Category Archives: Code

The most influential programming books

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Since I write code for a living, I get all interested about any topics related to coding, and today I uncovered an interesting one.  During my daily Slashdot perusal, I discovered a post over there referencing a blog post on the Internet Security blog, which in turn references what is apparently the second most popular question ever posted on StackOverflow – which was, “what is the single most influential book every programmer should read?”.

As voted for by those who participated in the StackOverflow discussion, here’s the top ten.  For ease of use, I’ve included links to the respective pages on Amazon.

  1. McConnel S. 2004, Code Complete, 2nd edn, Microsoft Press
  2. Hunt A. & Thomas D. 1999, The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master, Addison-Wesley Professional
  3. Abelson H., Sussman G.J. & Sussman J. 1996, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 2nd edn, McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math
  4. Kernighan B.W. & Ritchie D.M. 1988, The C Programming Language, 2nd edn, Prentice Hall
  5. Cormen T.H., Leiserson C.E., Rivest R.L. & Stein C. 2009, Introduction to Algorithms, MIT Press
  6. Fowler M., Beck K., Brant J. & Opdyke W. 1999, Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, Addison-Wesley Professional
  7. Gamma E., Helm R., Johnson R. & Vlissides J. 1994, Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, Addison-Wesley Professional
  8. Brooks F.P. 1995, The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Addison-Wesley Professional
  9. Knuth D.E. 1997, Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms, 3rd edn, Addison-Wesley Professional
  10. Aho A.V., Lam M.S., Sethi R. & Ullman J.D. 2006, Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools, 2nd edn, Prentice Hall

I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I haven’t read any of the books in the list – guess I need to pay the UCT library a visit this weekend.

When bugs are bad

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Andrew, for those readers who don’t know by now, packed his bags and emigrated to the UK at the end of last month – and is now looking for a job over there.

Hence, this immortal Google Talk conversation:

Andrew
holy shit
there’s a lot of jobs for programmers

Me
so stop being lazy and get one! 😛

Andrew
working on embedded c/c++ systems for the freaking army

Me
oh.

Andrew
at least i’m british born and can get clearance, so I can still apply for the silly things
coz they specifically ask for that.
but there’s the question, do I want to work there? o_O
sure, if I put a bug in a website, someone gets pissed off, but an accidental bug in a rocket launcher?

I’m still wiping the tears from my eyes at the thought of Andrew putting bugs in rocket launchers – the results would be similar to the results of my lack of skill wielding banana bombs in Worms… 😀