat more up-to-date), but that only seems to hide the more significant information. More complete is not always better.)

[+] jdreaver|12 years ago|reply
On page 4: > The Programming Language, 4th Edition > Bjarne Stroustrup

I guess they love C++ if it's the programming language!

[+] ACow_Adonis|12 years ago|reply
Am I to presume that this list carries as much validity as most other "recommended reading" lists?

/which is to say, books which most working in the field didn't read to get into the field, don't read during the actual job, and probably aren't going to read except maybe as a reference chapter here or there?

[+] lostcolony|12 years ago|reply
Yes. I looked at the software dev list; I only skimmed it, but none that I saw were books I read, or books I'd care to read, despite being in the field for 4 years now, and being a fairly passionate learner in terms of new techniques, technologies, languages, and methodologies.

EDIT: Correction; I see Code Complete.

[+] lostcolony|12 years ago|reply
I assume these are intended specifically for Intel employees (i.e., targeting technologies and areas they have internally), rather than for any positions located elsewhere. And there, possibly meant more as a reference than a teaching tool.
[+] jdimov|12 years ago|reply
A surprisingly low-quality, diluted, conformist list of mostly boring and outdated books. You can't expect much innovation to come from a team reading this. I scanned through the list 3 times looking for something of value, but nothing caught my eye. Disappointed by Intel.
[+] panzagl|12 years ago|reply
Sorry bro, not everyone is beasting out JavaScript.
[+] zxcdw|12 years ago|reply
Define low-quality, boring and outdated in this context, and provide alternatives.

I am waiting.

[+] mwfunk|12 years ago|reply
"Conformist"? Is this high school or something?
[+] deevus|12 years ago|reply
Code Complete is a great book.
[+] D4N_|12 years ago|reply
What would you recommend instead?