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As a self taught dev, the books that helped me most are: Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software The Design of the UNIX Operating System

As a self taught dev, the books that helped me most are: Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software The Design of the UNIX Operating System Designing Data-Intensive Applications They taught me that there is no magic. Everything is logical and comprehensible.

aastronaut 5y ago
As another self taught, my favorites would currently be something like (from low- to high-level): - The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Compiler from First Principles - Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces - Systems Performance: Enterprise and the Cloud - Exercises in Programming Style - The Little Typer - Conceptual Mathematics: A First Introduction to Categories
- agumonkey 5y ago
  I liked the `little` series. It's a bit slow if you already know enough circular lispiness but they really manage to make a full theory emerge from tiny innocent questions. Brilliant. I could add Queinnec's Lisp in small pieces (for the gradual derivation of fancier and fancier interpreters, the continuation one in CLOS was cool, and the bytecode part also very very cool) Bratko's Prolog book was nice. I'm tempted to mention the dragon book but I only read 40%.
hidden-spyder 5y ago
Would you please elaborate how specifically each of these helped you?
- whytaka 5y ago
  CODE teaches you about how computation can be structured out of circuits and switches and ultimately transistors. I now understand the fundamental nature of electronic computation. UNIX taught me about the how an OS deals with hardware resources and the software that run on them. I now understand the environment in which my processes live as well as the structure of a process. DDIA taught me about the structure of data, how databases operate on data through transactions, the difficulties of synchronization across databases, and the way data streaming works.
sanderjd 5y ago
I love love LOVE Petzold's Code. Designing Data-Intensive Applications was really good too, the best new technical book I've read in the last five years or so, though I have had trouble applying its techniques thus far.

aastronaut 5y ago

As another self taught, my favorites would currently be something like (from low- to high-level): - The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Compiler from First Principles - Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces - Systems Performance: Enterprise and the Cloud - Exercises in Programming Style - The Little Typer - Conceptual Mathematics: A First Introduction to Categories

agumonkey 5y ago
I liked the `little` series. It's a bit slow if you already know enough circular lispiness but they really manage to make a full theory emerge from tiny innocent questions. Brilliant. I could add Queinnec's Lisp in small pieces (for the gradual derivation of fancier and fancier interpreters, the continuation one in CLOS was cool, and the bytecode part also very very cool) Bratko's Prolog book was nice. I'm tempted to mention the dragon book but I only read 40%.

hidden-spyder 5y ago

Would you please elaborate how specifically each of these helped you?

whytaka 5y ago
CODE teaches you about how computation can be structured out of circuits and switches and ultimately transistors. I now understand the fundamental nature of electronic computation. UNIX taught me about the how an OS deals with hardware resources and the software that run on them. I now understand the environment in which my processes live as well as the structure of a process. DDIA taught me about the structure of data, how databases operate on data through transactions, the difficulties of synchronization across databases, and the way data streaming works.

sanderjd 5y ago

I love love LOVE Petzold's Code. Designing Data-Intensive Applications was really good too, the best new technical book I've read in the last five years or so, though I have had trouble applying its techniques thus far.