Synaptic Misfirings: Books

'C# In Depth', the best C# 2 and C# 3 book out there.

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:17:05 GMT

'C# In Depth' is one of those very rare programming language books what really communicates not only the what but the why when discussing its particular language (in much the same way as the equally excellent 'Powershell In Action' - also from Manning). I've been reading 'C# In Depth' since it was first made available in rough form via Manning's excellent MEAP program - yesterday I got my paper copy and spent a happy evening re-reading various sections. Assuming you already know a little C# then this is without a shadow of a doubt the best next book you should read. I don't know of any other C# book that takes offers the unique and deep insight that 'C# In Depth' gives. It's a tribute to Jon Skeet's writing that he manages to cut to the chase and deliver his insights in such a effortless and economical form. Physically this is actually quite a short book (in terms of page count) compared to other door-stop C# tomes. However don't be mislead by page count == value for money, 'C# In Depth' distills C# 2 and C# 3 down and delivers them to the reader in such a way that you'll really appreciate how this wonderful and pragmatic language has really undergone a remarkably rapid evolution and now elegantly supports programming idioms that where positively painful in earlier versions. If you think C# 2 is just about type safe containers then you are missing out big time. The bottom line is if you love programming for programming's sake then buy and read this book as soon as possible. Heck, if you're a development lead then I would seriously suggest getting your boss to buy a copy of this book for every developer on your team and mandate that it is read - it truly is that good.

You should also check out Jon's excellent programming blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/jon.skeet/default.aspx

Tom buys new C++ book. Cats and Dogs live together.

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:00:33 GMT

Where the rubber hits the road (certainly for Windows 7 and one imagines '8) there'll still need to be occasional sorties into the C++ Dark Dungeons (to say nothing of eeking out value for existing legacy code). So, mostly as a reaction to the the Visual C++ 2008 Feature Pack and because I firmly believe it behoves every managed developer to "own the entire call stack" I find myself ordering a copy of Pete Becker's "The C++ Standard Library Extensions: A Tutorial And Reference". Who'd have thunk it :)

Book radar (or 'I could not resist')

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:54:40 GMT

It's books like these that just go straight to my hind brain to tug on those ancient reptilian neurons yelling "Read Me!"

Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications

James M. Van Verth & Lars M. Bishop

and

Programming Language Pragmatics (Second Edition)

Michael Scott

Morgan Kaufmann is turning out to be rather an awesome publisher!

I still maintain one of the best things I've done in recent years is to get rid of all broadcast TV from my life. It's been more than 2 years now and I don't miss it at all.

OMG... Tom buys maths books...

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 05:24:07 GMT

Now usually the only maths I'd go near would be shamelessly graphics orientated, so I guess my buying "Making Things Move" having recently enjoyed Karsten Januszewski's blog entries based on it is not so surprising (WPF is such a beautiful set of APIs, it really is - and we're only at v1 of the platform). However I can't quite believe myself that I've ordered "An Introduction to Lambda Calculi for Computer Scientists".

The supportive meta trend enabling all this unfasionable reading is also frankly personally surprising. First and foremore I've stop watching all broadcast TV, stopped watching downloaded U.S. TV series and started going back to the cinema... As Bill would have said "Who'd have thunk it?". I distinctly remember teasing my uncle once by saying that traditional cinema as a medium was dead and had nothing to offer me and further more couldn't hold a candle to the home cinema experience... and then I discovered the Gate cinema at Notting Hill. The Gate proves you don't need an IMAX scale screen to enjoy traditional cinema. Mucho humble pie eaten (the older I get the more of said food stuff I get to eat, funny that :-)

New Felix Caster novel: "Vicious Circle"

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 18:46:42 GMT

I absolutely loved Mike Carey's first book in the series "The Devil You Know". The follow up, "Vicious Circle", is now out in paper back (or maybe it has been for a while - but I only stumbled accross it today). The first book got the thumbs up from everyone I lent it to and make its way around the office. The Felix Caster novels are sort of like "Hellblazer" for grown ups, much more down to earth John Constantine. I'm only about a sixth (should that be "6[66'th]"?) of the way in and its a real treat. If you haven't read the first book I recommend picking it up - its hugely entertaining.