The Practice of Programming
Brian Kernighan, Rob Pike
16 people recommended it in 10 threads, 2011–2022.
What people on Hacker News said
For style & technical guidelines, I think Code Complete is still a great book, or the Pragmatic Programmer. For a trad-C book, maybe even Pike's Practice of Programming.
Even though it is mostly review, reading code and seeing commands that K&R&P run has actually helped my workflow, code quality, etc.
Highly recommend re-reading if it has been a while. Even things like variable names have noticeably improved since beginning re-reading.
I read The Awk Programming Language shortly after K&R and came away with the idea that I should consider reading whatever Kernighan (co)wrote.
Some of these do contain mixed language code examples, but they are expressed in a way to be agnostic. A problem is a problem; in any language.
Where it comes up
- Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read? 2017 · 5 recommendations
- Ask HN: Best book to learn C in 2022? 2022 · 2 recommendations
- What is the single most influential book every programmer should read? 2011 · 2 recommendations
- Ask HN: What, in your opinion, are the greatest and most useful textbooks? 2020 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Best books under 200 pages for developers? 2020 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What books had the greatest effect on how you structure your code? 2017 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What's the best computer science book you've read recently? 2017 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days? 2015 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2013? 2013 · 1 recommendation
- The Book That Every Programmer Should Read 2011 · 1 recommendation