http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2bt8a5/what_programming_book_should_i_read_next/

Ali's book is the latest, so I posted that one!

On the topic of professional growth, I was asked this week in a work meeting what I think I can do for mine.... and I didn't really have an answer.

Maybe this is arrogant or whatever, but my view is that I'm kinda maxed out as a programmer. Sure, there's a handful of specific things (like framework method names) I don't know and some concepts I don't know the names of, but as for like revolutionary new lessons, I don't think I've actually learned anything like that directly related to programming for a pretty long time.

Then I was asked what about team dynamics and stuff... but even there, I've been doing this a pretty long time now. You know what I spend most my time talking about with my programming co-worker? Recipe swapping and church stuff. And I don't mean D Cookbook recipes, i mean stuff like baking bread and pies. We're both pretty good at our day jobs and tend to be on the same page on work related stuff more often than not anyway.

On 7/26/2014 4:42 PM, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:
> On the topic of professional growth, I was asked this week in a work meeting
> what I think I can do for mine.... and I didn't really have an answer.
>
> Maybe this is arrogant or whatever, but my view is that I'm kinda maxed out as a
> programmer. Sure, there's a handful of specific things (like framework method
> names) I don't know and some concepts I don't know the names of, but as for like
> revolutionary new lessons, I don't think I've actually learned anything like
> that directly related to programming for a pretty long time.
>
> Then I was asked what about team dynamics and stuff... but even there, I've been
> doing this a pretty long time now. You know what I spend most my time talking
> about with my programming co-worker? Recipe swapping and church stuff. And I
> don't mean D Cookbook recipes, i mean stuff like baking bread and pies. We're
> both pretty good at our day jobs and tend to be on the same page on work related
> stuff more often than not anyway.

Interestingly, I've been programming for 40 years, and I'm constantly learning new ways of programming. It's a combination of experience, changing hardware, and new ideas.

The Warp program I did for FB, for example, is pretty unlike anything I've written before in the way it's put together.

On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 04:23:23PM -0700, Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2bt8a5/what_programming_book_should_i_read_next/
> 
> Ali's book is the latest, so I posted that one!

What about TDPL? Even though it's somewhat dated, it *was* what finally drove me to non-trivial programming in D.


T

-- 
People tell me that I'm skeptical, but I don't believe it.

On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 04:56:20PM -0700, Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On 7/26/2014 4:42 PM, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:
> >On the topic of professional growth, I was asked this week in a work meeting what I think I can do for mine.... and I didn't really have an answer.
[...]
> Interestingly, I've been programming for 40 years, and I'm constantly learning new ways of programming. It's a combination of experience, changing hardware, and new ideas.
> 
> The Warp program I did for FB, for example, is pretty unlike anything I've written before in the way it's put together.

I've to say, that learning D and contributing to D has greatly expanded my programming horizons. I've been doing C/C++ for about 2 decades, and about 8 years ago I felt I'd started to taper off in terms of learning new things in programming. Until I found D, that is. D made hard / complex things in C++ easy, and opened up new horizons -- like weak purity, range-based component programming, new possibilities in metaprogramming, etc..

Contributing to Phobos was also quite eye-opening in learning about novel ways of handling common tasks in a standard library. I daresay I learned more contributing to Phobos than from my full-time job (mainly C with some C++ and a smattering of Javascript, PHP, and some other stuff).


T

-- 
They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work. -- Russian saying

On Saturday, 26 July 2014 at 23:23:26 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2bt8a5/what_programming_book_should_i_read_next/
>
> Ali's book is the latest, so I posted that one!

Its hard to admit but it is sometimes true. Needing a book to learn is not always the right way to go not because of the book itself but because of the author.

Knowing something and being able to teach it in layman terms, are two completely different arts...

On 7/26/2014 4:26 PM, H. S. Teoh via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 04:23:23PM -0700, Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d wrote:
>> http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2bt8a5/what_programming_book_should_i_read_next/
>>
>> Ali's book is the latest, so I posted that one!
>
> What about TDPL? Even though it's somewhat dated, it *was* what finally
> drove me to non-trivial programming in D.

I also posted Ali's book because it was free, and so people wouldn't be complaining about posting spam links. Not that that stopped a couple complainers :-)

On Sunday, 27 July 2014 at 01:00:34 UTC, H. S. Teoh via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 04:56:20PM -0700, Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d wrote:
>> On 7/26/2014 4:42 PM, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:
>> >On the topic of professional growth, I was asked this week in a work
>> >meeting what I think I can do for mine.... and I didn't really have
>> >an answer.
> [...]
>> Interestingly, I've been programming for 40 years, and I'm constantly
>> learning new ways of programming. It's a combination of experience,
>> changing hardware, and new ideas.
>> 
>> The Warp program I did for FB, for example, is pretty unlike anything
>> I've written before in the way it's put together.
>
> I've to say, that learning D and contributing to D has greatly expanded
> my programming horizons. I've been doing C/C++ for about 2 decades, and
> about 8 years ago I felt I'd started to taper off in terms of learning
> new things in programming. Until I found D, that is. D made hard /
> complex things in C++ easy, and opened up new horizons -- like weak
> purity, range-based component programming, new possibilities in
> metaprogramming, etc..
>
> Contributing to Phobos was also quite eye-opening in learning about
> novel ways of handling common tasks in a standard library. I daresay I
> learned more contributing to Phobos than from my full-time job (mainly C
> with some C++ and a smattering of Javascript, PHP, and some other
> stuff).
>
>
> T

For me is actually thanks to my interest in compiler development while at the university, that I keep on.

I got/get to read so many papers, programming manuals and design rationales that I keep on learning about how to structure code, algorithms and lots of other nice stuff.


--
Paulo

On Saturday, 26 July 2014 at 23:42:33 UTC, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:
> Maybe this is arrogant or whatever, but my view is that I'm kinda maxed out as a programmer. Sure, there's a handful of specific things (like framework method names) I don't know and some concepts I don't know the names of, but as for like revolutionary new lessons, I don't think I've actually learned anything like that directly related to programming for a pretty long time.

Really? I've realized a long time ago that there is more to learn than can possibly be internalized. Now, books that label themselves as programming books are not the best source. You need more narrow sources.

Even a narrow field as computer graphics is way too big to master fully. Then you have logic programming languages / database engines, constraints programming, term rewriting, concurrency, verifiable programming, a plethora of event based programming paradigms, AI...

And then you can move on to philosophies of different types of modelling, semantics etc.

Even in basic web pogramming things are getting complex: efficient scalable modelling on nosql databases, how to get the best split between server client on modern browsers, how to utilize the various engines in the browser...

On Sunday, 27 July 2014 at 07:13:10 UTC, Ola Fosheim Grøstad wrote:
> Really? I've realized a long time ago that there is more to learn than can possibly be internalized.

That's the big realisation of any good programmer. I used to think i was pretty good until stackoverflow.com opened. Boy was i wrong. It suddenly hit me i knew nothing. Even after fifteen years in software i still feel i have way too much to learn. Even visiting this newsgroup i feel like a total amateur and learn loads reading posts.

I've worked with people who honestly believe they are awesome programmers and have mastered their craft, when in reality they don't even understand bit-shifting or what the modulus operator is for. Being humble is the only way to grow being a developer.

As for books, here are some of the best books i've read and encourage anyone here to take a look. (but you've probably read em already.)

The Pragmatic Programmer
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pragmatic-Programmer-Andrew-Hunt/dp/020161622X

Code Complete
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670/

Some Head First books:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Head-First-Design-Patterns-Freeman/dp/0596007124/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Head-First-Object-Oriented-Analysis-Design/dp/0596008678/

All these books really opened my eyes and improved my coding no end.