58bits - Tech

One of the texts for the Network Security module I'm currently studying is Douglas E. Comer's book  'Computer Networks and Internets (5th Edition)'.

The book is a tour de force of all things networking. It's written in a clear, uncomplicated and beautiful narrative. Comer is obviously brilliant (like I'm able to judge - just search for his bio online).

But what makes this book really special is the way you are constantly reminded of where you are in the bigger scheme of themes; how everything fits together - from data communications, carrier frequencies and modulation, to LAN/WAN and wireless network technologies, to higher level protocol and application layer features.

I don't think I've ever read a technical textbook that I actually didn't want to put down (at least at times). It normally takes me about a month to work through a 500+ page textbook, longer if it's a yawner... but in a little over a week I've nearly finished Comer's book - highlighted and marked up. It will remain a permanent member of my reference library.

Whether you're a technology professional, or just curious about 'how stuff works' - this book is for you.

(I also love the dedication at the beginning of this book... "To Packets Everywhere".) 

Thank you Douglas E. Comer.

You know sometimes I wish I'd been a plumber...

Not all of these are cover-to-cover magnifying glass reads, and this is only a small part of my library - however these are currently at the top of the pile.

Linq in Action has so far been a brilliant book - and it will be a cover to cover careful read. CLR via C# is a must read for anyone that's been programming in .Net for more than a year or two (I'm thumbing through it for the 2nd time in my spare time). C# 3.0 in a Nutshell has so far proved to be an invaluable desktop reference and Joseph Albahari is a brilliant author.  What I particularly like about this book are the examples and gotchas included with every entry; much more than just MSDN in print and much better than an "I feel lucky" Google attempt. With ASP.Net 3.5  I was worried (like a lot of people) that this 1626 page tomb would be just the docs... in printed form; however it is a good combination of reference material and author input. Head First Design Patterns is really a fun read. I've opened other design patterns books, including the famous GoF Design Patterns and various C# flavors - but the format of the Head First series is just fantastic - humorous and educational.

The rest are a mixture of things I'm interested in, things I need to read to try and stay ahead of the avalanche, and things I'll need to read for my course.

Security Engineering (now in second edition) is a classic for anyone interested in computer security and should really be read in combination with Secrets and Lies from the very famous Bruce Schneier.

I've been reading Charles' book, Appplications = Code + Markup, and spotted the flame posted by Jeff Atwood - How Not To Write a Technical Book (which I think was a bit thin all-round as a posting) where he compares Charles' book to Adam Nathan's Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed.

Charles Petzold's book may lack a little color and design - but he's a skilled software developer and a very thoughtful author. Every code example comes with a matching source and .sln file (there are over 150 short and helpful code projects).

Charles also thought carefully about the division of the book into two halves - code and then markup - and I find it helps enormously to focus on code first - which in turn gave me a deeper understanding of what was going on in the XAML markup that followed. On Charles' own site he says openly that he wishes the design had included more screen shots - but his book is already a 976 page tour de force and frankly I'm glad it was kept as lean and clean as it is.

That said when ever I've really wanted to get a solid understanding of any topic I've usually read more than just one book - and so seeing two great books out there in two different styles can only be a good thing.

CLR via C# – another great “roll your sleeves up” book. As the author says, there are a lot of “top down” books out there that will teach you how to use a tool, an application, or a framework, but fewer that will take you on a “bottom up” tour of the underlying technology.

What impressed me most about the book was the constant reference to efficiency and performance issues associated with the CLR and CTS, along with various pitfalls and performance traps that I would have continued to be oblivious of if I had not read this book.

To some extent I think type safety and the managed heap in the CLR may have given me a false sense of security where memory allocation and type design was concerned. There are still many performance pitfalls and many more performance gains to be made by having a deeper understanding of the CLR and CTS

I rank this as one of the best technical books I’ve read to-date. The coverage and depth is impressive. Jeffrey Richter knows his stuff.

Abraham Lincoln: “ If I had six hours to cut down a tree, I'd spend four hours sharpening the axe.”

...that and other lessons in 'The Art of Project Management' by Scott Berkun. I've not had my yellow highlighter out as often in a long time. A fantastic read and an even better bibliography.

One to be updated in the future. Will create a category for Theory and Fundamentals at some point. Having written a fair amount of high-level language code, VB6 and C#, I figured getting to grips with the fundamentals might not be a bad idea.

Here are a few titles that have 'moved me' in this direction.

1)  Write Great Code, Volume 1 - Understanding the Machine. Randall Hyde
Randal Hyde has produced an excellent text that covers the basics of numbering systems, machine organization, instruction set architecture, I/O and more. A really enjoyable read (from the computer bookshelf of course).

2) The Art of Assembly Language. Randall Hyde
While I guess some people might suggest that a good place to start learning to write assembly language applications for Intel x86 CPUs is with MASM, Randal Hyde has created his own assembly language called HLA. HLA compiles to MASM and the principles of assembly language development are demonstrated well in HLA.

3) The Art of Computer Programming Volumes 1-3. Donald Knuth
Randall Hyde refers to the Knuth regularly in his books. Knuth’s work is relatively new to me (having graduated in a non-CS subject) but the impact of his work is easy to see in what can only be described the definitive description of computer programming. Will be chipping away at this one over the next year or two no doubt.

4) The C Programming Language. Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis M.Ritchie
Referred to as K&R. Another classic (from the inventor). Especially good when combined with a set of accompanying notes by Steve Summit at http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/cclass/krnotes/top.html

5) Absolute C++. Walter Savitch. I've learned more, indirectly, about the .Net framework from this book than I ever thought possible. An excellent text and another classic.  

There are hundreds of other classics out there and of course many more that cover other subjects like object oriented programming, analysis, design, project management as well as all the high-level languages. I chose the books above specifically to help fill the gaps in my non-CS programming background. My current ‘working’ interests are in .Net, ASP.Net and C# with several large projects completed to date.

Two last must reads that are not pure programming books per se are:

PeopleWare, Productive Projects and Teams. Tom Demarco and Timothy R. Lister.
(I've heard is a standard text in the stationary cupboards of Microsoft)

And...

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, 20th Anniversary Edition by Frederick P. Brooks

Whether you're selling software, writing software, or managing teams of people that write software for a living - please read these two books. They're an oasis of insight and common sense in a desert of idiots.