3 ms·

Programming Books You Wish You Read Earlier

42 points by majikarp 8y ago

ColinWright 8y ago
For those who are interested (and clearly there are quite a few of you who are) here are two previous discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19271766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19271766 (39 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19225964 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19225964 (also 39 comments) The reason I know there are people interested is because there are several earlier submissions without discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19254020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19254020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19243967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19243967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19225658 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19225658
- michaelt 8y ago
  Given that there are five submissions by the same user, I think your finding that people are interested because there are several submissions is unwarranted.
adds68 8y ago
Ah look! Another generic Medium post of a list of programming books that come up first on Amazon's search list. Why do these people get attention?
jansan 8y ago
"inside Windows File Formats" (ISBN 0-672-30338-8) It's from 1993, I read it in 1998, but I wish I had read it in 1995. I guarantee, if you read it now, you will wish you had read it at least 20 years ago. Also, any Adobe Flash related books that you may have read in the last few years.
glangdale 8y ago
This feels terribly generic - a bunch of top-sellers, with helpful blurbs that could come off the back of the books (nothing about any of the descriptions gives the impression that the person has, say, read any of the books) and equally helpful Amazon affiliate links. The only surprise was AI for Games, which I own, but do have some trouble believing is very current a full decade after it was published.
Err_Eek 8y ago
Pet peeve of mine: people who recommend textbooks they haven't fully went through. Going through Aho's Compilers and Norvig's AI takes at least one year (assuming you have a day job). And since the author of the blog post obviously didn't read the books, he doesn't provide any pros and cons to spending that amount of time into any of them.
jb3689 8y ago
How many times does this need to get reposted?
- m_ransing 8y ago
  I think this is the 3rd time I am seeing this on HN.
robjan 8y ago
This is basically the course texts of the first year of any BSc in CompSci
Geee 8y ago
I guess these posts generate a decent amount of revenue through the referral links.

42 points by majikarp 8y ago

For those who are interested (and clearly there are quite a few of you who are) here are two previous discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19271766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19271766 (39 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19225964 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19225964 (also 39 comments) The reason I know there are people interested is because there are several earlier submissions without discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19254020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19254020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19243967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19243967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19225658 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19225658

michaelt 8y ago
Given that there are five submissions by the same user, I think your finding that people are interested because there are several submissions is unwarranted.

adds68 8y ago

Ah look! Another generic Medium post of a list of programming books that come up first on Amazon's search list. Why do these people get attention?

jansan 8y ago

"inside Windows File Formats" (ISBN 0-672-30338-8) It's from 1993, I read it in 1998, but I wish I had read it in 1995. I guarantee, if you read it now, you will wish you had read it at least 20 years ago. Also, any Adobe Flash related books that you may have read in the last few years.

glangdale 8y ago

This feels terribly generic - a bunch of top-sellers, with helpful blurbs that could come off the back of the books (nothing about any of the descriptions gives the impression that the person has, say, read any of the books) and equally helpful Amazon affiliate links. The only surprise was AI for Games, which I own, but do have some trouble believing is very current a full decade after it was published.

Err_Eek 8y ago

Pet peeve of mine: people who recommend textbooks they haven't fully went through. Going through Aho's Compilers and Norvig's AI takes at least one year (assuming you have a day job). And since the author of the blog post obviously didn't read the books, he doesn't provide any pros and cons to spending that amount of time into any of them.

jb3689 8y ago

How many times does this need to get reposted?

m_ransing 8y ago
I think this is the 3rd time I am seeing this on HN.

robjan 8y ago

This is basically the course texts of the first year of any BSc in CompSci

Geee 8y ago

I guess these posts generate a decent amount of revenue through the referral links.