The Elements of Programming Style, Second Edition
Brian W. Kernighan and P.J. Plauger
McGraw-Hill, 1978 --- $43
ISBN 0-07-034207-5

Very useful for writing portable C code, this book lists the functions and header files in the Standard C Library. - E. Foster-Johnson in "UNIX Programming Tools"

Excellent practical guide to UNIX system administration, obviously written by people who've really done it; covers major UNIX flavors. Includes a CD-ROM with a long list of useful freeware, both for users and system managers. - R.Bossingham

Everyone's second book on C. Unix Review gave it "5 stars". "Expert C Programming" teaches you the tips and techniques used by the very best C programmers in the world. Based on a decade in Sun's compiler and OS groups." - Java programmers FAQ bibliography. More info at www.best.com and www.cbooks.com.

The BaBar Bible, basis of the design course taken by all BaBar software developers. - T.Wenaus (star_computing)

Thin, concise, and not very cheap, but an easy way to find out what's available; includes a CD-ROM with numerous freeware tools. - R.Bossingham

Seems to be a good, readable reference covering the F77 and F90 standards and the differences between them. - R.Bossingham

Covers sh, ksh, csh, awk, sed, and grep. Several reader reviews mention typos and give the book mediocre reviews. - R.Bossingham

Another great book from Stevens on programming network applications, this book provides a great deal of C source code for network tasks. - E.Foster-Johnson in "UNIX Programming Tools"

Covers many obscure, but useful, features of Windows 95. Intended for intermediate or advanced Windows 95 users. - R.Bossingham

The STAR SAS group standard is based on this book. - R.Bossingham

Best Linux Book Yet. - Tom Yager (May 1997 book review in Byte Magazine)

Probably the best overall introduction to Java for experienced programmers. - E. Foster-Johnson, in "UNIX Programming Tools."

An introduction to Java Programming, for people who can already program in another language. Filled with common sense examples, and anecdotes from the computer industry. Learning Java is enjoyable, stimulating fun with this book. Comes with a CD including the compiler and sample code. Covers Java 1.0 and 1.1, with a preview of Java 1.2. - Java programmers FAQ bibliography. More info at www.best.com and www.cbooks.com.

Just about every application these days requires a graphic user interface, and this book covers the means to that end: the Abstract Window Toolkit, or AWT. - E. Foster-Johnson in "UNIX Programming Tools"

This should be your first book on Java - and it doesn't teach Java programming. Instead, this book describes the trends and implications of Java and related technologies. Clear explanations with diagrams covering Java, CORBA, thin clients, network computers, RMI, multi-tier systems, Java threads, ActiveX, OLE, JavaBeans, JDBC, etc. For engineers, executives, and all the job titles in between. - Java programmers FAQ bibliography. More info at www.best.com and www.cbooks.com.

This book covers nroff and troff, two UNIX text-formatting packages, along with eqn, neqn, and pic preprocessors. - E. Foster-Johnson in "UNIX Programming Tools"

Considerations in developing library code in C++: making code portable to many platforms, usable, reusable. Very applicable to what we do. - T.Wenaus (star_computing)

A daunting book covering the definition of the C++ language. If you want to know why C++ alternatives like Java are so popular, read this book. - E.Foster-Johnson in "UNIX Programming Tools"

Excellent book for Fortranists. Used by Paul Kunz for his course. - T.Wenaus (star_computing)

Why C++ is the way it is, and why it is such a good scientific programming language. - T.Wenaus (star_computing)

Brings Stanley Lippman's classic primer up to date with ANSI C++, Rel. 3; the comments below refer to the Lippman text, SECOND edition. -- R.Bossingham

One of the two "best-of-breed C++ legality guides" listed in the C++ FAQ. "Very readable/approachable...excellent overview of almost every language feature...top notch, gold plated, excellent books...excellent sales record... If you don't know C, Lippman's book is better for you [than Stroustrup's]."

A very popular general C++ book. - T.Wenaus (star_computing)

By far the best UNIX programming book - E.Foster-Johnson, in "UNIX Programming Tools"

One of the three "best-of-breed C++ morality guides" listed in the C++ FAQ. "Covers 470 topics in a FAQ-like Q&A format...extensively illustrated with code examples...excellent, insightful, useful, gold plated... excellent sales record...examples are complete, working programs rather than code fragments or standalone classes."

Covers 50 topics in a short essay format. This is on of the three "best-of-breed C++ morality guides" listed in the C++ FAQ. (The companion volume is another one.) "(This) book [is] extensively illustrated with code examples...excellent, insightful, useful, gold plated...excellent sales record... contains numerous line-drawings that illustrate the points."

Lots of useful tips and techniques. - T.Wenaus (star_computing)

Comprehensive introduction to Tcl/Tk by its creator. - R.Bossingham

Describes patterns that commonly show up in good OO designs. You must read this book if you intend to do OO design work. - C++ FAQ

A neat book covering object-oriented design in any language. Unlike most such books, this one is full of practical examples. - Eric F. Johnson in "UNIX Programming Tools"

Made a very big impact, and with reason. A cookbook of class designs for particular generic applications. Excellent. - T.Wenaus (star_computing)

At the right level for someone who already knows something about programming and is comfortable reading a fortran manual. - James Symons

Covers 35 topics in a short essay format. This is on of the three "best-of-breed C++ morality guides" listed in the C++ FAQ. (Another one is the companion volume.) "This book [is] extensively illustrated with code examples...excellent, insightful, useful, gold plated...excellent sales record... contains numerous line-drawings that illustrate the points."

Lots of useful tips and techniques. - T.Wenaus (star_computing)

Interesting and educational look deep into the guts of how C++ works. (star_computing)

The classic. - R.Bossingham

The Bible, just updated to ANSI final draft. - T.Wenaus (star_computing)

One of the two "best-of-breed C++ legality guides" mentioned in the C++ FAQ. "Covers a lot of ground...excellent overview of almost every language feature...top notch, gold plated, excellent books...excellent sales record... If you know C and you want to cover a lot of ground quickly, Stroustrup's book is better for you [than Lippman's]."

General and readable, covering Huffman, arithmetic, LZ methods, JPEG, etc. Lots of concrete examples. A few typos. - R. Bossingham

This large book has many useful tips for analyzing performance. - E. Foster-Johnson, in "UNIX Programming Tools"

UML (Unified Modeling Language) is the standard that supercedes and encompasses Booch, CRC and others - Gulshan Rai.

This book seems to be a good discussion of the UML, and includes a CD-ROM with all UML models and Java code in the book. - R.Bossingham

Seems comprehensive, but readable; however, the one www.amazon.com customer review is negative (3/10), and recommends "Windows NT At a Glance" by Microsoft Press, as a better alternative. - R.Bossingham

Comprehensive. - R.Bossingham

(RPM = Red Hat Package Manager)

Good introductory book, numerous summary tables. - R.Bossingham

This is a serious book with serious discussions of the object model and the various object-oriented languages. Unfortunately, written pre-Java but still useful. - James Symons

I have yet to see a more eloquent, high-level description of an operating system, Linux or any other.
- Miles O'Neal, UNIX Review, June 1997.

Emphasizes the design of useful graphics, interfaces, charts, tables. - R.Bossingham

A best seller on software scheduling, warmly reviewed. - R.Bossingham

Nice discussions of the practical tools needed by serious programmers; includes CD-ROM with numerous freeware tools, such as Perl 5, tkCVS, etc. Table of contents for book and CD-ROM (and links) exists online. - R.Bossingham

Covers Tcl 7.5 and Tk 4.1; includes CD-ROM with Tcl and tools. - R.Bossingham

Emphasizes Perl on Unix and Windows NT. Includes CD-ROM with Perl and tools. - R.Bossingham

This very dense book contains a lot of useful information by the creator of Perl, Larry Wall. Much of this material comes from the on-line Perl reference material, but it provides may interesting Perl scripts you can use for ideas and examples. The updated version covers Perl 5. (E. Foster-Johnson, in "UNIX Programming Tools"

Best seller, warmly reviewed. Many call it THE Perl book to buy. - R.Bossingham

By far the tiniest and most useful Perl book, this microscopic text provides a quick reference guide to Perl; it is very useful. - E. Foster-Johnson, in "UNIX Programming Tools"

A good overview, a bit terse; assumes knowledge of C and/or C++; the second edition covers version 1.1 of the API. - J.Symons/R.Bossingham

Appears to be a good introductory book. - R.Bossingham