Other Technical books

This page is for other technical books, mostly about computing, that have been recommended by various people. Comments about each book are also welcome (even if you're not the person who originally suggested it); what level is it? what prerequisites are required? why do you like it? Send mail to amk1@bigfoot.com to make a suggestion.

General Programming

Programming Pearls; Jon Louis Bentley; Paperback.
More Programming Pearls: Confessions of a Coder; Jon Louis Bentley; Paperback.

"These are indeed collections of gorgeous pearls. Nothing Python-related there (it didn't exist at the time, so it's a pretty good excuse), and most of it really has to do with the crazy things you can do with pic, eqn and the like."

Karel++: A Gentle Introduction to the Art of Object-Oriented Programming; Joseph Bergin, Mark Stehlik, Richard Pattis; Paperback.

"One thing that helped with the concepts [of object-oriented programming] is this little book. The subtitle is 'A gentle introduction to the art of object-oriented programming', and it's just that, using C++. Even reading the first few chapters will help immensely."

The Mythical Man Month; Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.; Paperback.

Introduction to Algorithms; Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest; Hardcover.

The Tao of Objects; Gary Entsminger; Paperback.

"This book provides a good introduction to object-oriented (OO) programming principles for programmers who don't have OO experience. It illustrates both how using OO technology can speed development, and discusses approaches to object library design. Rewriting the examples in Python is a good way to discover how powerful Python is."

The Elements of Programming Style; Brian W. Kernighan; Paperback.

The Art of Computer Programming Vol. 1: Fundamental Algorithms,
The Art of Computer Programming Vol. 2: Seminumerical Algorithms,
The Art of Computer Programming Vol. 3: Sorting and Searching, 3rd edition; Donald E. Knuth; Hardcover.

Covers algorithms in exhaustive (and exhausting!) mathematical detail. Volume 3 is due to be available in May 1998; the other two volumes are already released.

Object-Oriented Software Construction; Bertrand Meyer; Paperback.

Unix programming

The Design of the UNIX Operating System; Maurice J. Bach; Hardcover.

"If you've ever wondered precisely how a Unix kernel works, this book will explain it beautifully. Essential reading for kernel hackers."

Unix Internals: The New Frontiers; Uresh Vahalia; Hardcover.

"It's a wonderful book, although the title might mislead a reader into thinking that it's a heavy tome."

"The real problem got to be that I wanted the thing to be a real shell, and that's hard -- knowing how to deal with pipes, backgrounding, job control, tty handling, etc., is nontrivial. I had to read the Vahalia book to understand what to do, and I just got distracted (it's just such a great book)."

Internetworking with TCP/IP, volume 1: Principles, Protocols, and Architecture; Douglas E. Comer; Hardcover.

POSIX Programmer's Guide; Donald A. Lewine; Paperback.

Beginning Linux Programming; Neil Matthew & Richard Stones; Paperback.

"It covers bash, C (about 400 of the 700 pages), a little Tcl/Tk and HTML. Since so much of Python is based on C, the book has been invaluable."

Practical Unix Programming; Kay A. Robbins, Steven Robbins; Hardcover.

Unix Network Programming; W. Richard Stevens; Hardcover.

Covers all the details of how to use sockets in C code on Unix systems; Python's socket interface follows the C interface fairly closely. This book will be extremely useful if you're trying to write network servers or clients in Python.

Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment; W. Richard Stevens; Hardcover.

Other Programming Languages

Many of Python's features are derived from other programming languages: the influences of C, Modula-3 and Icon are the most significant.

C

Practical C Programming; Steven Oualline; Paperback.

Lisp and Scheme

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs; Harold Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman, Julie Sussman; Hardcover.

"It came out of the course notes for the basic freshman programming course (6.0001?) at MIT, and is an excellent book about programming principles. Scheme is the coding language used in the book..."

The Little Schemer; Daniel P. Friedman, Matthias Felleisen; Paperback.

" 'The Little Lisper' (the predecessor to this book) is a remarkably lucid, concise, effective, and well focused book. ... a small, older, hard to find book that should be on the required reading list for anyone serious about doing software. It is also a book that a complete novice can learn Lisp, and a lot of deep concepts, from in under a week. Its presentation is clear, its examples are excellent; not only does it teach the language, but how it works under the covers too."

Modula-3

Modula-3; Samuel P. Harbison; Paperback.
Systems Programming with Modula-3; ed. Greg Nelson; Paperback. May be out of print.

In his forward to Programming Python, Guido van Rossum writes "Besides ABC, my main influence was Modula-3. This is another language with remarkable elegance and power, designed by a small, strong-willed team (most of whom I had met during a summer internship at DEC's Systems Research Center in Palo Alto)."

Perl

Advanced Perl Programming; Sriram Srinivasan; Paperback.

"Contains some very favorable comparisons between Python, Perl, and other related tools. Moreover, the author says he's an 'unabashed admirer of Python', and considers it his favorite OO scripting language, which says a lot, coming from a Perl book author. The book also discusses some of the same topics covered in current Python books, and so serves as a base of comparison (Tk, OOP, extending and embedding, and so on). Check the book's index for Python."

Mathematics and Logic

How to Solve It; Gyorgy Polya; Paperback.

The Mathematical Experience; Philip J. Davis, Reuben Hersh; Paperback.

Proofs and Refutations; Imre Lakatos; Paperback.

The World of Mathematics; James R. Newman (Editor). This amazing anthology was reprinted as a boxed set in 1988, by Microsoft Press, but that set now seems to be out of print. Highly recommended, if you can find a copy at the library or in a used bookstore.

Miscellaneous

Neural Networks and Pattern Recognition; Christopher M. Bishop; Paperback.

Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C; Bruce Schneier; Paperback.

"Lots of densely-packed information on implementing various cryptographic algorithms, and a large bibliography. It's the perfect starting point if you're interested in learning more about cryptography."

Adaptive Data Compression; Ross N. Williams; Hardcover.

OpenGL Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, Version 1.1, 2nd edition; Mason Woo et al.; Paperback.

OpenGL Reference Manual : The Official Reference Document to OpenGL, Version 1.1, 2nd edition; OpenGL Architecture Review Board; Paperback.