Top 5 most impressive books every software developer should read

Not so long ago, a link to a rather fresh (autumn 2011) English-language vote with the modest title “the most impressive book that every software developer should read ” and a description flashed:



If you could return to the past, to the very beginning of your development career and say to yourself: “read this particular book,” at the very beginning of your development career, which book would you recommend?



The topic of translation of foreign professional IT literature is quite acute, many people like to read books in the original for various reasons, such is the time of the Russian translation with a delay of years, the insufficient professionalism of the translator and the corresponding loss of subtleties and author's style, etc.

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However, in this small post I will take the liberty to list the TOP-5 of those very books that won the vote, translated into Russian. And to give small comments, because the books are really worth it. Yes, I personally would change some places, however, we will rely on the “opinion of the hall” of the Stack Overflow resource.



1. The first place with the result of ~ 1700 votes was taken by the book:

Perfect code Author: S. McConnell The same Steve McConnell, who is credited with the phrase: " Write the code as if it would be accompanied by a violent psychopath who knows where you live. " The first edition of this book was published in 1993, the second in 2004. The first Russian translation was in 2005. “Encyclopedia of good programming practices. Perfect code focuses on personal art, skill - those things that we intuitively call writing clean code . This is a book that can 50 pages describe the correct formatting of the code and the number of spaces. ” Joe Spolsky.

2. The second place with a close result ~ 1500 votes was taken by the book:

A pragmatic programmer. The journey from the apprentice to the master Authors: E. Hunt, D. Thomas The first English edition of this book was published in 1999. The first Russian edition was in 2004 in the “Programmer’s Library” series. “This is a great book for programmers who have somehow learned to program somewhere, maybe at the institute, but are not quite sure what to do. It's like the difference between a draft and a finished work. What you studied at the university are sketches, sketches, and you seem to be able to draw beautifully, but if you still feel that you don’t quite know where to start, if someone suggested you write a program for sharing music through P2P networks then this book is for you. ” Joe Spolsky.

3. The third place already with a significant lag ~ 930 votes was taken by the book:

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs Authors: Harold Abelson, Gerald J. Sussman The book in English is laid out by the authors in free online access and even equipped with video lectures . The structure and interpretation of computer programs has been taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and this course has had an impact on the entire world in computer science curricula for the past two decades. On stackoverflow they write that the book will literally enlighten us (will enlighten you) and after it there will be a desire to write great programs. And what if all the other books make us a better (better) programmer, then specifically this one will make a programmer out of a reader.

4. The fourth place with a score of ~ 790 votes was taken by the book:

C programming language Authors: Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie Honestly, it’s not completely clear to me why the book about a certain programming language got to such a high place, especially in our time of high-level languages ​​and frameworks. Perhaps because the book by Kernigan and Ritchie is a cult book on C programming from the creators of the language, where they tell their readers about the wide possibilities of C and the features that distinguish it from other structural programming languages. Indeed, at one time the C language was developed specifically for the Unix operating system, but the created language was so universal that it found its application in other areas of programming.

5. And completes the top five with a score of ~ 680 votes book:

Algorithms. Build and analyze Authors: Thomas Kormen, Charles Lazerson, Ronald Rivest, Clifford Stein The book is a translation of a textbook on the course of constructing and analyzing effective algorithms, written at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; it deals with the most important classes of fast algorithms and methods for constructing them. The presentation is detailed and mathematically rigorous. The book can be used as a textbook and reference book; It will be useful for both students and IT professionals.

No less remarkable books such as GoF’s Design Patterns , Martin Fowler’s Refactoring , F. Brooks’s Mythical Man-Month , etc. are located in subsequent places, the books are really excellent, it’s just impossible to list them all in one review. .



I hope this short review will help someone to find an interesting book for later reading.



A few links:



Original vote.



Reviews of computer literature from Joe Spolsky.