
Ask HN: What are the latest and greatest books on your favorite language? - djent
What are the most recently updated and most helpful books on the programming language you program in most?
======
diego
Clojure: The Joy of Clojure. Not for beginners, but it's excellent.

[http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Clojure-Michael-
Fogus/dp/161729141...](http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Clojure-Michael-
Fogus/dp/1617291412)

I've heard good thing about Clojure for the Brave and True, free online:

[http://www.braveclojure.com/](http://www.braveclojure.com/)

~~~
brudgers
Halloway's _Programming Clojure_ isn't exactly recent, but it's available
used, has a lot of depth like _Joy of Clojure_ , but is targeted at beginners.
_Clojure from the Ground Up_ is free and online, it's awesome and so is Aphyr.

[https://aphyr.com/tags/Clojure-from-the-ground-
up](https://aphyr.com/tags/Clojure-from-the-ground-up)

------
aurelian15
C++ - "A tour of C++"

[http://www.amazon.com/Tour-C--
Depth/dp/0321958314](http://www.amazon.com/Tour-C--Depth/dp/0321958314)

I read this book after having programmed C++ with the common "C++ is C with
classes" attitude for a while, and it really made me change the way I looked
at this language.

It was the book that made me realize how beautiful the RAII idiom is, that the
STL was clearly not hacked together by a bunch of crazy monkeys, that you
rarely need raw pointers in your code and that -- in contrast to popular
belief -- you seldom need to care about memory management.

When I finished that book, and though in the full knowledge that I was dealing
with this ugly monster of the Frankenstein kind; just like at the end of "the
beauty and the beast", I had somehow come to respect and appreciate that
language.

~~~
pakled_engineer
[http://www.springer.com/us/book/9781430266679](http://www.springer.com/us/book/9781430266679)
Advanced C and C++ Compiling by Stevanovic, Milan I've been reading to hack
around node.js to customize it

------
jdkanani
"Mastering Regular Expressions" by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl -
[http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Regular-Expressions-
Jeffrey-...](http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Regular-Expressions-Jeffrey-
Friedl/dp/0596528124) It's not on particular programming language or recently
updated, but related and very helpful.

------
z92
21st Century C - O'Reilly

[http://www.amazon.com/21st-Century-Tips-New-
School/dp/149190...](http://www.amazon.com/21st-Century-Tips-New-
School/dp/1491903899/)

------
kruk
Ruby: David A. Black - _The Well-Grounded Rubyist_ \-
[http://www.amazon.com/Well-Grounded-Rubyist-David-
Black/dp/1...](http://www.amazon.com/Well-Grounded-Rubyist-David-
Black/dp/1617291692/)

Great both for people new to the language and those looking to strengthen
their foundations.

------
jbuss
Effective Java [http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Java-2nd-Joshua-
Bloch/dp/032...](http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Java-2nd-Joshua-
Bloch/dp/0321356683/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441645120&sr=8-1&keywords=effective+java)

~~~
sanderjd
I'm going through that right now, and finding it incredibly good, but still
fairly outdated. It was written for Java 6, while Java 7 and (especially) 8
have more or less re-written the language. All of the advice is still really
great, but some of the items are workarounds for weaknesses in the language
that have since been strengthened. I'm working through _Java 8 in Action_ [0]
in parallel, and it's been a good experience.

I've also been enjoying this _Modern Java_ blog series, which is book-ish[1].

In a similar vein, I really enjoyed _Effective Modern C++_ [2].

I think _The Ruby Way_ [3] is still the best ruby book, and a new edition just
came out earlier this year.

I'm looking for a good book about modern javascript if anyone has any
suggestions.

[0]: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20534354-java-8-in-
actio...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20534354-java-8-in-action)

[1]: [http://blog.paralleluniverse.co/2014/05/01/modern-
java/](http://blog.paralleluniverse.co/2014/05/01/modern-java/)

[2]: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22800553-effective-
moder...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22800553-effective-modern-c)

[3]:
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4514.The_Ruby_Way](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4514.The_Ruby_Way)

~~~
davedx
> I'm looking for a good book about modern javascript if anyone has any
> suggestions.

I just finished writing an eBook about building large modern web apps in
JavaScript. If you're interested, here's the link:

[https://leanpub.com/buildingbattletestedfrontendsoftware](https://leanpub.com/buildingbattletestedfrontendsoftware)

Cheers!

------
EnderMB
For C#, the book I always find myself going back to is C# In Depth by Jon
Skeet. It's one of the most accessible books I've read, and it's one I always
recommend to other devs that are interested in the language.

[http://csharpindepth.com/](http://csharpindepth.com/)

~~~
tylerpachal
Jon Skeet facts:

[http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/9134/jon-skeet-
facts](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/9134/jon-skeet-facts)

My favourite:

    
    
      Jon Skeet is immutable. If something's going to change, it's going to have to be the rest of the universe.

------
rbanffy
Fluent Python,
[http://shop.oreilly.com/product/mobile/0636920032519.do](http://shop.oreilly.com/product/mobile/0636920032519.do)

------
playing_colours
Functional Programming in Scala

[https://www.manning.com/books/functional-programming-in-
scal...](https://www.manning.com/books/functional-programming-in-scala)

Not for Scala beginners, more for people who want to learn functional
programming paradigm and how to apply its ideas in Scala. Very clear
explanations of immutability, laziness, monads, etc. There are also a lot of
interesting programming problems in the book to train yourself.

------
kruk
Stanley B. Lippman - _C++ Primer_ \- [http://www.amazon.com/Primer-5th-
Stanley-B-Lippman/dp/032171...](http://www.amazon.com/Primer-5th-Stanley-B-
Lippman/dp/0321714113/)

I haven't been using C++ for a few years now and I needed a quick refresher.
While I wouldn't call C++ Primer quick it covers all the basics really well.
Great resource for people new to the language.

~~~
seivan
Second this. It's the only book I own that specifically covers a programming
language. I own the fourth edition - has a slight different cover.

Only complaint is the same as yours, it's pretty verbose but I guess that's
what you get with c++.

------
0xcde4c3db
The C++ Programming Language, 4th Ed.

[https://isocpp.org/tour](https://isocpp.org/tour) has PDFs of the first four
chapters, which offer something of a breadth-first overview of C++11.

------
e19293001
Here is my favorite author:
[http://cs.newpaltz.edu/~dosreist/](http://cs.newpaltz.edu/~dosreist/)

This a good opportunity to say thank you to Anthony J. Dos Reis.

I like the way he writes and when reading his books, I feel like he is in
front of me teaching the subject.

Here are his books that I bought:

Assembly Language and Computer Architecture Using C++ and Java , Course
Technology, 2004

By reading this book, I've developed my skills in programming with C/C++,
assembly language and while learning computer architecture all at the same
time. This book contains lots of low level stuffs. The exercises are easy
enough and had really sharpen my skills. Although the target machine is
theoretical, I was able to switch easily into the real machine.

Compiler Construction Using Java, JavaCC, and Yacc, IEEE/Wiley, 2012

This book taught me how to create compilers. The author started from simple
principles in grammars then slowly introducing a very simple compiler
eventually adding more features to the compiler. I was able to adapt his
method in developing a compiler. In later chapters, the book does a great job
in presenting an application of what was learned from the previous chapters by
implementing grep using automata theory.

I might have forgotten some of the topics after more than a year but I will
not forget the fun it gave to me when reading and learning from those books.

------
lalwanivikas
JavaScript - "JavaScript: The Good Parts"

[http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596517748.do](http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596517748.do)

Can anyone please suggest more good books for JavaScript? - for beginner,
intermediate and advanced levels? Thanks in advance :)

~~~
ddw
The "You Don't Know JS" series was a real eye-opener for me.

~~~
nstart
whoa. Thank you for this. Already shared with team at office and a whole bunch
of other people. We are moving into a JS framework based project soon so
having this resource is going to be pretty handy to reset and refresh our
minds on any 'forgotten' or broken pieces of knowledge about JS. I'd upvote
this multiple times if I could have.

------
shadeless
Elixir in Action: [https://www.manning.com/books/elixir-in-
action](https://www.manning.com/books/elixir-in-action)

------
FireBeyond
I'd love to see some Python or Go references.

~~~
shazow
If you want latest for Python, here's a Kickstarter that my partner just
launched for her latest book about intermediate webapp concepts:

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1868398473/hello-web-
ap...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1868398473/hello-web-app-
intermediate-concepts)

It's mostly focused around Django, but it's great for learning web app stuff
in general. Has a chapter about Stripe integration, doing SASS/SCSS
stylesheets, fiddling with images, and lots more. :)

------
SSilver2k2
Python for Kids

[https://www.nostarch.com/pythonforkids](https://www.nostarch.com/pythonforkids)

------
bwigfield
Modern Perl - [http://modernperlbooks.com/](http://modernperlbooks.com/)

------
srirangr
SCJP by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates is an amazing book to learn Java. With
interesting examples (often about movie characters) and advanced
images/graphics for a better understanding of the concepts.

I recommend it to anyone starting to learn Java, with or without any previous
programming experience.

------
roneesh
You Don't Know JS by Kyle Simpson is essential if you want to learn Javascript
in depth.

------
oliverjudge
I'd be interested to see what people currently think are the best books for
iOS Development.

------
Faucheuse
JavaScript Enlightenment Cody Lindley

Helped me a lot.

------
dominotw
Any recommendation for Standard ML ?

~~~
cannam
Not that many options I think.

A classic is Larry C Paulson's "ML for the Working Programmer", although it's
(a) apparently a bit divisive (see e.g.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9667264](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9667264))
and (b) out of print. It's a thoughtful treatment of functional programming
that happens to use ML, and a book I enjoy reading rather than just referring
to. I appreciate the fact that the second edition introduces modules very
early on, and that it's relatively un-mathematical in the way it presents
things like module semantics.

Robert Harper's "Programming in Standard ML" (online only I think, at
[http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rwh/smlbook/book.pdf](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rwh/smlbook/book.pdf))
is more thorough. It's modern enough to present the Basis library as part of
the language, so you do get a handful of useful existing data structures
rather than feeling you're expected to build everything yourself. A pity the
Basis library is so slight though.

