(Part 2) Best personal computer books according to redditors
We found 155 Reddit comments discussing the best personal computer books. We ranked the 80 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
Here's my list of the classics:
General Computing
Computer Science
Software Development
Case Studies
Employment
Language-Specific
C
Python
C#
C++
Java
Linux Shell Scripts
Web Development
Ruby and Rails
Assembly
I recall a "computer for dummy" book "for her". I found a reference in french only https://www.amazon.fr/PC-POUR-NULLES-FRANCOISE-OTWASCHKAU/dp/2754007695
They are insisting they don't go on the complicated stuff, like networking. They focus instead on the playful stuff like internet and social network 🙄.
When i saw this book on the shelve at Wal-Mart, i told my father that it was horribly sexist. He dare to tell me that it was probably adapted for women ( my ladybrain is WTF??), but that the quality of the content was probably as good af the men's version. The men's version was a really big book and the women was a tiny one. Of course they have the same info :/
It's indeed not easy to find such books. Depending on your needs these may also be suited:
A Retargetable C Compiler: Design and Implementation
Compiling for the .NET Common Language Runtime
Writing Compilers and Interpreters: A Software Engineering Approach
If you're feeling old school, you can buy a modern (dead-tree) book, The New Apple II User's Guide, about getting started with the Apple II.
Maplins do Raspberry Pi kits. There are plenty of easy sciency projects online, or you can get this book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Raspberry-Projects-Kids-Daniel-Bates/dp/1783982225/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1418987754&sr=8-1
I think you're kidding, but that book basically already exists.
Since this is semi-ambiguous I'd suggest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_interface_guidelines
IMHO the gold standard is Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines.
Everybody's learning style is different. Here are some books I believe to be essential for any novice or pro.
Programming For Dummies. It has a stupid title, but it is well reviewed for good reasons. I read through this beast in three weeks. There is no coding involved, as it is mostly theory, but it covers most of the bases of computer science and programming logic. Looking back, much of it confused me at first read, but the big ideas are all presented here. Reading this during the summer before first semester was a huge boost for me. All of the major computer languages are discussed in the book.
Cracking the Coding Interview. A book meant for veterans trying to get into highly demanding top tech companies, the book is a great introduction to programming paradigms. There are numerous examples of problems in each chapter with answers at the back of the book. The whole thing is in Java, with a short chapter on C++.
Design Patterns. As you learn more about object oriented programming, the concept of design is introduced. This book is the holy grail of software architecture and recommended by many. I would hold off acquiring it until you are certain that CS is where you want to be, it is quite technical. This book follows C++, although a Java version of the patterns exists on Github.com
A non-technical book just for fun:
The Innovators is essentially the story of computer science and how it got to present day. It follows the characters, human beings, that were involved each step of the way right up until modern day. Your professors will be impressed that you know who Alan Turing, Grace Hopper, and Charles Babbage were. If only I had been at THE MOTHER OF ALL DEMOS! The actual stories of Microsoft, Apple, The internet, the PC, video games, the space program, etc. On Quiz Up, a trivia app, every other question in the CS category involves names from this book. Read it just to be a real geek that knows where this stuff came from, and the drama/tension that led to innovation. The book is actually really funny at times.
It's important to note the context of this. In the book Beneath a Surface where this comes from, Brad Sams notes that Intel is having a problem with Ice Lake and Microsoft is worried that it would be Skylake and Pro 4 / Book 1 all over again. In light of all the "AMD driver bad" comments, this seems to indicate that Microsoft is getting that much doubtful about Ice Lake.
If you need some help understanding components, I wrote a pretty in depth guide and have put it online for everyone to read. You can find it for free on Scribd, Amazon and iTunes.
I realize that it is quite a lengthy read, but if you pick out certain sections that you want to understand better than it can be a very useful guide. Good luck!
I find Learning C# by Programming Games is an excellent resource. It uses the XNA framework so you can learn simple programming concepts and get a graphical and interactive output, which I think can really encourage beginners as some might get bored if they only print text to a screen.
Co Moderator Brandon Trebitowski wrote iPhone and iPad in Action - http://www.amazon.com/iPhone-iPad-Action-Brandon-Trebitowski/dp/1935182587
I worked on Objective-C Fundamentals - http://www.amazon.com/Objective-C-Fundamentals-Christopher-Fairbairn/dp/1935182536
They are both good for beginners and we would be looking here to answer questions you might have. Thanks!
>How valuable is an Oracle cert?
No more than any other online course from a respected institution such as google, say: https://cloud.google.com/training/free-labs/ or one of the online courses available at MIT/Stanford.
>What else should I look into to boost my repertoire?
See if your university has any business partnerships you could do a 2-3 month project for. I worked with one of the university's here in the UK as part of a business/university partnership and that gives the students real world experience and us some free work. Win-win if the project is completed.
Sorry - mostly UK (amazon) links :)
TDD - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Growing-Object-Oriented-Software-Guided-Signature/dp/0321503627/ref=sr_1_1, Video by Trisha Gee whos fairly well known for speaking on this stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDFI19lj4OM (some very handy shortcut keys in the video and a good outline of some of the tools available to you).
Clean Code - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882 (by "Uncle Bob")
Design patterns - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Head-First-Design-Patterns-Freeman/dp/0596007124/ref=sr_1_1
Learn to use shortcuts in Intelli J to speed up your ability to generate/refactor code: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Getting-started-IntelliJ-Hudson-Assumpção/dp/1849699615/ref=sr_1_1
Also Jetbrains does good newsletters (curated by the same lady that made the video above under TDD) sign up to stay up to date with interesting/relevant blogs/articles/industry news https://www.jetbrains.com/resources/newsletters/
Github - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Version-Control-Git-collaborative-development/dp/1449316387/ref=sr_1_4
Bash Commands - https://nikgrozev.com/2016/05/22/shell-cheatsheet-part-1-common-bash-scripting-tmux/
XP/Scrum/Kanban development process - https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/xp/ the way we work
Trusted developer blog on various engineering topics https://martinfowler.com/
Interview Prep https://www.hiredintech.com/courses
Hint: the above books are likely to be available at any academic library. If not, request them. you likely only need to read 33-50% of them and you'll be golden. I imagine you can likely get hold of electronic versions of these books as well.
The best thing you can do to prepare yourself is to start practising developing projects... get them up on github. it could be a website, a desktop application/game/tool, a demo of sorting algorithms, a web service... literally anything. Fork others' projects, code a feature request and create a pull request back to the original repository/codebase on github. Just build something rather than nothing. Anyone can do the latter. There's so much more opportunity now that we have github available. Think of any thing you might be interested in working on and someone, somewhere has likely already got a project underway in that area, and you're free to submit a pull request to their repository at the click of a button. This wasn't really possible 10-15 yrs ago.
The simple answer is there's so much to know, you just have to find what your interests/passions are and follow those as much as possible.
No matter how good you are at what you do today, the tools will be different tomorrow and may even depend on the industry you enter: AI, web services, blockchain, computer vision, robotics? The list is long and each one requires you to be highly trained (over many years) before you're considered any good at it.
Just try to learn what you can. Find something that genuinely interests you and study it until you become a trusted authority on the subject, or you find something you're more interested in instead.
If you have any ideas for the type of area you might be interested in put them up here and perhaps someone can point you to a relevant project?
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Howard_H._Aiken "Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats."
As someone who has written several thousand lines of AppleScript, including a single application clocking in at over 3000 lines by itself, I cannot recommend Applescript 1-2-3 enough. The book is very clearly laid out, easy to read, and ramps up difficulty at a very mild pace. It's a few years old now, but not too much has happened to the language since the book's publication date. The only notable language addition that the book does not cover is the ability to create your own full-fledged libraries in Mavericks+.
Also, just to point out the inverse of Kingtheseus' point, it should be noted that any shell commands can be executed from within an AppleScript with a simple "do shell script" line.
While it is true that Apple is more prone to dropping features without warning than other companies, AppleScript has been around for 22 years –since System 7 in 1993. That's only 3 years younger than BASH, the shell that interprets most "Unix scripts".
Learning AppleScript has several benefits. Many OS X applications (particularly those that are "Mac first" or Mac exclusive) only expose certain functionality via AppleScript dictionaries, not shell script commands.
Applescripts can also have full Cocoa GUIs, has a type of variable (the "property") that stores its modified values across executions (a lot easier than writing a BASH shell script that stores and loads values from a text file,) you can display interactive GUI dialogs to users with a single line of code, easily package entire AppleScript "apps" that contain all sorts of program resources in a real app bundle, automate all native OS X GUIs (though that should always be a thing of last resort. Trust me.), and much, much more.
It is a wonderful language, and as a Casper sysadmin I have found it invaluable on numerous occasions.
Aside from the book, Script Debugger from Late Night Software is practically mandatory. It's been around nearly as long as AppleScript itself and is an invaluable tool for writing anything beyond a dozen-line quickie. Other useful tools include UI Browser from PFiddlesoft and Key Codes from Many Tricks, just in case you do need to script another application's GUI.
Compiling for the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) and Inside Microsoft .NET IL Assembler
I'm a fan of The New Apple II User's Guide.
This book on Amazon
I normally wouldn't recommend The Audio Programming Book to a seasoned programmer, because it seems to assume that you know nothing about programming in general. However, if you're inexperienced at programming, this might be just the place to start.
For someone who already knows some programming, a good book on basic audio programming is A Programmer's Guide to Sound.
A nice, short book on writing software using basic synthesis techniques is Software Synthesis: Making Music with a Computer. It also includes a C++ library you can use.
If you want some immediate hands-on, I would recommend checking out The Synthesis Toolkit in C++.
To code a VST that you can actually use with your DAW, check out the website and books by Will Pirkle.
There are lots of good books and other resources on the topic, but these should make your entrance down the rabbit hole more enjoyable.
https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Office-2013-Introductory-Cashman-ebook/dp/B00CS7MNK8
https://www.amazon.com/Discovering-Computers-2014-Shelly-Cashman-ebook/dp/B00DHLUMP2/
If you prefer reading a book, try
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EIHZWO0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_taa_XhCpDbRDQX44M
Use pcpartpicker.com to create a computer, and then check out this buyers guide to make sure everything is compatible without too many modifications. i know the one i made is over your budget, but maybe you can find some parts used and it's at least a place to start. you'll also need a wifi card which runs around $70.
Do some research, ask questions, but DO NOT use tonymacx to actually install OSX, instead follow a vanilla install guide, and learn about kexts, clover, bootloaders, CC, and other Hackintosh related things. this is important, again, don't use unibeast or mulitbeast... do things manually and save yourself a shitload of trouble down the line.
maybe buy this ebook to find out more if you, like me, started off knowing ZERO about computers and hackintoshes.
best of luck! feel free to PM me if you have specific Q's! i'm not a master, but i can probably help point you in the right direction!
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel - Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor | $187.89 @ SuperBiiz
CPU Cooler | Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler | $24.88 @ OutletPC
Motherboard | Gigabyte - GA-H170N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard | $112.99 @ SuperBiiz
Memory | Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory | $122.99 @ Best Buy
Storage | Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive | $127.99 @ B&H
Video Card | Zotac - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Mini Video Card | $133.99 @ SuperBiiz
Case | Phanteks - Enthoo EVOLV ITX Mini ITX Tower Case | $65.99 @ NCIX US
Power Supply | EVGA - SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $69.89 @ OutletPC
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $871.61
| Mail-in rebates | -$25.00
| Total | $846.61
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-09 17:47 EDT-0400 |
this book
Alternatively, blow $30 on this book, and learn how to do it yourself
In a non-academic-but-easily-understandable way, The Cartoon Guide to the Computer by Larry Gonick and Mark Wheelis is wonderful.
It won't give you absolutely everything, but it explains things like flip-flops, drams, Turing Machines, programming languages, etc., as well as a brief history of the computer.
If you're looking for in-depth, you'll want to look elsewhere, but if you want a brief look at how it all fits together in a way that's readily digestible, it doesn't get better than this.
It's a shame because the documentation they had for the original Macintosh Toolbox was excellent, not to mention the groundbreaking Human Interface Guidelines.
you might enjoy this then
It's a bit old now, but I strongly recommend this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Programmers-Guide-Sound-Tim-Kientzle/dp/0201419726/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1291153721&sr=1-3
It got me on the road to audio development and provides a good groundwork for the basics.
If you want to do realtime sound generation, you're probably going to have to get into C, C++ (or Obj-C on the Mac, but most audio code is pure C anyway - it's manipulating buffers of numbers as fast as possible, so Garbage Collection and managed code type languages tend to get in the way - most audio libraries are C/C++ at their heart).
The UI can pretty much be written in anything, provided it can interface to a C library - I tend to use Python + wxPython to knock up quick interfaces if I want a UI.