The New Classics of Computer Science | Hacker News Reader

The New Classics of Computer Science

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41 pointssmanek9 comments

GEB as a classic of computer science? Why? It's imaginative, right, but it lacks the rigor to be a classic. Better to read about recursion, formal systems, lambda calculus, undecidability, complexity theory, etc from some math text... at least I have found it to be a lot more interesting and revealing.

Yeah, I think there's some renaissance man posturing going on in this list.

The books you list are great books, but I still wouldn't take SICP or TAOCP off the list.

Generally speaking, I think the real question we need to be asking with lists like this, is "Who is the audience?"

thanks. I was shooting for people who had already read sicp, htdp, design pattern, etc (and who have at least tried their hand at taocp ;-)).

Those are all great books of course, but there are a lot of topics outside their domain. I was hoping to choose books that complement/supplement the classics.

I see. But wouldn't most people who have read SICP and HTDP and tried their hand at TAOCP be a bit beyond GEB and the New Turing Omnibus? I mean, I'd heartily recommend those to folks who haven't yet made the leap...

I think Design Patterns is mischaracterized as a "classic text of computer science". It's only 14 years old (which rules out some definitions of 'classic'), not nearly so profound as TAOCP and SICP (the other two books in your list), and it would be a stretch to say it's about computer science.

Computer Science != Software Engineering.

I would follow up by saying that, no matter how wonderful Road to Reality is, it's also not about CS, and GEB only overlaps the field.

An incorrectly titled post, perhaps?

A new and improved post, based on the feedback I received for my first post (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=296641) from PieSquared (thanks!).

I liked the kleinberg/tardos algorithms book better than clrs: www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321295358.

I felt it was more direct.

+1 for Road to Reality.

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