General Programming Books

[mirhagk]

Hey everyone, I have been studying computer science for the past 3 years because I friggen love it. I have dove headfirst into too many languages, projects, toolkits etc, and I've decided to stop trying to learn about specific things in computer science, I wanna learn general things.

What I mean by this is I don't want to read a book about how to program OOP in C++, I wanna read a book about the theories and ideas behind OOP, and general things about OOP, what makes it good, what makes it bad etc.

While I pretty much am interested in anything so long as it's theories/ideas/principles apply to general scenarios and situations the thing I'm interested in most right now is automated testing (partly because I have started a new job where right now I'm merely testing UI elements and to make sure things work etc, and they are talking about automated testing, so I gotta be at the lead of that, but mostly because it's a really cool thing).

If you guys know of anything out there that teaches or discusses such generalized ideas I would really appreciate you mentioning them. Whether they are online articles, blog posts, free pdf's or a paid book that I could order off of amazon or something, please mention them here.

(Just to clarify, the concept can be a very specific concept, so long as it's not restricted to only use existing software, or focuses on teaching the software/language as much or more than the ideas themselves)

[Ultrahex]

I am sure many people could potentially respond to this and provide you with a long list of books, a question for you would be; what are you trying to gain from the books.
From your post it seems almost anything, but at the same time maybe just about automated testing...
There are a fair bit of good methodology books about business practice that can apply directly to business in the field of CS and engineering (trying to determine the best way to use an employees time etc...).

Big concerns in a lot of workplaces are actually the following:
- Code Architecture
- Source Code Maintainability
- Code Versioning
- Testability
- Build Infrastructure
- Standards
- Design practices
- Time tracking

Almost if not all of these having no particularly good answer, but fields that are quite interesting and knowing what works for you and makes you the most efficient is always useful.

You may want to step back and learn the mainstream concepts also if you have not got around to learning them, as you said learning particular languages is not very useful, learning concepts and applying them is a lot more useful.

[mirhagk]

What I'm talking about is learning the theories behind computer science, i have done some automated testing research, and there are no good broad theories, because everything must be tailored made to each application.

So cross that off the list. Things I'm looking for are things like for instance learning about linked lists, but not learning how to implement/use them, but how they work, why they work etc (I know this about linked-lists it's just an example).

Things I don't know a lot about and I'd be interested in are basically solutions to computer programming competitions. Stuff like path-finding, Number theory, geometry etc. I am looking for stuff that might not help me in the business world, but things that would help me in competitions.

That's not to say that I am basing what I want to learn off of what's in competitions, I'm just saying those high level kind of theories are what I'm interested in. I wouldn't find much artificial intelligence among competitions, but I would definetly be interested in that.

It is very broad I know, but it's those kinds of things where you learn it and be like "WOW, that's really cool" and it doesn't just apply to specific problems, it applies to many, and knowing it opens your ideas to unique solutions everywhere.

[Tony]

Introduction to Algorithms by Thomas H. Cormen http://t.co/JwdoFmT via @amazon

[Brightguy]

A classic answer is Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming, which is extremely well-written, but also extremely vast. It's great to read over the topics you are interested in and to use as a reference. Also, it does not shy away from employing higher mathematics (which could be a blessing or a curse, depending on your viewpoint).

[mirhagk]

These books are monsters lol. I will definetly have to check them out. This seems like enough reading material for the next 5 years of my life. (Considering the fact one website review of the art of computer programming suggested ignoring the math for the first year you read it)

Thank you guys so much, your the best

[yoursecretninja]

I'm going to mention this one because one of the examples you made was learning the concepts behind OOP. Checkout Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. It's a classic.

[gruntdogg]

Hey all I am a new guy here. Extremely new to the world of programming. I am taking a class and I need some tutoring in pseudocode. Would anyone care to help a fella out?
if so please contact me.
also email
raymond.a.carson@us.army.mil
thanks much

[trishume]

Personally I really like "Beautiful Code"

Each chapter is by a different person and it talks about amazing programming they have encountered. It has everything from simple parsers and regular expression matchers to debugging quicksort.

[carmellabanker]

The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
Framework Design Guidelines 2nd Ed. by Cwalina & Abrams
Design Patterns by "The Gang of Four"
What other books should I pick up? Are any of these books not really worth it, or are there better ones out there for what these books teach?




Website solution | Web development Company | Web application

[ashwell]

I find it hard to draw the line between computer science and mathematics. My level of thinking and approach to both these subjects is very similar, so can i conclude that computer scienstist are mathematicians? If that is true how identical is the relation between them.

[mirhagk]

computer scientist actually all used to be mathematicians. Only recently has computer science come out as it's own field.

There is much overlap between the two, and indeed many computer science algorithms are developed by mathemagicians. I would say the difference is in what they normally do, do they normally work with computer algorithms, or equations in different fields.

[tedbean]

While it is true CS has many talented 'mathematicians', it does not mean they are mathematicians, and vice versa. The same goes for the engineering types or other science fields like physics or geology. A maths degree can lead you to a MS or PHD in maths, but in order to get postgraduate qualifications in CS or physics, you have to do a lot of CS or physics in addition to the maths you have learnt in the maths degree. You then may become a physicist with a PHD in PHYSICS or CS or GEOLOGY, but you would not be a PHD in maths, although you potentially could be one(because you have a bachelor in maths, but this does not mean you would.) Only when you later actually received the PHD in maths, you could then say you possess considerable knowledge and skills in mathematics (when comparing to others with PHDs in maths).

The point is, CS specialists are not mathematicians, they are very good at maths, this is just part of CS training. People with specific skills and talents could all claim to be experts in fields to which they don't really belong, but there are lots of skills like the mathematical are so important to many professions, the ability to apply them does not really make the person an exception, they are merely doing what the jobs require them to do.

In order to show you are exceptionally good at something, the best way is to apply for those jobs that use those skills that you claim to have, or go for those professional accreditation exams.

It is in my opinion if the job title(s) are professionally accredited by certain associations(like computing, accounting...), such title(s) would be the best guide to the person's academical achievement. People with PHDs would no doubt be qualified to call themselves experts in their respective fields.

In the highly developed contemporary world, it is really hard to be expert in more than 2 or 3 fields(if you are lucky! and they are usually closely related(like CS and maths, but here TWO PHDs are required), the others(say fishing or cooking, usually are just 'hobbies' unless the PHD in Biology also worked as a top rate chef for 10 years! But don't forget within cooking, we have sub specializations: seafood, pasta, sweets, cultural differences...)

Btw, a PHD in one language would find a book in foreign languages very very difficult(actually much more difficult than doing maths)...

[mirhagk]

Don't a lot of schools offer computer science programs with bachelor of math degrees? So then technically a computer scientist could be a mathematician, with only a single degree

[tedbean]

mirhagk @ Thu Feb 09, 2012 5:54 am wrote:

Don't a lot of schools offer computer science programs with bachelor of math degrees? So then technically a computer scientist could be a mathematician, with only a single degree

If a Professor of Physics or CS can 'technically' supervise a senior uni maths student or vice versa, then imo the answer is a yes.

People doing double or triple degrees almost always end up with 1 PHD, that PHD is their metier. But the reality is it would be so hard to even get a Bachelor!!!!!!