(Part 2) Best computer software books according to redditors
We found 1,200 Reddit comments discussing the best computer software books. We ranked the 268 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.
Some context, I've been living in this house for about 3 years now, my girlfriend and i moved in to take care of the owner of the house. Turns out that he was a big lisp / scheme hacker back in the 80s-90s and had developed a lot of cutting edge tech in his hay day. Anyway, these books have been hiding in his library downstairs...
It was like finding a bunch of hidden magical scrolls of lost knowledge :)
edit: I will compile a list of the books later. I'm out doing 4th of July things.
update: List of books
ISBN: 1-55558-044-0
ISBN: 1-55558-042-4
ISBN: 0-262-56038-0
ISBN: 0-393-95544-3
ISBN: 0-201-17589-4
ISBN: 0-07-000-422-6
ISBN: 0-13-370875-6
ISBN: 0-07-054666-5
ISBN: 0-262-11158-6
ISBN: 1-55860-191-0
ISBN: 1-59059-239-5
ISBN: 0-932376-41-X
ISBN: 0-07-001115-X
ISBN: 0-673-39773-4
ISBN: 0-262-07093-6
ISBN: 0-932376-87-8
ISBN: 0-13-717232-X
ISBN: 0-417-50308-8
ISBN: 0-471-60771-1
ISBN: 0-262-19288-8
ISBN: 0-262-55017-2
ISBN: 0-13-834284-9
ISBN: 1-935182-64-1
ISBN: 978-1-59327-591-4
I've worked in industry for 14 years, and I've never seen anyone use a graphing calculator. This includes engineers (mechanical, electrical, industrial, chemical), statisticians, and programmers.
The only people I've seen use a hand-held calculator were some older mechanical engineers who used one of the classic HP RPN models, like the 11C or 15C. In general, engineers tend to love the HP RPN calculators, even when they're students. TI calculators are viewed as toys by most of them. For actual computational work they tend to use Matlab.
I don't understand why math departments continue to insist that students use things like the TI-83 or other graphing calculators in lower-division courses. I remember there was a big push for that back in the late '80s/early '90s during the ill-fated "reform calculus" movement in academia. This was before the widespread use of computers that began around '95-96. It's simply outdated. Even worse, it shows how disconnected some math departments have become with what people are actually using these days.
I think graphing calculators are the slide rule of the new millennium. Luckily, some departments and individual instructors have started to realize that and have been getting students more used to using things like Matlab or even Sage. And there has been an increase in the number of stats books that either mention or use R. For example, this introductory stats book which uses R throughout. So the good news is that there is at least the beginning of a movement that recognizes how outdated the graphing calculator approach is.
In this order:
As you wish to get into applied statistics (i.e. actually analyzing data), you'll need software. I'd strongly recommend learning and using R because it's completely free and incredibly powerful.
Here are some resources for learning statistics using R:
Then, these websites provide very valuable resources for doing statistics with R:
Hope that helps.
I would say: Go for it as long as you are interested in the job :)
For study references for remembering R and Statistics, I think all you would need would be:
For R, data cleaning and the such: http://r4ds.had.co.nz/ and for basic statistics with R probably either Daalgard for Applied Statistics with R and something like OpenIntroStats or Freedman for review of stats
Here is a student version of labview plus an Arduino for $50.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11225
You can use the arduino for real data acquisition and output. You can also learn labview and the arduino idk, which is C or something similar.
I have also found that this is a good reference book even though it is for version 8.
http://www.amazon.com/LabVIEW-Everyone-Graphical-Programming-Edition/dp/0131856723/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1405129568&sr=8-2&keywords=jim+kring
Let me know if you need any ideas for projects!
Io andrei subito diretto al punto:
Kernighan e Ritchie
Credo sia l'unico libro che io abbia mai usato.
I found this very useful: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drupal-Module-Development-Matt-Butcher/dp/1849511160
I love Coders at Work. Not at autobiography though, but a set of interviews. Very entertaining.
There is also an older book with interviews: Programmers at Work.
I loved reading the book this interview came from. When Susan Lammers asked the CD-ROM question to all those different programmers, some of them saw that the real question was "how does software change when your computer has access to enormous amounts of data?" Which is really the internet; CD-ROMs were kind of a false dawn. It means the contents of this 1986 book are still relevant.
I can't tell you anything about Code Avengers, but the Codecademy course, even after the major overhaul they did to improve it, the javascript courses(and a lot of the other courses, but we'll leave those out) are still lacking in my opinion. Some are just soooo awfully written that you're forced to go to the Q&A section to just copy and paste and answer. Even on the courses that were understandable and worked alright, they were monotonous and I also feel that some of the lessons were stretched out for some reason; perhaps for fear that the information wouldn't stick.
However, I don't think that sites like that should necessarily be used for learning; I'd rather point you to books such as this and video tutorials for really learning the language. Sites like codecademy are positively wonderful for review; I doubt there's a more engaging way of reviewing and fine-tuning your mind for programming other than actively using the language, which is what really makes a programmer.
Proof of my account
The idea of specifying dimensional information in code is not a new one, and I think a lot of work on that was done in Ada decades ago.
In C++, I seem to recall the work done in Scientific and Engineering C++ and, more recently, in C++ Template Metaprogramming.
Incidentally, the latter book has the chapter dealing with dimensional analysis available as a sample chapter.
In Common Lisp, I know of the Measures package, part of LOOM.
Professional JavaScript for Web Developers. Zakas is one of the best.
Not sure what your skill level is, or the application you're using MATLAB for, but here are a few resources:
You may want a book as well, I've used MATLAB for Engineers, which has all the basic information you need, programming, plotting, etc.
I would recommend learning to program in the MATLAB environment as it's probably the most useful skill to have, and gives you exposure to the capabilities MATLAB offers. You will learn quickly that MathWorks wants to sell you addons that does the work for you, but if you can program it will save a lot of money.
Hey, I briefed over some of the comments here, and while I feel a number of them are useful and necessary, I think you need an actual hard copy book to start with, rather than jumping right the hell into the manuals.
The book I started with, with absolute minimal programming experience (just some C++ classes in high school), is Larry Ullman's PHP book. I started on the second edition, and it was everything I needed to get started programming with PHP and making dynamic applications. It should cover basics of MySQL and top the book off with regular expressions, which are absolutely necessary to any serious web developer, and he makes everything feel very accessible.
After some months of that and programming, you would be ready to enhance your skills, and his follow up Advanced PHP book covers a lot of interesting and esoteric areas. It might be more than you need, but it does start off with some practical chapters in OOP and classes.
In-between the two, he wrote a MySQL and PHP combination book that sort of acts as a stepping stone between the beginner's book and the advanced book, and it might actually be the most you need to program in PHP, but I found the Advanced book handy to use, and the first book I linked you was my personal guide and reference for about a year and a half as I grew in my skill set.
Here is an image of something I threw together that could work for presenting data across two distinct groups, as you are describing. It isn't a pie chart, although you could use the same philosophy of creating two colors for your series and using labels to differentiate each of the boys and girls. You could also do an exploded pie, but I'm not a big fan of them (to each his own, though). I based this build off of a blog post on BaconBits, an Excel blog by the author of Excel Dashboards (among other books). The process is a bit cumbersome, but it can create some cool looking chart effects for dashboards. The post explaining the process can is found here. Here is the spreadsheet if you want to explore it. Good luck.
I am glad that you are enjoying C++. The initial enthusiasm often comes from the neat tricks that one can do in the language and the sense of power that one gets from knowing the dark corners of the language. However to really understand how to use C++ effectively check out the following two books;
They are the ones which taught me how to look at C++ i.e. as a set of syntactical constructs which allow you to model problem concepts and how to do it effectively.
The challenge is learning the structure, logic, and capabilities of the language. This book is a good starting point. (There are also similar free PDFs online.) The book is accompanied by a package with a bunch of sample data sets ("UsingR"). It will give you a feel for the language. Once you have that, really the best thing to do is play around with it--find sample data sets and see what it's capable of. The Intro to R manual, and the package manuals, will then begin to make more sense and you'll be able to dive in pretty quickly. Again, the best thing is to experiment.
And as for multilevel modeling, the package I usually come across is lme4. There are others, as well.
The non-helpful answer: Drupal has a crazy learning curve.
I'd highly recommend getting "Drupal 7 Module Development" by PACKT http://amzn.com/1849511160 and actually reading it... Do some work, then read over related chapters again. I come from a OOP background and structure a lot of my work in classes too. Drupal 8 is very MVC and OOP orientated
If you're lucky, when your own curiosity brings you there.
I taught myself assembly using this textbook, and a copy of Intel's x86 instruction manual, over the summer after graduating college. Java was the language of choice for the C.S. program at my university. C was used in the OS and some computer graphics classes (others used Java 3D), but everything else was high-level, no memory management, with a virtual machine and garbage collector to wipe my ass and feed me crackers. (Here's a very recently published book.)
In my experience, learning assembly helped me gain a deep understanding of how programming works. With a 1-to-1 (almost always) mapping between a line of assembly and a CPU instruction, I felt like I was directly instructing the computer in a way I never feel using high-level languages. From that, I gained an appreciation of how low-level C programming can be, because you can see immediately how C statements are transformed into assembly. After learning assembly, I deliberately compiled programs into assembler with GCC so I could look at the code, because I could finally understand it.
And then I learned C++, and saw how it could be built directly on top of C.
And now it all makes sense.
From Dennis Ritchie himself: "By early 1973, the essentials of modern C were complete."
See http://csapp.cs.cmu.edu/3e/docs/chistory.html for more details and dates. If you want something with a specific date, publication of "The C Programming Language" was Feb 22, 1978 (https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-Brian-W-Kernighan/dp/0131101633).
1978 was also the year pcc was released, which made it much easier to port C to other systems (both other machine architectures and non-Unix platforms) and eventually shipped as the official C compiler with Unix.
I wrote a blog post once upon a time about this: http://drupalconnect.com/blog/how-learn-drupal
That said, I think it depends on how your mind works. Do you like to learn by doing? Or do you prefer to learn by reading and researching?
If by doing, just pick a site and start building it and ask questions in IRC or drupal.stackexchange.com or here as you go. You don't really need any prior info--just google "installing drupal" to get started, then click around for a bit and see how far you can get by doing that and googling things as you go.
If by reading, check out https://drupal.org/node/1576418 (free) and http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920010890.do as a start, then move on to http://www.amazon.com/Drupal-Module-Development-Matt-Butcher/dp/1849511160 when you're ready to start building custom modules.
And as always, feel free to ask questions here as you go, especially in this weekly thread. :) Hope that helps. I know it's a somewhat vague answer but I think it's a little difficult to nail down this topic since everybody's so different.
This was Stack Overflow: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0131101633/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_RVMWCb7824M1Z
SO Guide on Java Books
Better SO Thread
You may feel dumb walking around with it, but it helps with the foundations and verbiage you’ll see everyday, Construction Management JumpStart 2nd Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470609990/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_-jPPDbW33AFFR
Are you hoping to become a project manager at some point? If you want books that explain more about construction project management there are plenty. I recommend this book: http://www.amazon.ca/Construction-Management-JumpStart-Toward-Career/dp/0470609990/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369525360&sr=1-1&keywords=construction+management
It's a really easy read and doesn't get boring and if you are working with a construction management company it will be VERY applicable. You might even surprise a few people at work.
For statistical models in ecology, I reccommend Ben Bolker's Ecological Models and Data in R.
I'm taking a stats class right now and we're just working our way through Ben Bolker's book which is decent and goes through a lot of stats theory. It's completely R based though, which may or may not be helpful to you.
http://www.amazon.com/Ecological-Models-Data-Benjamin-Bolker/dp/0691125228
C For Dummies, Volumes 1 and 2, by Dan Gookin. At almost 1200 pages, it goes through everything a beginner should know in a very readable way, with no preconditions on prior knowledge. These books will take you from a complete novice to the sort of programmer who can pick up another language similar to C (most of them) in a couple of weeks.
Unfortunately it looks like they shrunk these tomes into a single book that doesn't even mention pointers in the most recent version. C All-in-One Desk Reference may be closer.
Peopleware, by Tom DeMarco. If you ever want to manage a software development team, or even really work with a team, you owe it to yourself to read this book. Team Geek is in the same realm.
JavaScript: The Good Parts, by Douglas Crockford is a necessary read if you're doing anything significant in modern web development. JavaScript is a weird little language and if you don't know best practices, it's very, very easy to get lost. This book will tell you where not to look.
How about yourself, OP?
> My supervisor wants to have an option in the main VI to choose one of the circuits. How can I go about doing this?
An event loop which takes an input and then conditionally runs the code.
Best to start at basics:
https://www.amazon.com/LabVIEW-Everyone-Graphical-Programming-Made/dp/0131856723
On Linux I recommend grabbing the latest SBCL. If you really need to stay on Windows, then CLISP is fine.
You can edit code in any text editor, so simply choose your favorite one on any platform. You will find most of the main CL nerds use emacs and SLIME as their "IDE".
As for books, there are no good books on Lisp. I'm serious, every last one of them sucks ass out loud. But here is a list, taken in order from beginner level (that's you) to CHICK MAGNET (that's me).
Good luck, it's a good job you're getting started young. But CL will ruin you for other languages FYI.
I've found that I gained most of my best experience on the job, and that staying at a job where I wasn't learning anything was a huge mistake and detriment to my career.
That said... I don't think I'm a super genius either. I did well in college and my GPA helped with my first few jobs. But I have lots of hobbies outside of work, and rarely spend my time at home thinking about the office. A lot of times companies aren't looking for the super genius type either... if they were they'd have a hard time filling staffing requirements. I think the keys are learning how to interview well, focusing on letting the interviewer know that you're willing and good at learning and having the basics of OOO down to a T. Come off as confident, even if you don't feel it. It never hurts.
As far as books go, here are some of my favorites:
Programming Interviews Exposed
Programming Pearls
Refactoring
I'm mostly a java programmer, so here are three absolutely necessary java books:
Head First Design Patterns
Core Java 1
Core Java 2 - Advanced
It's very clear for a book on mathematical statistics. It also considers the Bayesian (and even Empirical Bayesian) approach. I'm sometimes shocked at what it covers and how well it covers it in so few pages. For example, there's a nice section on the EM algorithm, which most books in the same class don't cover (unless they're huge).
Edit: I should mention... if you're a scientist looking for how statistics works this is the book for you. If you want to learn a ton about regression/ANOVA, time-series, covariance structures, blah, blah, blah, this book is not for you. A great introduction (for all scientists) that covers this stuff quickly and effectively (as well as MLE, optimization, and R) is Ecological Models and Data with R.
Edit 2: If you want applied linear models, Applied Linear Statistical Models is good, but doesn't use R. Luckily formula objects and delayed evaluation give R some beautiful expressivity here.
Depends on your experience. If you haven't programmed before, I think Big Java would be a good book to start with (it's the book MIT's Civil Engineering Dept uses to get them up to speed with Java). If you've programmed before, you're better off doing the official java tutorials followed by Core Java 1 and Core Java 2.
Regardless of the path you take, if you intend to do ANY kind of "serious" java programming, Effective Java is a must-read.
Finally, you'll want a good reference book. Gosling's Java Book is the definitive one, although you might prefer a book by O'Reilly.
Reading recommendation (pardon me for being so crusty old) --
"Compiler Design in C" - Alan I. Holub
http://www.amazon.com/Compiler-Design-C-Prentice-Hall-Software/dp/0131550454/ref=ed_oe_h
(Only $3.95 used, and almost 2000 pages!)
>What is constructor.
It is code that is executed whenever you instantiate and object. It allows you to automatically perform some processing every time you create an object.
For instance, if you had a "BankAccount" object that had a DateTime property called "DateOpened", you might have your constructor set DateOpened = DateTime.Now;
>Ex 2) I understand string x. What I can't understand is hello myhello. hello being a class. I see that it is a class...but what I get is the wall is white and its named myWall when I need to know how to build a house.
I'm afraid I don't understand what you're asking. Do you know what "methods" and "properties" are, and how they relate to a class/object?
A method describes what a class does or can do. A property describes features about a class. I always thought of methods as the verbs of my object, and properties as the adjectives of my object. A telephone object has a "Ring" and "Dial" method. It also has a "Color" or "Brand" property.
I would suggest putting down ASP.NET for now and just concentrating on C# and OOP concepts. The C# for Dummies book actually does a decent job of teaching you about classes, inheritance, polymorphism etc...
C# for Dummies? (I'm pretty sure you can find it online as well)
Maybe you missed one of these books:
Compiler Design in C
[A Retargetable C Compiler: Design and Implementation](http://www.amazon.com/Retargetable-Compiler-Design-Implementation/dp/0805316701/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396702490&
sr=1-1&keywords=A+Retargetable+C+Compiler%3A+Design+and+Implementation)
Back when I started working in Unix I read that book and _The_C_ProgrammingLanguage
https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-Brian-W-Kernighan/dp/0131101633?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-d-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0131101633
I read them cover to cover at least twice.
When you start to grasp the syntax, start reading code. Read the source code to the string functions in the C library, or the stdio functions. Understand that these are, by no means, examples of excellent code or design. But they are examples of working code, which are relatively easy to understand.
Il terzo sopratutto, se puoi investirci qualche soldo, è secondo me il più veloce. Non parlo strettamente di quel corso gratuito in italiano, ma di tutti i corsi presenti nel portale. Essendo direttamente applicativi ti mitigano la curva di apprendimento di molte volte.
Dell'ultimo libro (ma anche dello springer) ci sono poi tutti i seguiti nelle rispettive collane, in base al proprio indirizzo e a quello che si vuole fare (medicina, finanza, cibo, ecologia, morfologia, etc.)
edit: credo esistano svariati corsi base in inglese su youtube, e qualcosa pure in italiano.
I really liked Excel Dashboards and Reports by Michael Alexander and John Walkenbach. I have a little Excel library at my desk and every time I reach for that one I have to track it down because it keeps getting borrowed.
A couple resources I am already aware of: constructionknowledge.net
This book: http://www.amazon.com/Construction-Management-JumpStart-Toward-Career/dp/0470609990/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=2DX3TEPKWKM&coliid=I22448IN2GEL8P... I haven't read it but I saw someone suggest it before.
Find a project! LabVIEW's WAY too much to dive into without a specific goal to guide your efforts. I'd recommend (as I always do in these threads) picking up a copy of LabVIEW for Everyone ( https://www.amazon.com/LabVIEW-Everyone-Graphical-Programming-Made/dp/0131856723 ) for a readily accessible reference.
Do yourself a favor and avoid posting on the NI forums (they can be a bit on the snarky side), but definitely use the site as a reference.
This is good advice. Check out /r/learnprogramming and read the sidebar! There is a lot of good info there.
Not only that, but I second the Python recommendation. Python is a great first language (easy to use, easy for non-programmers to read, lots of built-in features) and it's widely used (Reddit uses it!).
I used Wesley Chun's Core Python Programming and the accompanying Live Lessons tutorials to get myself back into programming after a seven-year hiatus. I highly recommend the Live Lessons.
core python
We've been using this: http://www.amazon.com/MATLAB-Engineers-Edition-Holly-Moore/dp/0133485978
When I do use it, it has pretty helpful explanations and examples. It's also pretty easy to skim, which is nice.
Buy a book or books that have been published relatively recently.
I recommend
http://www.amazon.com/CSS-Mastery-Advanced-Standards-Solutions/dp/1590596145/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1218481072&sr=11-1
and
http://www.amazon.com/Professional-JavaScript-Developers-Wrox-Guides/dp/0764579088/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218481458&sr=1-1
There might be better javascript books out there however, as it can get rather quirky. Learning a framework like Jquery is also a plus.
You could also poke around on http://www.crockford.com/
I recommend Core Java Series. Volume 1 and Volume 2
Both are great read and covers good fundamental principles. I am sure you can find it cheaper somewhere else.
This really helped me get started a few years ago. It's not bland, and it's slightly entertaining.
It's designed so you could hand it to someone who's never used excel and to take them up to having a grasp on VBA and some advanced formulas like array formulas. I haven't picked it up in about a year it doesn't sound like it would be a massive learning jump for yourself.
When it comes to charts/reports etc there are actually 2 books that I'm still deciding if I should buy or not. Both have been recomended to myself but I'm waiting until payday before buying them myself so can't testify to how good they actually are.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1118519655/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=26FRQZR9FPSJT&coliid=I2TLB44KQWBWAS
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1118490428/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=26FRQZR9FPSJT&coliid=I3LYA71RKLXI19
I don't know any beginning X86 Assembly books but this is the closest thing I could find and strongly recommend you read this online or purchase it:
Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers
Python:
Python for Informatics
Learning Python
I personally used these books in college
C/C++:
Please see SADISTICBLUE's comment above.
It's a fairly old book, but I loved "Compiler Design in C" by Allen Holub. Plus, it's legitimately available online for free now.
https://www.amazon.com/Common-Lispcraft-Robert-Wilensky/dp/0393955443
Look no further. This book here is all you need. Comes with a CD and everything. I found it very useful.
First note that Career/Job/Market is quite different from Knowledge/Intellectual satisfaction. So you have to keep "earning money" separate from "gaining knowledge" but do both parallely. If you are one of the lucky few who has both aligned in a particular job, you have got it made. Mostly that is never the case and hence you have to work on your Motivation/Enthusiasm and keep hammering away at the difficult subjects. There are no shortcuts :-)
I prefer Books to the Internet for study since they are more coherent and less distracting, allowing you to focus better on a subject. Unless newer editions are reqd. buy used/older editions to save money and build a large library. So here is a selection from my library (in no particular order);
Here are some:
update: including "Core Python Programming
Awesome!! I'd say going to school for it is a great start!
I'd make sure to get involved with any construction specific student orgs. Alot of them are affiliated with professional orgs like the AGC, ABC and NAHB. On top of that, any more experience or internships you can get will do you well!
Here's a $15 textbook from Amazon. It's a great read, not your typical dry learning. Construction Management JumpStart: The Best First Step Toward a Career in Construction Management https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470609990/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_tU5MAb2GW7Z3F
Also try to kinda get an idea of what sector you'd want to lean towards. Some schools make you specialize in home building, commercial, or heavy civil.
I don't yet know which text (if any) they're using for the class this semester and unfortunately I won't have any say in making that decision. When I took the class they used Using R for Introductory Statistics but I didn't find it particularly helpful.
If you're on linux I recommend Blum or Irvine if you're on Windows.
Some video tutorials which helped me a lot:
Windows x86 programming
Linux x86 programming
Some more videos if you become really interested here.
Once you do the first two steps in my previous post, download a starter kit:
http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/starterkits/
Read through the code and try to discover how it works. If you really have absolutely no experience in programming then you'll have to go over the fundamentals on your own.
There really is no easy way, other than buying yourself resources and studying them or taking classes.
Maybe try purchasing something like C# for dummies
http://www.amazon.com/Dummies-CD-ROM-Stephen-R-Davis/dp/0764508148
or spend time asking questions in /r/learnprogramming
If you have a library card, most libraries carry a lot of beginning PHP books. Most of the systems I look at have this one and there are definitely enough. Just search for php books on amazon and type in some titles...
Also, torrents?
You could do worse than
Daalgard
C for Dummies, hands down the funest introduction to a programming language I've ever had.
> Vincent Black Lightning
I had to look it up - but it’s only an under $1m item. Any average tech bro around here can afford it.
In fact, read this book and you, too, can own one:
https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-Brian-W-Kernighan/dp/0131101633/