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I'm waiting on Designing Data Intensive apps to get delivered. Not sure if it covers this: Is there a good book for people without a compsci background to bett

by swozey 4y ago

I'm waiting on Designing Data Intensive apps to get delivered. Not sure if it covers this: Is there a good book for people without a compsci background to better understand terms? I've been learning Rust (and lots of go) as my first language and the terminology of things really throws me off, I feel like simple concepts are wrapped around what sound like confusing math words/phrasing. I'm partially trying to learn syntax, language'isms and vocabulary at the same time.

mecsred 4y ago
I also don't have a compsci background, but wanted to develop my programming skills at work. The book "The Pragmatic Programmer" was recommended to me, and I feel like it made a big impact on my code quality. Particularly when programming with a team. It covers higher level concepts and organization in code.
asadawadia 4y ago
>understand terms? What do you mean understand terms? If you need help with programming check out the link in my profile and we can set some time up - it will be more beneficial than buying a book
- nindalf 4y ago
  Please don't self promote your consulting business. A person starting out their learning journey definitely does not need to hire a consultant. This is exceedingly predatory.
  - asadawadia 4y ago
    Mentoring and helping is not predatory
  - eatonphil 4y ago
    HN (well, @dang anyway) doesn't have a problem with self-promotion [0], especially when it's in context and not excessive. GPs offer seems in context. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17335050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17335050
    - nindalf 4y ago
      You think a person writing hello world needs to hire a consultant at hourly rates?
jamal-kumar 4y ago
Rust is a really weird language to pick up as your first for all of the reasons you're explaining, it's full of a ton of concepts and terminology which come from design patterns and assumption of knowledge that was determined in other languages before it for building complex software effectively. You will probably enjoy the rust documentation glossary, [1] and the golang reference specification while super dry is a good thing to go over once or twice as well [2] All the power to you to get through challenge mode. My first languages were C and javascript when the documentation was pretty much just books, but the amount of resources online these days is just incredible. After you learn a couple of them the rest get a lot easier. If you're stuck on math-related computer stuff I liked the Schaum's outline of essential computer mathematics a lot for getting up to speed. [3] If you're looking to make things a little bit easier you could aim for higher level languages which don't require you to think as hard about what you mentioned because it's abstracted away. Python is popular for this reason and has a ton of immediate practical use, but I also like Ruby and Lua for ease of writing. Just keep in mind that these languages tend to get comparatively harder to use the larger or tighter your program's requirements get. [1] https://doc.rust-lang.org/reference/glossary.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/reference/glossary.html [2] https://go.dev/ref/spec https://go.dev/ref/spec [3] https://www.abebooks.com/9780070379909/Schaums-Outline-Essential-Computer-Mathematics-0070379904/plp https://www.abebooks.com/9780070379909/Schaums-Outline-Essen...
zumu 4y ago
> Is there a good book for people without a compsci background to better understand terms? This isn't going to solve your immediate problem, but the trick is to build your own compsci background. Data Structures, Algo, Operating Systems, Discrete Math, etc. courses are all available online various platforms (youtube has a lot of the lectures). I went through lectures and problems from Cornell, Stanford, CMU and MIT online for free. It is gonna take some time, but I suggest starting to chip away at the lectures. It's a nice break from actively hacking on something.

by swozey 4y ago

mecsred 4y ago

I also don't have a compsci background, but wanted to develop my programming skills at work. The book "The Pragmatic Programmer" was recommended to me, and I feel like it made a big impact on my code quality. Particularly when programming with a team. It covers higher level concepts and organization in code.

asadawadia 4y ago

>understand terms? What do you mean understand terms? If you need help with programming check out the link in my profile and we can set some time up - it will be more beneficial than buying a book

nindalf 4y ago
Please don't self promote your consulting business. A person starting out their learning journey definitely does not need to hire a consultant. This is exceedingly predatory.
- asadawadia 4y ago
  Mentoring and helping is not predatory
- eatonphil 4y ago
  HN (well, @dang anyway) doesn't have a problem with self-promotion [0], especially when it's in context and not excessive. GPs offer seems in context. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17335050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17335050
  - nindalf 4y ago
    You think a person writing hello world needs to hire a consultant at hourly rates?

jamal-kumar 4y ago

Rust is a really weird language to pick up as your first for all of the reasons you're explaining, it's full of a ton of concepts and terminology which come from design patterns and assumption of knowledge that was determined in other languages before it for building complex software effectively. You will probably enjoy the rust documentation glossary, [1] and the golang reference specification while super dry is a good thing to go over once or twice as well [2] All the power to you to get through challenge mode. My first languages were C and javascript when the documentation was pretty much just books, but the amount of resources online these days is just incredible. After you learn a couple of them the rest get a lot easier. If you're stuck on math-related computer stuff I liked the Schaum's outline of essential computer mathematics a lot for getting up to speed. [3] If you're looking to make things a little bit easier you could aim for higher level languages which don't require you to think as hard about what you mentioned because it's abstracted away. Python is popular for this reason and has a ton of immediate practical use, but I also like Ruby and Lua for ease of writing. Just keep in mind that these languages tend to get comparatively harder to use the larger or tighter your program's requirements get. [1] https://doc.rust-lang.org/reference/glossary.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/reference/glossary.html [2] https://go.dev/ref/spec https://go.dev/ref/spec [3] https://www.abebooks.com/9780070379909/Schaums-Outline-Essential-Computer-Mathematics-0070379904/plp https://www.abebooks.com/9780070379909/Schaums-Outline-Essen...

zumu 4y ago

> Is there a good book for people without a compsci background to better understand terms? This isn't going to solve your immediate problem, but the trick is to build your own compsci background. Data Structures, Algo, Operating Systems, Discrete Math, etc. courses are all available online various platforms (youtube has a lot of the lectures). I went through lectures and problems from Cornell, Stanford, CMU and MIT online for free. It is gonna take some time, but I suggest starting to chip away at the lectures. It's a nice break from actively hacking on something.