3/27    What are good books for learning C/C++ and/or Java?  --katster
        \_ "Teach Yourself Java 1.1 Programming in 24 Hours", published
           by http://sams.net, is the most straight-forward Java book I've
           come across.  Although a good introduction, it only covers
           the basics.
        \_ "C++ How to Program" by H.M. and P.J. Deitel is unmatched.
           Brewer used to recommend it in CS 169.
           \_ That is the most complete yet unreadable book on C++ ever.
              \_ Personally, I find it very readable.  So do a couple of
                 friends who wanted to learn how to program, and a couple
                 of co-workers who were looking for something more readable
                 than Stroustrup.
        \_Also, if you're going to be working in C, I'd reccommend picking up
          a copy of Kernighan and Ritchie's The C Programming Language,
          Second Edition (If you do stumble across a copy of the First Ed.,
          I'd grab it anyway for nostalgia's sake, but that's just me), aka,
          K&R C.  Most beginners find it to be really terse, but it's a really
          useful reference.
          \_ as a nonn-programmer who has had to program and was given that
             book to learn from, i can say that that is absolutely terrible
             advice.  to a beginner, that book is nothing more than a poorly
             organized and badly written man page.  programmers need to
             stop recomending it to non-programmers to learn C from.
                \_ The K&R is what's known as a spec.  It's a very
                   important document to have for a language.  But
                   they tend to be more useful for compiler writers and
                   people who argue about obscure language details.
                   Specs should never be used as a beginner's guide.
                   \_ I've never read it myself but many of those language
                      details are pretty important in C as opposed to many
                      other programming languages.  There are a lot of pitfalls
                      and fallacies that novice C programmers fall into that
                      they should be aware of.  It's not like Java which is good
                      at easing novices in.
                        \_ K&R shouldn't be used as a spec either - the
                           authoritative spec for C is the ISO/ANSI C
                           Standard, which is much more detailed than K&R.
        \_ I like "C: A Reference Manual" by Harbison and Steele.  Once it
           helped me solve a hardware interface related problem dealing
           with the memory positions of fields in an array of structures.
           Very clear explanations and nice index.  So far it has provided
           answers to all my C questions without forcing me to read a
           whole bunch of extraneous stuff.  I haven't found an equivalent
           C++ book in that regard.
        \_ I like "Practical C++ Programming" by Steve Oualline. It's not
           complete, by any means, but it gets you started, and it's easy
           to read. -brg