Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!gatech!udel!princeton!phoenix!pucc!EGNILGES From: EGNILGES@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Ed Nilges) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Cynic's Guide, part 5: Bookshelf Message-ID: <5236@pucc.Princeton.EDU> Date: 10 May 88 22:46:03 GMT References: <2768@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU> Reply-To: EGNILGES@pucc.Princeton.EDU Distribution: na Organization: Princeton University, NJ Lines: 28 Disclaimer: Author bears full responsibility for contents of this article In article <2768@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU>, neff@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU (Randy Neff) writes: > >A recent comp.software-eng message was complaining about a code comment that >refered to a particular book, page, and algorithm for full explaination. >This started a chain of thought: what books should we expect every >software engineer to have available; preferably own. > Hurray! You are to be commended strongly for this posting. A recent COMPUTERWORLD ad showed a wizened old gent scratching his head over a thick tome entitled "Kernighan C", one of the most clear, elegant, and appropriately sized texts ever written in our field, and the ad claimed that you could learn C "by watching TV". We need to fight this kind of nonsense. Database C. J. Date, AN INTRODUCTION TO DATABASE SYSTEMS. Reading, MA, 1977: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. This is the best and most complete book I know of. It may have been subjected to further editions and I believe I've seen further volumes. Software Engineering Weinberg, Gerald M., The Psychology of Computer Programming. New York, 1971: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.