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From: gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Texts on fundamentals of programmin
Message-ID: <82400029@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 1 Apr 89 19:49:00 GMT
References: <354@cbnewsc.ATT.COM>
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Nf-ID: #R:cbnewsc.ATT.COM:354:p.cs.uiuc.edu:82400029:000:1270
Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Apr  1 14:49:00 1989


You need to say what you're interested in programming.  If you want to
do

Type of Programming		Type of book
-------------------------------------------------
Scientific Programming		Computer Numerical Analysis
Database Programming		Database book (Ullman)
Compiler Programming		Compiler book (Dragon book)
Optimization Programming	Zillions of math/theory books
PC applications (lotus)		Data Structures / Knuth
Soft. Eng. practice		"The Mythical Man Month"
Device Drivers			OS books / assembly texts
Graphics			Graphics textbook
Simulation			...
...				...

Here are some elementary texts that cover 1 or more areas:

"Data Structures in Pascal", Reingold & Hansen
    In a recent ACM Computing Surveys article, this book was rated best
    among 4 data structures books.

"How to solve it by Computer", R. G. Dromey
    Looks like a cookbook with many examples

"Algorithms, 2nd edition", R. Sedgewick
    Another cookbook, with 40 chapters, but it looks like it has more
    explanation, and covers some knuth, optimization, and, geometry.


Cookbook is a good analogy, since it takes tons of practice on "the
basics" in order to become a good algorithm designer.  You can read
the recipes in the second 2 books, or you can study the ingredients,
using the first book.