Additional Books

Additional Books

These are here so you can dive into a topic you find interesting.

• The Unix Programming Environment

  • An oldie but a goodie

• The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction

  • A modern option

• TCP/IP Illustrated Series

• Head First Design Patterns

  • A gentle introduction to design patterns

• Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriente​d Software

  • AKA the "Gang Of Four" book, or GOF

  • The canonical design patterns book

• UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, 5th Edition

• Algorithm Design Manual (Skiena)

  • As a review and problem recognition

  • The algorithm catalog portion is well beyond the scope of difficulty you'll get in an interview

  • This book has 2 parts:

    • Class textbook on data structures and algorithms

      • Pros:

        • Is a good review as any algorithms textbook would be

        • Nice stories from his experiences solving problems in industry and academia

        • Code examples in C

      • Cons:

        • Can be as dense or impenetrable as CLRS, and in some cases, CLRS may be a better alternative for some subjects

        • Chapters 7, 8, 9 can be painful to try to follow, as some items are not explained well or require more brain than I have

        • Don't get me wrong: I like Skiena, his teaching style, and mannerisms, but I may not be Stony Brook material

    • Algorithm catalog:

      • This is the real reason you buy this book

      • About to get to this part. Will update here once I've made my way through it

  • Can rent it on Kindle

  • Answers:

    • Solutions

    • Solutions

  • Errata

• Write Great Code: Volume 1: Understanding the Machine

  • The book was published in 2004, and is somewhat outdated, but it's a terrific resource for understanding a computer in brief

  • The author invented HLA, so take mentions and examples in HLA with a grain of salt. Not widely used, but decent examples of what assembly looks like

  • These chapters are worth the read to give you a nice foundation:

    • Chapter 2 - Numeric Representation

    • Chapter 3 - Binary Arithmetic and Bit Operations

    • Chapter 4 - Floating-Point Representation

    • Chapter 5 - Character Representation

    • Chapter 6 - Memory Organization and Access

    • Chapter 7 - Composite Data Types and Memory Objects

    • Chapter 9 - CPU Architecture

    • Chapter 10 - Instruction Set Architecture

    • Chapter 11 - Memory Architecture and Organization

• Introduction to Algorithms

  • Important: Reading this book will only have limited value. This book is a great review of algorithms and data structures, but won't teach you how to write good code. You have to be able to code a decent solution efficiently

  • AKA CLR, sometimes CLRS, because Stein was late to the game

• Computer Architecture, Sixth Edition: A Quantitative Approach

  • For a richer, more up-to-date (2017), but longer treatment

• Programming Pearls

  • The first couple of chapters present clever solutions to programming problems (some very old using data tape) but that is just an intro. This a guidebook on program design and architecture