Your Favorite Tech / Eng. / CS Books?

chris_eineke writes "I like to read and to collect good books related to computer science. I'm talking about stuff like the classic textbooks (Introduction to Algorithms 2nd ed., Tanenbaum's Operating Systems series) and practitioners' books (The Practice of Programming, Code Complete) and all-around excellent books (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, Practical Common Lisp). What's your stocking-stuffer book this Christmas? What books have been sitting on your shelves that you think are the best ones of their kind? Which ones do you think are -1 Overrated? (All links are referral-free.)"

The Art of Computer Programming

[larry bagina]

(personally, I think it's overrated, but I'm still proud to own the set).

Switching Power Supply Design, Abraham I. Pressman

[digitalunity]

Awesome book.

http://www.amazon.com/Switching-Power-Supply-Design-3rd/dp/0071482725/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230057542&sr=8-2 [amazon.com]

The Camel Book

[happy_place]

Programming Perl (by O'Reilly) is a classic, imo. I know it's language specific, but it's also very funny and really defined the iconic symbol of the camel and Perl, and at least for me made O'Reilly a publisher worth its salt... --Ray

Introduction to Computing Systems (Patt/Patel)

[characterZer0]

"Introduction to Computing Systems: From Bits and Gates to C and Beyond"

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072467509/ [mcgraw-hill.com]

This is where every programmer should start.

Code by Charles Petzold

[CorporateSuit]

The first few chapters of Code will turn you from a know-nothing cubscout into a 2nd-year electrical engineering major within an afternoon. The book scales from understanding morse code to binary to logic gates to flipflops to RAM to assembler to constructing your own bios and operating systems with nothing but a hearty supply of semiconductors, batteries, plywood, wire, and solder, if you wanted to. The jumps between one level and another are made so they appear completely contiguous. It helps a CS student understand how software can truly run on hardware (instead of just looking at the magic boxes and saying "DO AS I SAY, PATHETIC PROCESSOR!")

I've never read a book that taught me so much in so few words so fluidly. I picked it up in a Barnes and Noble for like $20 (Skeptical from the logo on the back) and have never been so pleasantly surprised with a dead tree.

Re:Best books?

[MightyMartian]

Introduction To Algorithms 2nd Edition was by far the most useful book I've ever delved into. Back in the olden days when I was stuck coding in a borrowed copy of QuickBASIC, I developed one helluva binary search routine that could search through about 50,000 records in tolerable time on an PC-XT, and that book saved my ass.

Re:Best books?

[Workaphobia]

Then let me reply directly (read: a poor excuse to top-post).

Michael Sipser's "Introduction to the Theory of Computation." It's easily the best textbook I've ever owned, and had me paging through it well ahead of the pace of the course. It of course doesn't serve nearly the same purpose as K&R and all those other books on practical topics, but for someone who's never been exposed to the theoretical side of CS, it's a wonderful eye-opener.

Apparently the same opinions are shared by most of the other CS students I've talked to.

Re:My Math Books

[poopdeville]

I agree completely. Aside from language reference books (a dime-a-dozen) and the web, I primarily use Mathematics texts books as my primary reference works. Lattice and Category theory are very helpful for understanding database design and algorithms -- an inner join on database tables is join of "sub-tables" in the Dedekind-MacLane completion of the lattice of "sub-tables", for example.

Combinatorics are helpful when analyzing algorithms in general. Category theory and some first order logic (quantifying over categories) gives you a sound and rich theory of types (or you can develop an equivalent one in about a million different ways). Never mind the domain specific problems I've worked on, including statistical analyses of large amounts of data.

For most computing domains, a CS degree is overrated. A Mathematics degree gets you 90% of the way there, and gives you so much more.

Books I highly recommend

[elnyka]

1. Pitfalls of Object Oriented Development by Bruce F. Webster. Too bad it's no longer being printed, BUT you can buy it used in Amazon for pennies. If you are serious at becoming not just a coder, but a good engineer, you must buy this book.
2. Software Project Survival Guide by Steve McConnell.
3. Affinity: Managing Java Application Servers by John M Hawkins - a must if you are a J2EE container admin.
4. Unix for the Impatient by Paul W. Abrahams, Bruce R. Larson - nuff said.
5. AntiPatterns: Refactoring Software, Architectures, and Projects in Crisis by William J. Brown
6. Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series) by the GoF.

Re:Switching Power Supply Design, Abraham I. Press

[Austerity Empowers]

I wouldn't call that computer science per se, but then I don't know anyone who designs computers who doesn't also have Howard Johnson:

http://www.amazon.com/High-Speed-Digital-Design-Semiconductor/dp/0133957241/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230059485&sr=1-1 [amazon.com]

Re:Applied Cryptography

[fm6]

Here's a criticism of that book from its own author: it supports the illusion that all you need to secure a system is the right technology.

Re:K&R2

[Amazing Quantum Man]

Add a vote for K&R2, and one that may seem off the wall:

"Oh! Pascal", by Cooper and Clancy. It's probably out of print, but it had the most lucid, understandable explanation of pointers that I have ever seen in my life.

The Cuckoo's Egg

[Zoxed]

Without doubt Clifford Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg [wikipedia.org] It had me gripped in a way that no programming book could have :-)

Re:Design Patterns

[timewasting]

GoF --> -1 Overrated. Not because of the book, but because of most of the idiots who didn't conceptually understand the applications after reading. Half the people who try to talk in patterns don't understand the difference between Command, Visitor, Chain of Responsibility, etc. They understand Singleton, and that's it. Of the people who can talk in patterns, a good 50% don't really know how to appropriately use them together in system and software architecture. Meaning, at best, 1 in 4 of those who reference GoF patterns are actually using the work to help in communication and design.

I think it's probably an important book in the history of Software Engineering (not to be confused with CS). The book unfortunately spawned at much bad design as it did elegance.

My Favorites

[peterofoz]

How to Break Web Software
Functional and Security Testing of Web Applications and Web Services

Programming Pearls

The Art of Computer Programming (3 vols)
Donald E. Knuth

Re:Introduction to Computing Systems (Patt/Patel)

[David Greene]

Simply awful. The book was written with the hairbrained notion that students should learn about transistors and CMOS first and only at the end of the semester should they actually program in a reasonable language.

I had the misfortune of working with students as a teaching assistant in that course and, predictably, students struggled. There's a reason it's a good idea to learn concepts first and then approach the implementation details later. The concepts are much more important.

The theory was that students should learn what's going on under the hood when they program. A better approach would be to require all CSE students to take computer architecture, compilers and operating systems courses.

Re:Modern C++ Design

[mpsmps]

I actually taught a class with "Modern C++ Design" as a primary text. Perhaps surprisingly, it turned out to be a great success. While the actual techniques in the book are not always suitable for use in most professional C++ programming shops, the revolutionary thinking and skills in it will serve you well whatever programming you do, even if it is in a different language, which is a hallmark of classic texts.

Software Engineering: A Practictioner's Approach

[Amigan]

Written by Roger Pressman [mhhe.com]and has gone through 6 editions (that I'm aware of). It was first introduced in 1982, and I used it as a Senior during my undergrad - I have since used it repeatedly over the years as I've taught software engineering classes. 25yrs after graduating it is one of the books that I keep in my office.

Re:My favorites list

[Anonymous Coward]

Numerical Recipes is impressive, but the problem is that the code is legally encumbered. You have to cut a deal with the author in order to use the code outside of an academic setting. I've decided against even owning a copy to avoid getting myself and my employer entangled into a lawyers' nest.

Re:Yes, K&R2 is still the best.

[asciiduck]

I'm going to have to disagree with your choice in E&M book, I'm personally a fan of David Griffiths for E&M. I'm also a pretty big fan of his Quantum Mechanics book and I've heard good things about his Particle Physics book. Also, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" is an amusing book (pretty much anything by him will be good, but the book I just mentioned has no scientific value to speak of but is a good read).

Re:Yes, K&R2 is still the best.

[L'homme de Fromage]

I have to admit I've never cared for the Griffiths E&M book. His writing style put me off, plus there's a bit too much hand-waving. At that level of E&M (beginning/intermediate) I prefer Purcell's "Electricity & Magnetism" or "Foundations of Electromagnetic Theory" by Reitz, Milford & Christy. The math and the explanations are better in those books than in Griffiths', in my opinion, and both are better preparation for Jackson's more comprehensive book.