genjava / editorials / essential books
What follows is a list of recommended list of books for people looking to improve their skills in java commercial programming.
Kernighan & Pike
A classic book by Kernighan and Pike, two notables in the unix world. It teaches some great basic concepts for programmers.
Jon Bentley
Jon Bentley's book is something of a classic. It is the evolution of a mid-80s series teaching how to look at problems from a different angle.
Fred Brooks
This book is ancient. It talks about programming projects back in the early days of the computing industry. It uses examples from a world where the biggest question was C or assembly. It is still the most essential reading to anyone wanting to manage project and near-essential reading to anyone wanting to understand how they should be managed.
David Flanagan
This used to be essential ownership for its superb reference. The latest edition has suffered from the large size of Java nowadays. It's now less portable as you really need to own this, JFC in a Nutshell and Java Enterprise in a Nutshell to get the full effect. The introductory section to all three is a superb way to get a quick grip on most of the Java world.
Bruce Eckel
An internet classic, this book is available for free on the web. It's targeted at C++ programmers to a certain extent, but is well written enough to be worth reading for any newbie.
It's available at: www.eckelobjects.com
Eliotte Rusty Harold
Java input and output is rather different to other languages, so it often takes a bit of thinking to get it working the first time. Often that is all that is needed and so you never really get a feel for the concepts. This book creates a very easy read to get a strong grip on an essential part of Java.
Scott Oaks & Henry Wong
Threading is often a very new concept to beginning programmers. This book is a solid introduction to the area.
David Geary
If any amount of work is to be done with the AWT or Swing, these are _the_ books to learn from. As always, you can learn how to make it work with other books, but with these books you'll know the subject. The author's deep knowledge of the subject oozes out from every chapter.
Levine, Locke, Searls & Weinberger
A view of marketing that will spark a world of ideas in your head. It suggests that we apply the spirit of the internet to business, and not business to the internet.
Iliad
The goings on at Columbia Internet. Hilarious.
Techie news collectors, possibly the best place to become an informed techie.
If you've any desire to understand the 'recent' phenomena of 'free' software, then this book is essential reading. Especially to discover that it is the proprietary world of software which is the young upstart. A series of essays, each by a leading light of the Open Source world.
Available online.
Jeffrey Friedl
Regular Expressions are a powerful tool which can save hours of work. This is the seminal text.
Jennifer Niederst
Just what is wanted.
David Flanagan
If you use javascript a lot, then this book is the perfect learning and tutorial guide. If you use javascript less often, then get the pocket reference.
A great reference. Has CSS, HTML, Javascript and DOM.
Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville
This is how websites should be done.
Martin Fowler
A short guide that will inform you about the world of UML, the Unifying Modelling Language.
Mark Grand
Either book is good. Patterns are one of the best tools in the programmer's box. They allow programmers to discuss complex issues with a standard language set.
Matt Welsh, Matthias Kalle Dalheimer & Lar Kaufman
If you want to know how to use linux as a power user, this is a good place to start.
Robert Eckstein
A short intro to the world of XML. Essential reading bearing in mind how cheap it is.
Tom DeMarco
This is an odd one. It's a novel about project management, but filled with humour and very useful project management insights. It's early days, but it looks like this has the quality of a Mythical Man Month.