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The 5 Books that Every Programmer Should Read

turnofthecrank.com — Over the years I have read many programming related books, and there are a few that really should be required reading for anyone who develops software. All of these books are language-neutral and cover ideas that pertain to any kind of programming.

Who dugg this? Made popular Dec 2, 2006

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  • JeffH, on 10/12/2007, -10/+46No C++ GUI Programming Guide?
  • Takteek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+34It's funny... whenever a site is down now, I actually scroll down the comments page looking for a link to duggmirror.com because I'm too lazy to type it in the address bar.
  • robustyoungsoul, on 10/12/2007, -3/+28No Donald Knuth?
  • jambarama, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26Abusing the comment system because the article is down. Here is the text:

    Code Complete
    by Steve McConnell
    Some will say that the majority of the knowledge in this book is common sense, which reminds me of the quote, “Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius.” by George Bernard Shaw. It covers just about every aspect of programming. McConnell is a great writer. Although the book is large, it’s easy to read and understand.

    The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
    by Andrew Hunt, David Thomas
    I really can’t decide if I like The Pragmatic Programmer or Code Complete better. They are both similar books in that they cover a lot of general programming practices. Andy and Dave have a very down to earth writing style. The book, like Code Complete, is very easy to read. This book is fully of practical advise, that for some reason just does not seem to get taught in computer science courses. If every computer science graduate was required to read this book before graduating, I think the world would be a better place.

    Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and Iterative Development
    by Craig Larman
    Don’t be mistaken by the title of this book. This is THE book for learning object-oriented analysis and design. Larman goes through each step of the process, taking an application from concept to completion. It covers requirements gathering, creating use cases, agile development, iterative development cycles, testing, and of course UML. The code examples are in Java, but you don’t really need to know Java to understand what is going on.

    Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
    by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides
    If you’re a programmer I’m sure you’ve heard of this book. It’s one of the most famous software engineering books ever written. This book is a tough read. The examples are in C++, which might be why I had such a difficult time with it. It’s well worth it though. Recognizing and using software patterns is an important part of being a good programmer.

    Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
    by Martin Fowler, Kent Beck, John Brant, William Opdyke, Don Roberts
    If you’re a professional coder, more than likely you’re going to spend a large part of your time fixing/modifying code that someone else wrote. It’s the nature of the beast. This book is a catalog of common problems in code, and the best way of Refactoring them. Reading this book will greatly increase your ability to detect bad code and fix it.

    Any books I missed?
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+27If you can't make a hammer do the job, you're not hitting hard enough.
  • crzdmn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18c is a core for programming, but not the answer to all programming.
  • idontwanttortfm, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15That's kind of a silly comment (and this is coming from someone whose first and favorite language is C). If you know what you're doing, you know how to pick the right tool for the job. In some cases that tool is C, in other it's perl, and in other cases another language is the best choice. C is an excellent hammer, but not all problems are nails.
  • noksagt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15The Mythical Man Month!
  • ndonohue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10god i thought no one else did that...
  • burke, on 10/12/2007, -6/+14K&R, Stroustrup, Friedl, Knuth.

    Done.
  • ishmal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I don't believe, how when someone mentions books for computer programmers, they could possibly miss "The Art of Computer Programming" volumes by Donald Knuth. You can either use them as references, or read them cover-to-cover. TAOCP is holy writ, as far as I'm concerned.

    Oh, wait. Someone did mention Knuth above.
  • oepapel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6No Tannenbaum?
  • Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -6/+12UML? No. Hell ***** no.
  • blapierre, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7No Frederick P. Brooks?
  • antdude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5http://duggmirror.com/programming/The_5_Books_that_Every_Programmer_Should_Read/ for referrer blockers.
  • diggapleaze, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6If you're into database design, *definitely* check out C.J. Date's classic, "Database in Depth". It's all about the relational theory baby.

    http://www.amazon.com/Database-Depth-Relational-Theory-Practitioners/dp/0596100124/sr=8-1/qid=1165042126/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0499176-2001749?ie=UTF8&s=books

    very quick read, and you learn so much about how broken all the current implementations of SQL are.
  • anamanaman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Rapid Development by Steve McConnell is high on my list. Pragmattic Programmer definately the tops though. Design Patterns book is overrated.
  • gharding, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I'd rather kill myself than refactor. Just throwing that out there.

    Oh, and Pragmatic Programmer rocks.
  • boran, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I definetly have to concur with the "Applying UML and Patterns" book. it's definetly an eye-opener if you have a vague idea of OO and patterns but are not sure what to actually do with them.
  • mercurysquad, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6No Knuth "Art of computer programming", neither CLRS "Introduction to Algorithms" ..........

    This list is saddd....
  • Petrov101, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4The Art of Unix Programming by Eric S. Raymond c.2004

    Even if you're a windows programmer, this is a great read. You will find very little code in this book. It's about design philosophy.

    Section 1 discusses the history of unix with many comments about what the OS got right and what it got wrong (and why).

    Section 2 covers design.

    Highly recommended.
  • diabolicglacier, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3http://duggmirror.com/programming/The_5_Books_that_Every_Programmer_Should_Read/

    Down for the count..
  • sohamehta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3And where is Mythical Man-Month?
  • Valarauka, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That would be "The Mythical Man-Month", by Fred Brooks.
  • basbd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4http://duggmirror.com
  • gilesroberts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Code Complete is a great book. If the guy who wrote the original article uses a lot of design patterns then I would suggest that he needs to read a bit more. About 80% of the patterns mentioned in those books are things the compiler can do for you if you get the right language. The person above who mentioned The Little Schemer (nee the The Little Lisper) is bang on the money. Plus I'd add The Art of the Metaobject Protocol is the best implementation of OO that I've ever seen.
  • akashra, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Joel on Software needs to be on that list. The best software writing vol 1 isn't bad either.
  • trohil, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schneier is a great explaination to any programmer on security and I would add it as well.
  • andersnc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Very strange MMM isn't on that list, I'd consider that substantially more important than three books about UML/OO.

    "I would not trust a developer who has not read at least half of these book[sic]."

    I'll forgive the lack of plurality, but proposing the top 5 and then mandating one should read half of them is a little ... odd. Or maybe that's where the "half of book" comes in.
  • raeldc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I would also appreciate it if someone can recommend some books about project management? Thanks.
  • 1021, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You can also say Assembler is the core of all programming. In fact, back in the newsgroup-days of the 1990's, these kind of rants by lower-level languages like Assembler were made against higher level languages like C++. Believe me, if you were trying to make a serious enterprise-level application with a serious budget, you won't be using C, you'll probably be using some higher level language.
  • gr4v3d1gg3r, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I learned c and c++ from Herbert Schildt . I have c++ the complete reference.Highly recommend it.
  • nj10ii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What, no pissing out the fires by Fred U Kuthe?
  • gilesroberts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Agreed. Damn those pesky libraries. They'll ruin us all. Except... Name the video game that's sold more copies than Tomb Raider and is written in Lisp? Also name the first video game that showed what the PS2 was really capable of that's not coincidentally written in Lisp?
  • eoliveri, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Anything written by Dijkstra. Sparkling gems.
  • CuteAlien, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You want C++ for it's libraries. At least when programming games. You don't have much choice there otherwise.
  • sam1am, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Here's a recommendation for CLRS. Thought back when I first read it it was just CLR..

  • 1021, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1mercury, I read this book as well and needed to point out that the art of Cryptography at it's core implies an understanding of the mathematical functions used in creating security methods. With that said, you are right in saying that for an "Applied" book, it does contain a lot more mathematics than code fragments. Still, a great book, I wouldn't go without reading it if you are into the security field, etc.
  • ssgelm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No SICP? (http://www.amazon.com/Structure-Interpretation-Computer-Programs-Engineering/dp/0262011530)
  • epicbard, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2mirror?
  • groverblue, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3And so what if they are? That doesn't make the benefits of providing this list any less significant. If someone is taking the time to compile a list of books I should read (which will help me), then I don't care if they make money on the links. Besides, if I'm interested, the link will take me right to Amazon to purchase the thing, another bonus.

    Now, let's hear your argument to the contrary, instead of your spewing of non-contributive dribble.
  • bpapa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There is a book by Kernighan and Pike (C Programming Language guys) callled the Practice of Programming that I think is really worth looking at.
  • AhmedB, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Even though object oriented thought process might be 'small' compared to all the jewel books mentioned above, it's one of the most focused, to the point, yet non-rushing/non-pushing,well balanced between subject/example books I've read in a long long time, very very useful I think.
    - The C programming language (C bible).
    - The C++ programming language (C++ bible, not for beginners).
    - Design patterns (GOF).
    - Refactoring (Martin Fowler).
    - The practice of programming (Kernighan and Pike).
    - Object oriented analysis and design (Booch).
  • nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1if you use firefox check out a greasemonkey script to add a mirror link under the "digg it" box.

    http://userscripts.org/tag/digg

    there are a few and i don't remember which one I grabbed, sorry.
  • gilesroberts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well if you're too busy writing code I'd suggest you do take some time out to start learning again. You'll find you're less busy but getting more work done.
  • Dotnetsky, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Crap. I'm too busy writing code to read any more of this stuff. Good list though.
  • WhiskerTheMad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I second that request. "Ship It!" is an excellent start on the development process, but I could still use some help on overall (not-necessarily-programming) project management.
  • mercurysquad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's toooo mathematical.
  • SuburbanDave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What about Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think!". Sure it's geared to web design, but it can be applied to just about anything. It's about making the interface intuitive. Ever go to the store and push the door to leave only to smack your head on the glass because you were supposed to pull, but the hanlde 'looks' like it's a push?
  • emilng, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Head Start: Design Patterns" is much better for learning design patterns than the original book.
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