[H-GEN] The perennial book thread

[Jason Parker-Burlingham]

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Greg Black <gjb at gbch.net> writes:

> On 2003-10-19, Jason Parker-Burlingham wrote:
>> So today I stopped in at a localish Borders and spent mayb $100 on
>> books:
>> 
>>    * Windows 98 Annoyances, David A Karp
>>    * Programming Pearls, 2nd edition, Jon Bentley
>>    * K&R, 2nd edition (yes, I didn't own a copy of this until now)
> Not having any interest in Windows, I can't comment on the first
> beyond saying that I'd never spend money on such a thing.  the
> other two are excellent.

I felt a bit dubious about spending money on the Windows book, too,
but it's proved useful a couple of times already, and is making me
think about looking closely at the XP book.  Anyway, enough said about
Windows.

>>    * Windows XP Annoyances, Karp
>>    * Introduction to Algorithms, Cormen et al
>>    * Unix Systems Programming, Robbins et al
>>    * Code Generation in Action, Herrington

>>    * The Standard C Library, Plauger
> I used to like Bill Plauger's work and have many of his books on
> my shelves.  I haven't read that one, so can't comment directly.

That's good enough---I know nothing about Plauger and was probably
ready to drop his book unless I discovered his stuff was worthwhile.

The same goes for Herrington; people are raving about the book but it
seems a bit narrow.  Robbins will probably have to go.

>   * The Elements of Programming Style, Kernighan & Plauger
>   * The Practice of Programming, Kernighan & Pike

I picked up a well-worn copy of "Software Tools" by Kernighan and
others a few weeks ago (at the Ithaca library book sale, one of the
largest around) for a few bucks; when I skimmed it at the sale I
thought all the example programs were in C but turns out that no, it's
RATFOR.  Could've fooled me!

>   * Unix Network Programming, Stevens
>   * Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment, Stevens

Stevens is a god.  I have the Sockets and X11 network programming
book, and used to have a copy of APitUE until it grew legs.  I did so
enjoy that book.

jason, thinking of working through another Programming Pearls exercise
-- 
Baby Pictures:
      http://panix.com/~jasonp?HenryGrosvenorParkerBurlingham

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