debuggable

The C Programming Language:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language_(book)

Less than 300 page. Beautifully written.

I have read lots of programming books, and none of them have ever made me feel as excited, interested and thrilled as the day I read "Born to Code In C", by Herbert Schildt. I started with Basic and then quickly moved to C, and that was the book that did it.

It's an old book (1989), I bought it the same year it came out, and amazingly enough it is still up for sale in Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Born-Code-C-Herbert-Schildt/dp/0078814685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208437520&sr=1-1

When you come down here, you'll see it in my programming bookshelf.

+1 for "The C Programming Language"

I have a first edition copy :)

Hi Felix!...

Glad you're back...

Not really about programming, sorry, but I recommend you two books:

- "Don't make me think!" by Steve Krug ( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321344758/ref=nosim/advancedcommonse )

- "The Pragmatic Programmer" by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas.

Have fun!

I like the style of the books of the "Head first" series from O'Reilly. They are completely different than other programming books ;-)

Felix,
My two current favorites (from a writing perspective) are Code Complete by Steve McConnell and "Practices of an Agile Developer" by Venkat Subramaniam and Andy Hunt. From a language perspective the Aaron Hillengass "Cocoa Programing for Mac OS X" is a good introduction to the language.

Sam D

I'm going to second Sam on the "Code Complete" by Steve McConnell. The book is fantastic, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is serious about software development in general.

"The Pragmatic Programmer" is pretty good, too, but nowhere near as good as CC.

- Brian

This was by far the best book I ever read on the subject of programming and just technology in general. It's called "Hackers and Painters".

Link:
http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Painters-Big-Ideas-Computer/dp/0596006624

The most, I enjoyed "The Art of UNIX Programming" by Raymond.

I'm not sure this fits on what you're requesting Felix, but I'm reading Ben Fry's "Visualizing Data", and I'm having a great time.

The book is primarily focused of the design and implementation of small data visualization applications, targeting specifically the Processing environment (a 'wrapper' for Java for easier access to screen drawing methods).

Fry gets both on the conceptual and practical aspects of coding, and does it extremelly well, in a way that it seems just as if he were by your side, giving tips and suggesting changes in the code, exposing his thought process.

The thing is Processing is pretty simple (you can get away with no OOP at all and have great results) and that the kind of code he suggests can be pretty ugly, in an entreprise maintenance type of point of view.

But since what you're asking is for an engaging way to teach code in a book, I think you should definitely use it as a reference.

And keep us posted on this project of yours : )

O'Reilly Media's Beautiful Code

Principles of Compiler Design by Alfred V. Aho ,Jeffrey D. Ullman

I have it for almost 20 years and I am not yet done reading it or re-reading it. a very good read if you can still find a copy.

I can't believe noone has mentioned the series by Donald Knuth, The Art of Computer Progamming

Not a programming book, but a web design book:

http://www.sitepoint.com/books/design1/

I really love that book, very interesting and funny at the time. A must-read for every developer who claims to design websites.

Okay, okay... as far as "programming" specific books (e.g., language specific, syntax, etc) I'd have to say Matt Zandstra's "PHP 5 Objects Patterns & Practices" was pretty good.
It's hard (impossible?) to write a "hard information" book like that, though, and avoid being at least a little dry.

+1 for Head First series, Head First Design Patterns in particular.

Here's my list of what I think are must reads for any programmer:

* The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas

* Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction
by Steve McConnell

* Art of Computer Programming (Vol 1-3)
by Donald E. Knuth

This was one I have found really interesting:

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Explained-Perspective-Object-Oriented/dp/0201715945

I had Matt Zandstra’s “PHP 5 Objects Patterns & Practices" in my Amazon Queue for over 2 months until finally I received a notice that it couldn't be shipped because it was out of stock ... believe it or not.

If you're looking for a well written book, I would recommend Absolute C++ by Walter Savich. I've read a lot of programing books, and when I read a Savitch book for the first time I was amazed at how well written it was. Truly, not only did I learn a great deal from the book, which often doesn't happen for me with books that are written like textbooks, but I enjoyed learning from this book. The downside is that he writes mostly College textbooks, and they're not cheap.

I've always wanted to finish reading this one. It's an old classic but it'll give you a different viewpoint since it's about scheme/lisp.

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

Plus you can get the whole book from here: http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/

Martin Fowler - Refactoring.

Thinking in Java - http://mindview.net/Books/TIJ4

+1 for Head First stuff. Ms. Sierra really knows how to keep you interested.

http://sourcemaking.com/
but only AntiPatterns: The Survival Guide is available as book

i don't know if other people found it as funny, but "Programming Perl, 2nd edition"
I purchased my copy in 1995 when i was just figuring out CGI programming for the brand new WWW.

I don't know if newer releases contained as much humor as the 2nd edition, but i would hope so.
Seriously, i found myself laughing periodically at some of the stuff Larry Wall and gang were writing in that book. Part of the humor itself was in how flexible Perl is as a language. And then there was the whole obfuscated Perl poetry contest that was constantly going on.

Made it a joy to learn Perl. Not that i write anything in it anymore, but, it fits your criteria of a Programming book i think, and i was genuinely interested in reading further to see how else the writers could relate the code to something completely unrelated

Hey Felix,

Two books comes to mind for this and oddly, they are both for Flash/Actionscript which I don't really use so much anymore. But Colin Moock's books have always been spectacular. I haven't read his newest one (for AS3) but he's always been very good at explaining things from top to bottom without being too boring, and I remember reading his books as a beginner and at a more advanced level and still being able to comprehend and learn from the reading:

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-ActionScript-3-0/dp/0596526946/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208679275&sr=8-1

the other Flash book is 'Flash to the Core' by Joshua Davis. This book was awesome to read because, in the style of Joshua Davis, it is very artistic and technical at the same time. I found myself using it as both a technical and inspirational reference:

http://www.amazon.com/Flash-Core-Joshua-Davis/dp/0735712883/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208679452&sr=1-1

Sadly, I'm sure it is pretty much out of date. Great idea for a post--I'm a gigantic fan of good programming books and very proud of my large and ever-expanding library...

I like these kind of books
http://www.amazon.de/Entwurfsmuster-von-Kopf-bis-Fu%C3%9F/dp/3897214210/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b?ie=UTF8&qid=1208970887&sr=1-1

also available in english ;)

Two come to mind, both great.

If I had to pick the order, first it would be "Code Complete, 2nd Edition" by Steve McConnell. (I think someone above said this too.) It's just a great book, well written, and applicable to any software developer, regardless of language/platform.

Second, Aaron Hillegass's "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X". The third addition should be out in late May 2008. This book is known as pretty much the defacto bible for learning the Cocoa framework. It's relevance is even more expansive due to the iPhone SDK and the increasing popularity of the Mac platform. Written in a good style.

Sorry, I didn't ready your comments until after I posted. My second book (cocoa by aaron hillegass) would be pretty good to look at.

But I'm 100% in agreement with Chris Forrette above... Colin Moock's books are probably the best written. By that, I mean they feel less like dry book, yet they still manage to get you going easily. I've read his latest AS3 book also, which is very good like the earlier ones. Worth looking at.

Felix,
Umm programmers aren't that smart, OR more likely they "skimmed" your request. Also to some, as they read the "art of" books, they are really programming it in their heads.

My vote is "Beginning Ruby on Rails". A little dry however I read it cover to cover and will go back and do the programming contained therein.

# ISBN-10: 0470069155

# ISBN-13: 978-0470069158

SQL for mere mortals, if SQL is considered programming. Absolutely awesome book. Deconstruction is my weakness. When its done right, I HAVE to buy the book.
Here is the one I have

# ISBN-10: 0201433362

# ISBN-13: 978-0201433364

Here is an updated version
# ISBN-10: 0321444434

# ISBN-13: 978-0321444431

Having problems posting the links(??). It kept saying Only Simple HTML. Don't have time to figger it out ;-)
Good luck with your book.

If you need an in-your-face proof reader, feel free to email me. Spelling, grammer, usage will all be caught. I even email Andrew Tannenbaum some errata in his OS book.

I would second the thought on Beautiful Code by Oreilly. That book is amazing. Also I would say that Design Patterns by Gamma, Helm, Johnson, Vlissides is one of the most handy in my shelf. I also love the book The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs from MIT and the Little Schemer.
All great books!

Just read this post (Programmers Don't Read Books -- But You Should) over at Coding Horror. Great read.

My favorite so far is The Pragmatic Programmer. Practical teachings on every page, and catchy metaphors that will stick with you for a long time.