If you could go back in time and tell yourself to read a specific book at the beginning of your career as a developer, which book would it be?
I expect this list to be varied and to cover a wide range of things.
To search: Use the search box in the upper-right corner. To search the answers of the current question, use inquestion:this. For example:
inquestion:this "Code Complete"
K&R
@Juan: I know Juan, I know - but there are some things that can only be learned by actually getting down to the task at hand. Speaking in abstract ideals all day simply makes you into an academic. It's in the application of the abstract that we truly grok the reason for their existence. :P
@Keith: Great mention of "The Inmates are Running the Asylum" by Alan Cooper - an eye opener for certain, any developer that has worked with me since I read that book has heard me mention the ideas it espouses. +1
Discrete Mathematics For Computer Scientists http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HCJ5R42KL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_AA219_PIsitb-sticker-dp-arrow,TopRight,-24,-23_SH20_OU02_.jpg
Discrete Mathematics For Computer Scientists by J.K. Truss.
While this doesn't teach you programming, it teaches you fundamental mathematics that every programmer should know. You may remember this stuff from university, but really, doing predicate logic will improve you programming skills, you need to learn Set Theory if you want to program using collections.
There really is a lot of interesting information in here that can get you thinking about problems in different ways. It's handy to have, just to pick up once in a while to learn something new.
Systemantics: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail. Get it used cheap. But you might not get the humor until you've worked on a few failed projects.
The beauty of the book is the copyright year.
Probably the most profound takeaway "law" presented in the book:
The Fundamental Failure-Mode Theorem (F.F.T.): Complex systems usually operate in failure mode.
The idea being that there are failing parts in any given piece of software that are masked by failures in other parts or by validations in other parts. See a real-world example at the Therac-25 radiation machine, whose software flaws were masked by hardware failsafes. When the hardware failsafes were removed, the software race condition that had gone undetected all those years resulted in the machine killing 3 people.
One of my personal favorites is Hacker's Delight, because it was as much fun to read as it was educational.
I hope the second edition will be released soon!
Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming.
alt text http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YZ50ZR13L._SL500_AA240_.jpg
Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change by Kent Beck. While I don't advocate a hardcore XP-or-the-highway take on software development, I wish I had been introduced to the principles in this book much earlier in my career. Unit testing, refactoring, simplicity, continuous integration, cost/time/quality/scope - these changed the way I looked at development. Before Agile, it was all about the debugger and fear of change requests. After Agile, those demons did not loom as large.
Types and Programming Languages by Benjamin C Pierce for a thorough understanding of the underpinnings of programming languages.
alt text http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51E0Ojkz8iL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
Database System Concepts is one of the best books you can read on understanding good database design principles.
The practice of programming. By Brian W. Kernighan, Rob Pike.
The style shown here is excellent - the code just speaks for itself, and the whole book follows the KISS principle. Personally not my languages of choice, but still influential to me.
Programming from the ground up. It's free on the internet. This book taught me AT&T asm. It is very easy to read.
Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp by Peter Norvig
I started reading it because I wanted to learn Common Lisp. When I was halfway, I realized this was the greatest book about programming I had read so far.
Definitively Software Craftsmanship
alt text http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5186JKTDVWL._SL500_AA240_.jpg
This book explains a lot of things about software engineering, system development. It's also extremly useful to understand the difference between different kind of product developement: web VS shrinkwrap VS IBM framework. What people had in mind when they conceived waterfall model? Read this and all we'll become clear (hopefully)
@Peter Coulton -- you don't read Knuth, you study it.
For me, and my work... Purely Functional Data Structures is great for thinking and developing with functional languages in mind.
"The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman.
Excellence in programming demands an investment of mental energy and a dedication to continued learning comparable to the professions of medicine or law. It pays a fraction of what those professions pay, much less the wages paid to the mathematically savvy who head into the finance sector. And wages for constructing code are eroding because it's a profession that is relatively easy for the intelligent and self-disciplined in most economies to enter.
Programming has already eroded to the point of paying less than, say, plumbing. Plumbing can't be "offshored." You don't need to pay $2395 to attend the Professional Plumber's Conference every other year for the privilege of receiving an entirely new set of plumbing technologies that will take you a year to learn.
If you live in North America or Europe, are young, and are smart, programming is not a rational career choice. Businesses that involve programming, absolutely. Study business, know enough about programming to refine your BS detector: brilliant. But dedicating the lion's share of your mental energy to the mastery of libraries, data structures, and algorithms? That only makes sense if programming is something more to you than an economic choice.
If you love programming and for that reason intend to make it your career, then it behooves you to develop a cold-eyed understanding of the forces that are, and will continue, to make it a harder and harder profession in which to make a living. "The World is Flat" won't teach you what to name your variables, but it will immerse you for 6 or 8 hours in economic realities that have already arrived. If you can read it, and not get scared, then go out and buy "Code Complete."
This last year I took a number of classes. I read
The Innovator's Dilemma (disruptive tech)
The Mythical Man Month (managing software)
Crossing the Chasm (startup)
Database Management Systems, The COW Book
Programming C#, The OSTRICH Book
Beginning iPhone Developmen, The GRAPEFRUIT Book
Each book was amazing but the Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen (1997!!!) is really a fantastic book, and it got me really thinking about the modern software world. The challenge addressed is disruptive technology, and how disk drive companies and non-technical companies are always disrupted by new, game changing technology. It gives one a new perspective when thinking about Google, probably the biggest 'web' company. Why do they have their hands in EVERYTHING? It's because they don't want to have their position disrupted by something new. The preview on google is plenty to get the idea. Read it!
hackers, by Steven Levy.
The personality and way of life must come first. Everything else can be learned.
The Practice of Programming
and
How to solve it by computer
alt text http://img.infibeam.com/img/7101e0ee/496b1/05/629/P-M-B-9788131705629.jpg?hei=200&wid=160&op_sharpen=1
The Python language was very influential to me, I wish I would have read these book years ago. The beauty and simplicity of the Python language really affected how I wrote code in other languages.
The New Turing Omnibus http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HlYd-%2BRwL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
Really good book. Has a high-level taste of the most important areas of computer science. Yes, CS != programming, but this is still useful to every programmer.
Object Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications by Brady Booch
The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
I think that "The Art of Unix Programming" is an excellent book, by an excellent hacker/brilliant mind as Eric S. Raymond, who tries to make us understand a few principles of software design (simplicity mainly). This book is a must for every programming who is about to start a project under Unix platform.
While I agree that many of the books above are must-reads (Pragmatic Programmer, Mythical Man-Month, Art of Computer Programming, and SICP come to mind immediately), I'd like to go in a slightly different direction and recommend A Discipline of Programming by Edsger Dijkstra. Even though it's 32 years old, the emphasis on "design for verifiability" is highly relevant (even if "verifiability" means "proof" instead "unit tests").
Code Craft by Pete Goodliffe is a good read!
Code Craft http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WZ9AEC3GL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg
Martin Fowler's Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code has already been listed. But I will detail why it has impacted me.
The essence of the whole book is about structuring code so that it is simpler to read and understand by humans. It teaches me strongly that the code that I write is meant for my colleagues and successors to consume and possibly learn something good out of it. It inspires me to consciously program in a manner that leaves people praising my name, and not cursing me to damnation for all eternity.
alt text http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61dECNkdnTL._SL500_AA240_.jpg
C++ How to Program It is good for beginner.This is excellent book that full complete with 1500 pages.
Here's an excellent book that is not as widely applauded, but is full of deep insight: Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game, by Alistair Cockburn.
What's so special about it? Well, clearly everyone has heard the term "Agile", and it seems most are believers these days. Whether you believe or not, though, there are some deep principles behind why the Agile movement exists. This book uncovers and articulates these principles in a precise, scientific way. Some of the principles are (btw, these are my words, not Alistair's):
There is so much more in there too. I'll shut up now, but I HIGHLY recommend this book!
Masters of doom. As far as motivation and love for your profession go: it won't get any better than what's been described in this book, truthfully inspiring story!