[macklin01]

Hello.

By popular request, we're starting up a thread on recommended programming books. This way, references are all in one place and easy to find. The moderators, in particular, Thelemac, have agreed to help maintain the format of the thread. (Thanks, Thelemac! Please feel free to edit these instructions! ) We'll use a standard format to make the thread easier to read and maintain. Hopefully, as we add more and more listings to this thread, we can group the entries by programming language.

So, to add a reference, please use this format:

Language: <e.g., C++, C, HTML, Java, VB>
Title: <title> , <edition if applicable>
Author: <Last Name>, <First Name>
ISBN: <for easier searching on amazon, etc.>
Top Pros: <what makes you recommend the book?>
Cons: <optional>

If you have a tutorial website to list, please use this format:

Language:
Title: <if applicable>
URL: <type out full URL here -- the forums should create the link>
Top Pros:
Cons: <optional>

I'll get us started:

Language: C++
Title: C++ in Plain English, 3rd Edition
Author: Overland, Brian
ISBN: 0-7645-3545-5
Top Pros: Gives a great crash course in C++, from
memory management to pointers to disk I/O. It
does a particularly good job of explaining classes
and disk I/O, and each concept is followed by an
example. Also, all stdlib functions are listed
alphabetically with examples for each. A good
reference even after you've learned, and easily searched.

[Ge|atinousFury]

Language: C++
Title: A First Book of C++: From Here to There, 2nd Edition
Author: Bronson, Gary J.
ISBN: 0-534-36801-8
Top Pros: EXCELLENT book for C++ beginners. This was my textbook for my college C++ course. There is a great emphasis on structure, which will prove valuable later in programming. After every section are excercises that test what you've read, and the answers to all the odd prob's are in the back of the book. These excercises/answers help TREMENDOUSLY. The 13 page Introduction to Programming section at the beginning of the book would prove very helpful to someone who knows nothing at all about programming and is looking to start somewhere.

[macklin01]

This post is adapted from one by naif on another thread:

Language: C
Title: The C Tutorial
URL: ftp://ftp.swcp.com/pub/users/dodril...rolled/chtm.zip
Top Pros: This is the main tutorial

Language: C
Title: The C Tutorial
URL: ftp://ftp.swcp.com/pub/users/dodril...rolled/csrc.zipTop Pros: The source code of the examples

Language: C
Title: The C Tutorial
URL: ftp://ftp.swcp.com/pub/users/dodril...rolled/cans.zip
Top Pros: The answers for the exercises

Language: C++
Title: The C++ Tutorial
URL: ftp://ftp.swcp.com/pub/users/dodril...lled/cpphtm.zip
Top Pros: This is the main tutorial

Language: C++
Title: The C++ Tutorial
URL: ftp://ftp.swcp.com/pub/users/dodril...lled/cppsrc.zip
Top Pros: The source code of the examples

Language: C++
Title The C++ Tutorial
URL: ftp://ftp.swcp.com/pub/users/dodril...lled/cppans.zipTop Pros: The answers for the excersises

Language: Pascal
Title: ???
URL: ftp://ftp.swcp.com/pub/users/dodrill/controlled

[Monaco]

hmm, guess I will review a few of the books on my shelf here!

Language: Java
Title: Sam's Teach Yourself Java is 21 Days
Author: Laura Lemay and Rogers Cadenhead
ISBN: 1-57521-390-7
Pros: You've probably seen the "Sam's...' line of books for sale. This particular book did a pretty good job explaining Java. At times it was quite maddening- for example it waits until the final chaptors to explain what the " { }" is for, although you start using them on page one. The 21 days approach is mostly window dressing- I did the first 5 chapters in one sitting, while some of the final chapters took me several days to fully understand.

But on the whole this book gives a very good introduction to Java to anyone who is willing to put some effort into it. At only 635 pages, it is not the most in-depth book you could find. But, after completing all the exercises and reading every chapter thoroughly, I feel that I have as good a grasp on Java as I could possibly get from a book.

Terminology is for the most part explained simply and concisely, with many examples and exercises. Some exercises appear in the first chapters, and keep recurring throughout the book, giving you a chance to see a program evolve to fit certain needs.

There are several different versions of Sam's Teach Yourself Java, matching the different versions of Java itself- I have copies of them all. While they do have many differences, any of them is enough to teach a dedicated student enough about Java for them to create medium-strength applications without problems. Reccommended.

[naif]

Some more free tutorials :-

Language: C
Title: C Programming by Brian Brown
URL: http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/languages/c/programming-bbrown
Top Pros: Excellent! Thats all I have to say!

Language: C
Title: How C Programming Works
URL: http://www.howstuffworks.com/c.htm
Top Pros: This is also a very good tutorial!

Language: C++
Title: Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming using C++
URL: http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/languages/c/c++oop-pmueller/
Top Pros: Quite good I think but it assumes you already know C.

Language: C++
Title: ???
URL: http://www.pragsoft.com/cppbook/cppbook.zip
Top Pros: A highly recommened book for learning C++. This book does not assume any prior programming knowlegde

[Kryogenitor]

Language: Perl
Title: O'Reilly : Learning Perl (Llama Book)
Author: Randal L. Schwartz & Tom Phoenix
ISBN: 0-596-00132-0
URL: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl3/
Pros: Great book to get you started using perl. It's geared towards people who need to get up and using perl within a few hours. I recommend "Programming Perl" after you've completed this book for a deeper understanding of the language.

[macklin01]

Language: Java
Title: Java 2 in Plain English, 3rd Edition
Author: Overland, Brian & Michael Morrison
ISBN: 0-7645-3539-0
Top Pros: Gives a decent crash course in Java and has a lengthy listing and description of the Java API.
Cons: A bit of a difficult read. Helpful if you know C++ first. Not as good as my other Overland reference. (Maybe Michael Morrison was a stick in the mud?)

[jwhitehorn]

Language: C/C++
Title: Applied Crptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source in C 2nd Edition
Author: Schneier, Bruce
ISBN: 0-471-11709-9
Top Pros: This is a great book on the topic of Cryptography. Not only does it cover it from a programming stand point, but it also covers algorithms from a security stand point. The book, for the most part, is non-technical. The arthur did a great job at limiting the amount of math and number theory that appears in the book. Source code from several major crypto Algorithms appears in the back of the book (which may make it hard for someone to ship this book outside of the United States).

Cons: Just like any book of this kind, it is continually being outdated. New crypto algorithms are continually being created, and flaws found in old ones. However, no book on this topic would ever escape this downfall.

Language: C
Title: Teach Yourself C in 24 Hours
Author: Zhang, Tony
ISBN: 0-672-31068-6
Top Pros: When they say "Teach yourself C in 24 hours" they mean it. This is an excellent introduction to C, and therefor C++. The book "can" be read in 24 hours, in the sense that it has 24 chapters which only take about an hour to read each. However more time will be take to do the practice programming examples. I am by no means a fast reader, and doing all of the example programs it took me one week to complete this book. By the end of the book you will be able to manipulate files, use structures, and allocate memory from the OS. This book starts out assuming you have never programmed a day before in your life, and leaves you ready to read books for intermediate to advanced C programmers. The book comes with a CD-Rom including a free C compiler.

Cons: No cons come to mind.

Language: C++
Title: C++ How to Program (Third edition)
Author: Deitel & Deitel
ISBN: 0-13-089571-7
Top Pros: I would have never bought this book, if it had not been for the fact that it was required for one of my college classes. I have never heard of the Arthur, and for the most part dont buy books from Prentice Hall. However as it turned out, this book was a sheep in wolfs clothing. This book starts out with an introduction to what C++ is, and therefor where it came from. It covers a good "basic" introduction to the history of programming languages. The book, obviously, starts out assuming you have never programmed in any language. By the end of the book, you should be able to create all kinds of classes, data strucutres, database systems, and files. It also covers Polymorphism, Templates, Exception handling, and the Standard Temple Library (STL). Great book, and you may even be able to find a copy of it used at your local college (good way to save some money). Also this book comes with Microsoft Visuall C++ 6.0 Intro. Edition, so that right there is a nice bonus all its own.

Cons: You will end up using this book as an invaluable reference, and because of that the book will fall apart. I had to duct tape mine together........is this really a con, i guess it just means it got well used .

Language: C++
Title: Same's Teach Yourself Advanced C in 21 Days
Authors: Jones, Bradley L. & Guntle, Gregory L.
ISBN: 0-672-30474-6
Top Pros: Not many....

Cons: The book was good in its time (1994), however has become extremly outdated. It covers some areas of C which are not ANSI compliant. If you are looking for "Advanced" C, i would suggest you learn C++, seriously. You will more than likly not be able to compile most of the examples because of its lack of ANSI compliance, and if you did, they would only work in a DOS system.

[FattyMcNastyXK]

Ok, this book is where I learned php at and I've noticed that there are no reviews on php books.

Language: PHP
Title:PHP and MySQL Web Development
Author: Luke Welling and Laura Thomson
ISBN: 0-672-31784-2
Pros: Its a really good book. It starts in very basic php stuff and at the end of the book, it'll get into advanced. This is the only book you need if you want to master php. Some programing books I've noticed only are beginner/intermediate and not advanced. And if there is advanced books, it'll only be advanced, not beginner - advanced. In this book, you learn how to work with mysql and make your web site work very smoothly. There is a cd rom too with all the source code they talk about in the book.

[bubba gump]

yeh ive been looking for a php book, i found one mainly on writing programs here it is

Language: PHP
Title: MySQL Database/PHP Applications
Author:Jay Greenspan (forgot other guy )
Dont know isbn

its made by mt books here is there website

it comes on a cd with php, mysql and apache server, so theres a lot of good stuff in it, so ermmm.....yes it teachs lots of things, good book, apporx $45 USD can find at most Barnes & Nobles and Border Books.

[naif]

Language: Assembly
Title: The Art of Assembly Language Programming
URL: http://webster.cs.ucr.edu/AoA.html
Top Pros: None!

You can read this book online if you want to or you can download the html version or the pdf version for offline viewing.

Check out their main page also -> http://webster.cs.ucr.edu/index.html

[bubba gump]

Language: C++
Title: Standard C++ Bible
Authors: Al Stevens & Clayton Walnum (I got both of them this time )
ISBN:0-7645-4654-6
Top Pros: It teaches you loads and loads of stuff, you will learn enough to get a good start in programming. Many projects to make in the book. It comes with all of the cource code in the book, on a CD-ROM. On the CD-ROM is Al Steven's compiler, Quincy-99.
Top Cons:The book is very big, and may turn you away from learning from a book. The compiler that comes with the book isn't all too great, but works excellent for the stuff in the book.

*NOTE*I havent finished the book, but am about half way through. As with any programming book, you should read it more than once if you are starting with the language from knowing nothing!*NOTE*

[naif]

Language: Visual Basic 6
Title: Visual Basic 6 Complete
Author: *Many*
ISBN: 81-7656-078-2
Top Pros: In a way, one of the finest reference/how-to book I have seen.

Language: HTML
Title: HTML Black Book
Author: Steven Holzner
ISBN: 81-7722-086-1
Top Pros: Covers mostly everything about HTML(i.e. all the tags and all) and has some additional chapters covering Javascript, Style Sheets, bit of Java, XML, Perl and cgi scripting using Perl.

[naif]

Language: C++
Title: C++ How to Program (4th Edition)
Author: Harvey M. Deitel and Paul J. Deitel
ISBN: 0130384747
Top Pros: Only went through the first few chapters, but from that only it seemed like a very good book for learning C++ from

Language: Turbo Pascal
Title: Turbo Pascal 7.0 (4th Edition)
Author: Walter J. Savitch
ISBN: 0805304185
Top Pros: Quite nice

[Flashfx2]

Language: C++
Title: Problem Solving with C++
Author: Walter Savitch
ISBN: 0301703904
Top Pros: The book I learned C++ from in college. Very easy reading and gives many great examples of how code is to be used.

[Golden]

Language: PHP
Title: Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL
Author: Kevin Yank
ISBN: 0957921802
Pros: Great book for the beginner in PHP. This was my 3rd php book but it was highly recommended by many people who i talked to. Does a great job of leading you through code step by step so you understand the concepts. I use this book a lot a quick reference for stuff.

Cons: Not very many advanced techniques.

[macklin01]

Language: OpenGL
Title: OpenGL Programming Guide, 3rd Edition
Author: Woo, Mason et. al. (OpenGL Architecture Review Board)
ISBN: 0201604582
Top Pros: A good explanation of graphics concepts in 2D and 3D, and does a good job of explaining the OpenGL implementation of those concepts. Useful for Windows and Linux environments. Well-Explained.
Cons: Explanation of buffers / animation a little lacking, but not too bad.

[-=HN=- Wild9]

Well If you ever need any help at all with a program in Basic, go to
www.qbasic.com and post the question on their forums, all i have to say is wow, seriously quick response times on their forums, i mean any question at all. i know that Basic is an old programming language but these guys still know how to use it very well.

[flux]

Language: Java
Title: Java 2: The Complete Refence [Fifth Edition]
Author: Herbert Schildt
ISBN: 0-07-222420-7
Top Pros: Does exactly what is says on the tin. Provides details description on common Java classes, and good explanation of all Java concepts. Concept details are introduced so as to also serve as an excellent tutorial book.

Language: Any web based
Title: W3Schools
URL: http://www.w3schools.com/
Top Pros: Excellent tutorials and references for just about every web technology you can think of.

[nerdlogic]

Language: Java
Title: Java Au Naturel
Author: Dr. William C. Jones, Jr.
URL: http://www.javabook.org
Top Pros: Excellent online book which my professor uses in our class. It's easy to understand and provides several great examples. It includes a brief introduction to computers and programming, and it is organized, IMO, in a logical and comprehensive sequence.

[CyberFed]

Language: Assembly Language
Title: Assembly Language for Intel Based Computers 4th Ed.
Author: Irvine, R. Kip
ISBN: 0130910139
Top Pros: A great book to learn Assembly from the beginning, I found it extreamly easy to get through this book. Don't be fooled by the rumos assembly language is powerful and awsome this book covers it well. Includes Advanced MSDOS programming, and 2 chapters dedicated to GUI.
Cons: I would have been happier with some more examples on some of the more complex topics. A bit pricey too. Overall two thumbs up.

[Crazy Jayhawk]

Language: C++
Title: C++ For Dummies, All in one desk reference
Author: Cogswell, Jeff
ISBN: 0-7645-1795-3
Pros: Enjoyable to read, source code examples clearly explained. Includes example source code on CDROM.
Cons: Lacks detail in some areas, like string functions.

[Christoph]

Language: mostly C under *nix, but also applies to other systems and languages
Title: The Art of Unix Programming
Author: Raymond, Eric S.
ISBN: 0131429019
Link: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/index.html
Pros: From what I've read so far and from my tiny knowledge Unix history, this is a great book. It's written to communicate the culture of Unix and the programming practices that have made it so successful.

[Penguin4x4]

Language: Java
Title: Big Java
Author: Cay S. Horstmann
Pros: presents the art of Java in a nice, clear, how to book. Comes with a CD of both templates and examples from the book so that you learn by both reading and application.
Cons: Have Found None So Far

[Venesectrix]

Language: C++
Title: C++ How to Program, 4^th Edition
Authors: Deitel&Deitel
Top Pros: I've only read a few hundred pages so far, but it's been easy to learn from, with plenty of examples and useful syntax highliting
Cons: It's too big -_-;; no real problems, though the ants on the cover are scary

[funzie]

Language: Perl
Title: Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web
Author: Castro, Elizabeth
ISBN: 0-201-35358-X
Top Pros: Easy to read and follow. I mostly use it for reference since its easy to find and see how some lines of code work.
Cons: Not very extensive, just a quick overview of simple stuff.

Language: SystemC
Title: A SystemC Primer
Author: Bhasker, J
ISBN: 0-9650391-8-8
Top Pros: Probably the first SystemC book. SystemC is pretty new in the US but its widely used in Europe and Asia. Will quickly become the standard in the future. Which is the reason most colleges that offer computer science and computer engineering bachelors are making it a requirement.
Cons: Some examples not complete. Since its pretty much the first of the kind, there is room to improve. Hopefully in newer editions or other books.

[StaticXD00d]

Language: C for UNIX
Title: UNIX Systems Programming for SVR4
Author: Curry, David A.
ISBN: 1-56592-163-1
Top Pros: Excellent reference for programming on UNIX systems. Gives complete run-downs on all of the system calls and functions, along with small sample code that can be used as a starting point for larger projects. I reference this book almost every time I open a C program. While it states examples that work on HP-UX, Iris, Solaris, BSD etc., I mostly program on SCO and RedHat, and never have any problems the man pages can't compensate for. If you want to program in UNIX with C, this is a must-have.
Cons: Assumes reader already knows basic C programming, so this isn't a beginner book, but you don't need to be an expert by any stretch either.

[Malakai]

Language: C
Title: Practical C Programming , 3rd Edition
Author: Oualline, Steve (O'Reilly Publishing)

Top Pros:
Emphasis on style and clarity, shuns complexity where it is not required.
Zero programming background is needed, the book is a complete from-scratch learning tool for the C language.

Cons: You will sometimes have to look up functions yourself (not a problem IMO, but some people don't like it).

-----------------------------------------------

Language: C++
Title: Practical C++ Programming , 2nd Edition
Author: Oualline, Steve (O'Reilly Publishing)


Pros & cons: same as above, just for C++

[9mmCensor]

Language: Java
Title: Thinking in Java
Author: Bruce Eckle
ISBN:0136597238
Top Pros: Great OO intro...
Cons: Expensive.

[youngbuck]

I have looked through a couple different "Beginner's Guides" to C++ and have attempted to go through at least a half dozen C++ tutorials on the web or that were downloaded through p2p apps. Maybe it was because I didn't put forth the time, but it sure as heck seemed that none of these tutorials or books made that much sense for the REAL beginner. I'm talking absolutely NO programming experience whatsoever. That's that boat I was in.

So I move, and my new high school has an Intro to Computer Programming in C++. So I jumped at the chance since I had no luck with tutorials and such. The book that every student got was:

Introduction to Computer Science Using C++, Third Edition
by Todd Knowlton and Brad Hunt
ISBN: 0-619-03452-1 Hardcover
ISBN: 0-619-03453-X Softcover


This book is great! It is very easy to understand if you sit down and read through it. It is very well illustrated and has a lot of sample code, that is suprisingly useful, compared to other books and tutorials I have read. All the code that I have tried so far seems to work exactly as indicated. This book is made for the average high schooler to understand... unlike some of the college focused books that are just a pain in the arse to understand what they're trying to say, let alone the programming concepts.

At the end of each chapter there are assignments, a summary of the chapter, some quizes, etc. They are not very difficult at all if you read the chapter, yet you realize that you've justed learned A LOT in a very short period of time and without much effort.

You will start to learn C++ surprisingly easy and gain a lot of confidence as you go along. I rarely have any questions for the teacher becaue the book explains things so well. If you want to get your foot in the door of programming without a big headache and hours of idle and frustrated stares at the computer screen this is the book for you. This book has definately given me the foundation and confidence to go on and learn other languages.

The only con I can think of is that it doesn't get as indepth as some other books. But if you want a solid foundation so that you can learn the more in depth stuff then it is perfect. There is just a trade-off of "indepthness" for ease of understanding, which in my opinion is well worth is for the beginner.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!