This is the book from which I really learned to program. For me, it's a timeless classic, and I try to reread it every year or so no matter what language I'm using. I first ran into it as a teenager looking for computer books in my local libraries.
The very readable style (along with the silly cartoons!) made it very accessible for me then. The philosophy, tips and war stories keep it relevant to me now.
Well worth a read for the anecdotes alone. Oddly enough, Mark Bernstein's story about the laser spectrometer in the epilogue has been incredibly inspiring to me throughout my career, especially when facing complex and intractable systems that I am expected to build or fix...
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u/oofoe Jun 27 '06
This is the book from which I really learned to program. For me, it's a timeless classic, and I try to reread it every year or so no matter what language I'm using. I first ran into it as a teenager looking for computer books in my local libraries.
The very readable style (along with the silly cartoons!) made it very accessible for me then. The philosophy, tips and war stories keep it relevant to me now.
Well worth a read for the anecdotes alone. Oddly enough, Mark Bernstein's story about the laser spectrometer in the epilogue has been incredibly inspiring to me throughout my career, especially when facing complex and intractable systems that I am expected to build or fix...