Maragato

Folks hallo, I´m up to graduate and I wonder which books are the must haves. I wont have a library so easily at my disposition out of university so I started to buy some books, So far I got:
C Programming Language, C++ Programming Language.
The books from Aho Compilers Principles and Tools. Are there any other MUST haves? I wonder about things like Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment or the Sedgewick algorithms book, if those should I get in C or C++? Anyway thanks a lot for the attention

Rashakil Fol

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

The Emacs Lisp manual :-)

Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach

The Art of Computer Programming, Vols. 1-4

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ssharish2005

If you thinking of to buying a book, it would be better after you join the uni, by the time you should be knowing what you would be studying in the uni.

Perhaps your lecture would give you some guidance, which book to buy. This gives you mode idea. Rather if you could buy and random books.

But so far the books which you have bought is a good choice.

ssharish2005

Maragato

Man Im graduation in Computer Science Im getting OUTTA UNI :P

ssharish2005

Ohh sorry, thought the other way around....

ssharish2005

matsp

I would say these things:
1. You can never have too many books.
2. Buy books that interest you - not ones that other people think you should have.
3. If you are looking for a job in a particular area, look into books in that area.

--
Mats

Maragato

Man Im brazilian money is an issue I cant buy many books.

ssharish2005

The points which Mat has stated is all right. Make up your mind and think on which topic are u interested in and on whcih topic you wanted to master.

It all depends up on you

ssharish2005

indigo0086

Just don't buy a bad book that looks interesting, thereby wasting your brazilian money.

Maragato

That is why I ask. I think the Sedgewick´s books are also must haves right?

indigo0086

according to the second rule we shouldn't be giving advice ;b

I was just highlighting that one should take advice from others about what books they should buy on certain subjects being that you don't have the experience to recommend a "good book" to yourself.

matsp

Sorry, my previous answer was perhaps a little bit brief. To expand:

It is of course not a bad idea to ask "If I want a book on the subject of <some subject> which one should I choose?" - particularly if you are looking at two that seem similar from what you can find, which to choose can be hard, but if you just ask "which book should I buy", then people will list their favourite books/authors - but those are not necessarily the subjects you want to buy in the first place.

There is far more computer science (and related subjects) out there that it is almost impossible for ANYONE to master all of it. Do you think you need a book on Open Source Licensing - I've got one, I have browsed it, but I haven't read it thoroughly, because I don't really see a need for it - I'm not about to release any major projects as Open Source any time soon... I have books about OpenGL which I willl need to understand soon, as my new work is about that.

I have books about Pascal - not a very "modern" subject, so I doubt ANYONE would be interested in that. Likewise on Wirth's Modula2 version of "algorithms+datastructures" - not a bad book, but certainly not for a C-programmer.

If you are interested in Real-time OS's, there's books about that - but if you're not going to work on RTOS code (or code on top of RTOS), then it's a waste of money and time to buy and read even a single one of those books - because you can get much more relevant information from books closer related to the subject you DO need to work with.

And, no, I don't have infinite budget for books. [A friend of mine had to turn off his "one-click-buy" at Amazon because it was eating too much of his wages - I'm not THAT bad].

--
Mats

Maragato

Well I ask cause despite the amount of books being enormous there is a given set of them which surely are must haves, like the Bible for the catholics omfg I hope no one is offended on this comparison I could not find a better, yet there are "infinite" books there is always a "fundamental set" that is why I ask

whiteflags

Well I think Mats second point is his brightest:
In the same vein, I never buy books on recommendation alone. You should take the time to peruse a book's content before you purchase it, so that you know the material is accessable to you. Recommendations are good: consider them first. But it won't do you any good if you just can't read or understand the material. Trust me, there are plenty of experts who can't write on technical subjects.

Really there is no bible - you're going to have to find your own material to live by: it is different for almost everyone. I am not aware of any book that is always a positive experience for everyone that reads it. I think Rashakil Fol and some others mentioned good books. You should actually get to a book store and look at them.

DavidP

Unix Network Programming - Volume 1: Networking APIs - Sockets and XTI

This is pretty much the Bible on network programming (even if it says Unix, everything applies to other platforms as well). It is a must have.

Code Complete

This is a good book on using good coding standards.

Assembly Language Primer for the IBM PC & XT

This book is really old, but I think it is the best Assembly language book out there, to be quite honest. It teaches things very clearly. If you can find it, get it - but it might be hard to find.

Along with these...pretty much any good C/C++ reference is good to have, as well as some sort of Java reference.

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