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Ask HN: What are the best programming books you could read in a weekend?

24 points by jon_kuperman 8y ago

I'm a big fan of books like Code Complete and SICP but they are huge and take a long time to get through. What are some books small enough to finish in a weekend that you've learned a lot from?

dreistdreist 8y ago
How fast can you read? - Clean Code - Code Complete 2 - The Pragmatic Programmer - Professional PHP - Effective Java - Domain Driven Design Distilled
sharmi 8y ago
A Tour of Go [1] (If you are a novice, you really should try writing the programs yourself. You will end up finishing it in an day or two. If you just read through, it would be just a couple of hours) The Little Schemer [2] [1] https://tour.golang.org/welcome/1 https://tour.golang.org/welcome/1 [2] https://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/0262560992 https://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/0...
amarraja 8y ago
I read Programming Elixir in a weekend(ish) including doing most of the exercises. Was quite eye-opening to the world of functional concurrency.
csnewb 8y ago
Debugging by David J. Agans. It's about 206 pages and the information is pretty high level, but it taught me to systematically debug problems instead of blindly changing random code.
t3h2mas 8y ago
- https://drboolean.gitbooks.io/mostly-adequate-guide-old/content/ https://drboolean.gitbooks.io/mostly-adequate-guide-old/cont... - https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix/read https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix/read
hackermailman 8y ago
Some of the Little Schemer books you could do in 2-3days There's a new one coming out on Dependent Types https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-typer https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-typer
atsaloli 8y ago
"Understanding Software" by Max Kanat-Alexander Book review: https://www.infoq.com/news/2017/10/understanding-software-review https://www.infoq.com/news/2017/10/understanding-software-re... Release announcement:https://www.codesimplicity.com/post/understanding-software/ https://www.codesimplicity.com/post/understanding-software/
- atsaloli 8y ago
  More on "Understanding Software" by Max Kanat-Alexander and how it helped me: Thanks to this book, I've started re-factoring code before adding new features, our code base is getting a little better every day (more maintainable) which reversed a trend, it was getting harder to add features, now it is easier; plus when I design now, my designs are cleaner and result in maintainable code.

24 points by jon_kuperman 8y ago

I'm a big fan of books like Code Complete and SICP but they are huge and take a long time to get through. What are some books small enough to finish in a weekend that you've learned a lot from?

dreistdreist 8y ago

How fast can you read? - Clean Code - Code Complete 2 - The Pragmatic Programmer - Professional PHP - Effective Java - Domain Driven Design Distilled

sharmi 8y ago

A Tour of Go [1] (If you are a novice, you really should try writing the programs yourself. You will end up finishing it in an day or two. If you just read through, it would be just a couple of hours) The Little Schemer [2] [1] https://tour.golang.org/welcome/1 https://tour.golang.org/welcome/1 [2] https://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/0262560992 https://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/0...

amarraja 8y ago

I read Programming Elixir in a weekend(ish) including doing most of the exercises. Was quite eye-opening to the world of functional concurrency.

csnewb 8y ago

Debugging by David J. Agans. It's about 206 pages and the information is pretty high level, but it taught me to systematically debug problems instead of blindly changing random code.

t3h2mas 8y ago

- https://drboolean.gitbooks.io/mostly-adequate-guide-old/content/ https://drboolean.gitbooks.io/mostly-adequate-guide-old/cont... - https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix/read https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix/read

hackermailman 8y ago

Some of the Little Schemer books you could do in 2-3days There's a new one coming out on Dependent Types https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-typer https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-typer

atsaloli 8y ago

"Understanding Software" by Max Kanat-Alexander Book review: https://www.infoq.com/news/2017/10/understanding-software-review https://www.infoq.com/news/2017/10/understanding-software-re... Release announcement:https://www.codesimplicity.com/post/understanding-software/ https://www.codesimplicity.com/post/understanding-software/

atsaloli 8y ago
More on "Understanding Software" by Max Kanat-Alexander and how it helped me: Thanks to this book, I've started re-factoring code before adding new features, our code base is getting a little better every day (more maintainable) which reversed a trend, it was getting harder to add features, now it is easier; plus when I design now, my designs are cleaner and result in maintainable code.