9 ms·

Without a doubt one of the best technical books I have ever read. To me, it was a missing piece of the big puzzle of "how do computers work". I read many a boo

Without a doubt one of the best technical books I have ever read. To me, it was a missing piece of the big puzzle of "how do computers work". I read many a book to answer this question, and came away with three books: - CODE by Charles Petzold explains the CPU - Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces by Arpaci-Dusseau explain OSes - Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom explains programming languages Masterfully done.

skrtskrt 4y ago
Any defining book for networks?
- zvmaz 4y ago
  TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1, Richard Stevens.
hnxs 4y ago
FYI there is a second edition of CODE coming out at the end of August. I will check out Three Easy Pieces! Thanks for the rec.
- password4321 4y ago
  “Code” 2nd Edition https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31696901 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31696901
easterncalculus 4y ago
I have started reading Introduction to Computer Organization by Bob Plantz, and I think it would also tell someone a lot about how computers work. It starts with hardware and builds into Assembly and eventually higher level concepts like OOP.
volkadav 4y ago
Similar vein re: CPU, targeted at an undergrad level, you might enjoy _Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective_ by Bryant and O'Hallaron (https://csapp.cs.cmu.edu/ https://csapp.cs.cmu.edu/) At least I found it a really well-written and integrative text coming from knowing C and wanting to learn the next level down well. Ties in with the OS bits on the "top side" too.
sg47 4y ago
Any defining book for databases? I'm interested in going deeper into the query planner and indexes.
- runevault 4y ago
  Look up Designing Data-Intensive Applications by O'Reilly.
- jsshah 4y ago
  Database Internals by Alex Petrov If you are into videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSE8ODhjZXjbohkNBWQs_otTrBTrjyohi https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSE8ODhjZXjbohkNBWQs_...
shanusmagnus 4y ago
These look great, and judging by other people's comments, are instances of a class of book I will poorly describe as "lovingly-crafted works of art on highly technical CS topics", a genre that I am always on the lookout for more examples of. From my own experience, some examples might be: - SICP, by Abelson and Sussman - Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming, by Norvig By general acclaim, some examples might be: - How to Design Programs, by Felleisen et al - Beautiful Racket, by Butterick - LISP In Small Pieces, by Queinnec - The Art of Computer Programming, by Knuth - The Elements of Computing Systems, by Nisan and Schocken What else comes to mind? (My list is very LISPy, but that's just bc I have high awareness there.)
- thecatster 4y ago
  It's not really CS, but alongside the books you have listed (I have most of those physically and as eBooks!) I absolutely adore "The Art of Electronics" as the Bible to electronics. It's definitely helped me out immensely.
  - shanusmagnus 4y ago
    That's a great example -- I know people who have that and feel a religious zeal for it. That "religious zeal about a technical / science created with art and care" book is the feeling I'm really after.
    - thecatster 4y ago
      Right, exactly: when that much care is put into a resource, I truly feel that I enjoy it more, even if the material itself might seem dry at first. Those kinds of feeling books are truly special.
      - shanusmagnus 4y ago
        100%, which reminds me: another example of books created with incredible care are anything by Douglas Hofstadter. The canonical example is Goedel, Escher, Bach; but one that I think is super under-rated is Le Ton beau de Marot -- not only does he care about the content, but the page layout, the font, everything. Truly a labor of love and obsession.
e19293001 4y ago
Could you please consider this book? Compiler Construction Using Java, JavaCC, and Yacc[0] In my opinion, this has been underrated book. I learned a lot from this book. I enjoyed it and plan to read it again. If you could check it out. It contains solid explanation from theory to implementation. I'm not affiliated with the author, I just wanted to show I'm grateful for his work. [0] - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118112762 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/97811181127...
lalwanivikas 4y ago
Exactly the comment I was looking for. Thanks for the OS book recommendation. PS: you might want to reformat your list.
vips7L 4y ago
OSTEP is the best technical book I’ve ever read.
- sydthrowaway 4y ago
  Exercises are lacking.
  - vips7L 4y ago
    YMMV but I found them to be pretty complex and required some in depth knowledge of both assembly and C. Implementing threads/clone at the sys call level required knowing how to set up the stack and registers for the new process. If I recall correctly there was also a hard problem about virtual memory, but this was 3 years ago.
  - Andrei2605 4y ago
    Depends whether you have the international version or the north american one.
    - jgwil2 4y ago
      Could you elaborate on the differences?

skrtskrt 4y ago

Any defining book for networks?

zvmaz 4y ago
TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1, Richard Stevens.

hnxs 4y ago

FYI there is a second edition of CODE coming out at the end of August. I will check out Three Easy Pieces! Thanks for the rec.

password4321 4y ago
“Code” 2nd Edition https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31696901 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31696901

easterncalculus 4y ago

I have started reading Introduction to Computer Organization by Bob Plantz, and I think it would also tell someone a lot about how computers work. It starts with hardware and builds into Assembly and eventually higher level concepts like OOP.

volkadav 4y ago

Similar vein re: CPU, targeted at an undergrad level, you might enjoy _Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective_ by Bryant and O'Hallaron (https://csapp.cs.cmu.edu/ https://csapp.cs.cmu.edu/) At least I found it a really well-written and integrative text coming from knowing C and wanting to learn the next level down well. Ties in with the OS bits on the "top side" too.

sg47 4y ago

Any defining book for databases? I'm interested in going deeper into the query planner and indexes.

runevault 4y ago
Look up Designing Data-Intensive Applications by O'Reilly.
jsshah 4y ago
Database Internals by Alex Petrov If you are into videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSE8ODhjZXjbohkNBWQs_otTrBTrjyohi https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSE8ODhjZXjbohkNBWQs_...

shanusmagnus 4y ago

These look great, and judging by other people's comments, are instances of a class of book I will poorly describe as "lovingly-crafted works of art on highly technical CS topics", a genre that I am always on the lookout for more examples of. From my own experience, some examples might be: - SICP, by Abelson and Sussman - Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming, by Norvig By general acclaim, some examples might be: - How to Design Programs, by Felleisen et al - Beautiful Racket, by Butterick - LISP In Small Pieces, by Queinnec - The Art of Computer Programming, by Knuth - The Elements of Computing Systems, by Nisan and Schocken What else comes to mind? (My list is very LISPy, but that's just bc I have high awareness there.)

thecatster 4y ago
It's not really CS, but alongside the books you have listed (I have most of those physically and as eBooks!) I absolutely adore "The Art of Electronics" as the Bible to electronics. It's definitely helped me out immensely.
- shanusmagnus 4y ago
  That's a great example -- I know people who have that and feel a religious zeal for it. That "religious zeal about a technical / science created with art and care" book is the feeling I'm really after.
  - thecatster 4y ago
    Right, exactly: when that much care is put into a resource, I truly feel that I enjoy it more, even if the material itself might seem dry at first. Those kinds of feeling books are truly special.
    - shanusmagnus 4y ago
      100%, which reminds me: another example of books created with incredible care are anything by Douglas Hofstadter. The canonical example is Goedel, Escher, Bach; but one that I think is super under-rated is Le Ton beau de Marot -- not only does he care about the content, but the page layout, the font, everything. Truly a labor of love and obsession.

e19293001 4y ago

Could you please consider this book? Compiler Construction Using Java, JavaCC, and Yacc[0] In my opinion, this has been underrated book. I learned a lot from this book. I enjoyed it and plan to read it again. If you could check it out. It contains solid explanation from theory to implementation. I'm not affiliated with the author, I just wanted to show I'm grateful for his work. [0] - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118112762 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/97811181127...

lalwanivikas 4y ago

Exactly the comment I was looking for. Thanks for the OS book recommendation. PS: you might want to reformat your list.

vips7L 4y ago

OSTEP is the best technical book I’ve ever read.

sydthrowaway 4y ago
Exercises are lacking.
- vips7L 4y ago
  YMMV but I found them to be pretty complex and required some in depth knowledge of both assembly and C. Implementing threads/clone at the sys call level required knowing how to set up the stack and registers for the new process. If I recall correctly there was also a hard problem about virtual memory, but this was 3 years ago.
- Andrei2605 4y ago
  Depends whether you have the international version or the north american one.
  - jgwil2 4y ago
    Could you elaborate on the differences?