The Programming Books That Meant The Most To Me

Interesting how software is becoming a diversified culture.<p>Probably all these books mean less than nothing for people that work in algorithm theory, low-level systems programming or AI. For designers of big systems nursing databases in commercial applications, however, Martin Fowler is the great guru and Object Oriented Design and Programming are the gospel.<p>Also, it is interesting how most Comp. Sci. departments ignore this whole culture.

These are all good books. One I would add myself that has had the most impact on me is "The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development". It used to be called something like how to keep your job from being outsourced but I think it does a good job of showing one how to be more than just a 9-5 programmer and really dive into the profession and distinguish yourself.<p>In fact I really love the whole pragmatic series because they focus on the craftsmanship and techniques surrounding it more than the specifics of a technology. Kind of like most of the books you have listed there.

I wouldn't even recommend the first couple from my list, today -- e.g. there are surely better intros to algorithms now. But here's an approximate top 5 for changing my programming when I read them.<p>Brodie, Thinking Forth<p>Sedgewick, Algorithms<p>Abelson &#38; Sussman, SICP<p>Liskov &#38; Guttag, Abstraction and Specification in Program Development<p>Norvig, PAIP<p>It's hard to stick to 5!

I guess I grew up in a different time:<p>* The C Programming Language by Dennis Kernighan and Brian Ritchie<p>* Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets by Peter Van Linden<p>* TCP/IP Illustrated Volume I: The Protocols by W. Richard Stevens<p>* The UNIX System by S.R.Bourne<p>* The Algorithm Design Manual by Steve S. Skiena

Nice to see Domain-Driven Design mentioned. As DHH said it's a bit of a slog - but worthwhile.<p>For those who want a good overview and don't fancy the slog I'd recommend taking a look at <a href="http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/domain-driven-design-quickly" rel="nofollow">http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/domain-driven-design-quickly</a> - a 100 page summary of the book from InfoQ.<p>The original is definitely worth a read - the summary might let you see why it's worth the effort ;-)

"Code Complete" by Steve McConnell. A practical tome on how to actually build large software systems.

I love the fantastic book Domain Driven Design written by Eric Evans too. Glad to see it is on DHH's top 5 as well. The concepts of that book (Entity, Value Object, Repository, Aggregate, Aggregate Root) have helped me a lot developing well written software.<p>I still don't get it why I've seen so few Node.js applications using Application Service layers, Domain Models and Repositories, and instead clog their MVC containers with calls to whatever datastore directly, with no Domain Model at all.

Can anyone comment on "Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby" vs. "Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns"?

I was somewhat surprised to see "Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture".<p>I thought DHH hated people talking about "enterprise" and "patterns"

Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns is one of my favorite books, my copy is incredibly beaten up. I just really like the way Kent writes.<p>I picked up my copy because I love Smalltalk, but I use a lot of those same patterns in Delphi, C#, and Python.

Working my way through Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs at the moment, and surprised it wasn't on this list.<p>Also, interesting to note that only 3 out of the 5 books listed are on the 'best programming books' stackoverflow thread - <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1711/what-is-the-single-most-influential-book-every-programmer-should-read" rel="nofollow">http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1711/what-is-the-single-m...</a>

It interesting to see a completely different background to mine. If I have one criticism of this list it's that it is very mono-cultural -- all OOP, nothing FP here, for example.<p>My background is K&#38;R, Code Complete, SICP and related books in the Scheme canon (HtDP, PLAI), and lots and lots of papers and blog posts. Having absorbed the fundamentals I find online material both more accessible and up to date.

WARNING: I've not bought this so I don't know if its exactly the same as the paperback.<p>Theres a cheaper kindle version of "Are your lights on?" ... <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WOXYV2#tags" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WOXYV2#tags</a>

My number one book on a list like this would be Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo. The book is targeted at beginners, but is challenging and very intelligent. Koenig is concerned with teaching good practices and overall design. It was one of the first programming books I ever read and I struggled through it at first. By doing every exercise and persisting, I think it played a significant role in the kind of programmer I am today. To me the book is in a similar space as SICP. Sadly it's now out of date, but at least was written using the STL.

"Pragmatic Programmer"

How does the Smalltalk book compare to "Object-Oriented Software Construction" by Meyer? The latter is my goto OO book (in combination with "Object Oriented Design Heuristics" by Riel)

"Are your lights on" is a fantastic book, my high school comp sci teacher lent me a copy and i've read it many times since then, always getting a little something new from it.

It is interesting to note that DHH reads books that most Java developers read as well :) (and soon the C# people, since y'all are typically a few step behind the Java crowd).

In addition to all the other patterns books mentioned, Head First Design Patterns is a great intro the subject. I think you will get more out of GoF if read this first.

I've been considering reading Fowler's Refactoring book, but I haven't written Java in 10 years. Is the book accessible to someone with minimal Java knowledge?

8 Books---All by D. Knuth, The 4 on algorithms and the 4 on Typesetting. Not to forget the article on DDJ long ago that started it all for me.

Our team found Rails Antipatterns to be a useful survey of common real-world issues and how to address them.

"On Lisp"<p>"Programming Erlang"<p>PAIP

I would also add Refactoring to Patterns by Joshua Kerievsky.

I am currently reading Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby: An Agile Primer by Sandi Metz (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Object-Oriented-Design-Ruby-Addison-Wesley/dp/0321721330/?_encoding=UTF8&#38;keywords=Ruby%20Object%20Oriented%20programming&#38;tag=produc05-20&#38;linkCode=ur2&#38;qid=1356544606&#38;camp=1789&#38;sr=8-1&#38;creative=9325" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Object-Oriented-Design-Ruby-...</a>)<p>I am finding this book to be very helpful in understanding proper Object Oriented Design. It explains concepts that I have struggled with previously regarding Object Oriented Design and Programming.<p>So far, the main point I have taken from this book is: <i>Pay more attention to the messages being sent between objects rather than focusing solely on classes</i>.<p>As someone who is learning Ruby, it is taking me some time to understand these concepts. However, this book is providing me with some valuable insights into Object Oriented Design and Programming.

For me it's not necessarily books: it can be essays, blog entries, thesis, articles, etc.<p>But basically the "writings" that means the most to me are the ones making 75% of those that matter the most to you irrelevant ; )<p>"Pattern means 'I have run out of language'"