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Are there any good "baby's first CS papers"? I read maybe 1 paper in college and have not thought about anything more than the very practical, day-to-day applic

by lghh 5y ago

Are there any good "baby's first CS papers"? I read maybe 1 paper in college and have not thought about anything more than the very practical, day-to-day applications of my degree since then. If I wanted to dip my toes into reading some CS papers are there any good places anyone would recommend to start?

hgh 5y ago
I think the original DynamoDB paper is a good choice - some interesting CS/systems engineering content but relatively accessible. https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/files/amazon-dynamo-sosp2007.pdf https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/files/amazon-dynamo-sos...
- ryanworl 5y ago
  Notably, the Dynamo paper is _not_ a description of how DynamoDB (the product available from AWS today) works. They are fundamentally different, and it is not possible to implement notable features like conditional updates using the algorithms described in the Dynamo paper.
  - lghh 5y ago
    That’s interesting. I was going to take a stab at reading that first since I frequently use DynamoDB (Amazon product) at work.
    - macintux 5y ago
      It's still worth a read; understanding eventually-consistent K/V stores can help with data design for many NoSQL databases.
loeg 5y ago
If you’ve worked in the systems space, the Flash HTTPD paper is a classic: https://www.usenix.org/legacy/events/usenix99/full_papers/pai/pai.pdf https://www.usenix.org/legacy/events/usenix99/full_papers/pa...
lifefeed 5y ago
There's this nice mix of technical and opinion papers: 10 Papers Every Developer Should Read https://michaelfeathers.silvrback.com/10-papers-every-developer-should-read-at-least-twice https://michaelfeathers.silvrback.com/10-papers-every-develo...
hieronymusN 5y ago
I have heard good things about https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/ideas-created-future https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/ideas-created-future
robotresearcher 5y ago
‘Time, clocks and the ordering of events in a distributed system’ by Leslie Lamport 1973. This is my favorite intro to distributed systems paper. Gives you a new tool to think with, and it’s a straightforward read. https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/time-clocks.pdf https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/time-clocks.pdf
nesarkvechnep 5y ago
“Why Functional Programming Matters” by John Hughes.
bluedays 5y ago
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~crary/819-f09/Strachey67.pdf https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~crary/819-f09/Strachey67.pdf Fundamental Concepts In Programming by Christopher Strachey is awesome. It’s a lot less technical because it was based on a series of lecture notes. Christopher Strachey is also an inspiring figure in CS to me as someone who was a perpetual fuck up and a late bloomer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Strachey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Strachey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_Concepts_in_Programming_Languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_Concepts_in_Progra...

by lghh 5y ago

hgh 5y ago

I think the original DynamoDB paper is a good choice - some interesting CS/systems engineering content but relatively accessible. https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/files/amazon-dynamo-sosp2007.pdf https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/files/amazon-dynamo-sos...

ryanworl 5y ago
Notably, the Dynamo paper is _not_ a description of how DynamoDB (the product available from AWS today) works. They are fundamentally different, and it is not possible to implement notable features like conditional updates using the algorithms described in the Dynamo paper.
- lghh 5y ago
  That’s interesting. I was going to take a stab at reading that first since I frequently use DynamoDB (Amazon product) at work.
  - macintux 5y ago
    It's still worth a read; understanding eventually-consistent K/V stores can help with data design for many NoSQL databases.

loeg 5y ago

If you’ve worked in the systems space, the Flash HTTPD paper is a classic: https://www.usenix.org/legacy/events/usenix99/full_papers/pai/pai.pdf https://www.usenix.org/legacy/events/usenix99/full_papers/pa...

lifefeed 5y ago

There's this nice mix of technical and opinion papers: 10 Papers Every Developer Should Read https://michaelfeathers.silvrback.com/10-papers-every-developer-should-read-at-least-twice https://michaelfeathers.silvrback.com/10-papers-every-develo...

hieronymusN 5y ago

I have heard good things about https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/ideas-created-future https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/ideas-created-future

robotresearcher 5y ago

‘Time, clocks and the ordering of events in a distributed system’ by Leslie Lamport 1973. This is my favorite intro to distributed systems paper. Gives you a new tool to think with, and it’s a straightforward read. https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/time-clocks.pdf https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/time-clocks.pdf

nesarkvechnep 5y ago

“Why Functional Programming Matters” by John Hughes.

bluedays 5y ago

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~crary/819-f09/Strachey67.pdf https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~crary/819-f09/Strachey67.pdf Fundamental Concepts In Programming by Christopher Strachey is awesome. It’s a lot less technical because it was based on a series of lecture notes. Christopher Strachey is also an inspiring figure in CS to me as someone who was a perpetual fuck up and a late bloomer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Strachey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Strachey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_Concepts_in_Programming_Languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_Concepts_in_Progra...