[HN Gopher] The Computer Science Book (2020)
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The Computer Science Book (2020)
Author : r4victor
Score : 159 points
Date : 2023-01-11 08:05 UTC (14 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (thecomputersciencebook.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (thecomputersciencebook.com)
| agomez314 wrote:
| It's nice to see the author spent a great deal of time and effort
| to share with others his learnings. However it's important to
| note his intention at writing this book: "I've chosen to focus on
| topics and concepts that I've encountered in my programming
| career - things that I know are important." Thus it's not an
| overview of Computer Science per se (which in my opinion is a
| fuzzy subject without clear boundaries) but subjects the author
| frequently encountered and perhaps heard as important things in
| the field.
|
| I would also caution in how the book presents its chosen subjects
| as "Computer Science." Like the adage goes, "Computer Science is
| not so much about computers like petri dishes are about biology,
| or telescopes are about astronomy." There's so much beauty and
| variety in the field that it's really hard to just pin down in a
| curriculum. See "A Mathematician's Lament" [1]
|
| I also challenge the notion that some of these subjects logically
| proceed from the other (some, not all).
|
| I've got no problem with anyone reading the book, they'll be
| certainly much more informed about the field of computers in
| general. I especially appreciated the Further Reading sections to
| let the reader expand his learning. Thanks for sharing this post!
|
| [1]
| https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/LockhartsLament....
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| compare https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34296702
|
| Inspired by the title "Sketches of an Elephant", I wonder if
| practitioners might be interested in a CS book that would be
| the equivalent of Korner's "The Pleasures of Counting" (
| https://books.google.ch/books?redir_esc=y&hl=de&id=wUdtVHBr-...
| ) which is structured more like a cookbook (inductive
| presentation) than a textbook (deductive presentation)?
|
| lagniappe:
| http://www.willamette.edu/~fruehr/haskell/evolution.html
|
| [Edit: come to think of it, what is HN but an institution that
| throws up a transect of species which may be found within the
| general --open-- interval (CS theory, MBA case studies)?]
| weakfortress wrote:
| [dead]
| Frummy wrote:
| I skimmed it all and found it very interesting and will probably
| read it multiple times.
| tinytorus wrote:
| Like another commenter said, studied CS and didn't do well in
| every class, so excited to refresh my knowledge this year.
| Curious if anyone knows of a similar resource for cybersecurity
| (also a huge field, but ig looking for a broad overview of the
| landscape for a curious layperson).
| shaftoe444 wrote:
| This looks really good. The further reading sections in
| themselves contain some gold.
| r4victor wrote:
| Indeed! I found this book completely accidentally via google
| and it seems to be largely unknown. Let's fix it!
|
| It's really hard to attack such a vast subject and produce
| something valuable. The author did a great job.
| harshalaxman wrote:
| I did a joint major in math and computer science for undergrad so
| I missed out on a lot of subjects like computer architecture,
| operating systems, and compilers.
|
| This looks like the perfect depth for me to get up to speed at a
| relaxed pace over a few months: simpler than a textbook but more
| robust and instructive than blog posts, Wikipedia etc.
|
| A few cents:
|
| - not sure if it's already nestled in some chapters, but
| cryptography is the most important missing topic imo
|
| - if there ends up being a print copy I would happily purchase it
|
| - the name makes it hard to find: a google search for "computer
| science book" doesn't have a first page result
| jam3sn wrote:
| This looks great and covers a lot of interesting areas.
| Alifatisk wrote:
| I don't have a computer science degree and probably won't get one
| but I would love to study it on my free time, which book or books
| would you all recommend that covers it well?
| quibono wrote:
| Computer Science is very broad so the answer will be different
| depending on what you'd like to focus on. Algorithms, data
| structures, systems, graphics, networking, more theoretical CS
| etc.
|
| That said, for algorithms I could recommend CLRS, Dasgupta's
| Algorithms, Kleinberg's Algorithm Design. For theoretical CS:
| Models Of Computation by J. Savage, Sipser's Introduction to
| the Theory of Computation. For OS: Computer Systems A
| Programmer's Perspective by Bryant and O'Hallaron, Operating
| Systems - Three Easy Pieces by Arpaci-Dusseau.
| bambataa wrote:
| Author here! Thank you to whoever posted this. My 2023 resolution
| was to market it better so this is a great help :).
|
| The overall intent was to create a single, fairly concise volume
| sketching out the main areas of computer science so that
| developers from non-traditional backgrounds (boot camps etc) have
| at least some kind of map of the territory.
|
| When I started working as a dev I really struggled with the idea
| that there were so many things that I should know about but I
| wasn't even aware of until they blew up in my face in some way.
|
| agomez314's comment is very valid -- my framing was "CS stuff
| that you will encounter as a developer".
|
| Happy to answer any questions.
| eskaytwo wrote:
| Went to buy it and noticed your Amazon link for Australia
| should be amazon.com.au not just amazon.au :)
| FearlessNebula wrote:
| This book seems perfect for me. I have a CS bachelors but
| didn't always do well in some classes. I've been thinking about
| doing teach yourself cs .com but this book seems better for me
| because it's more shallow which means I can get a broad
| refresher of my degree in a few months instead of a year or two
| or three.
| r4victor wrote:
| You're welcome! I'm collecting learning resources on tech
| topics at https://bestresourcestolearnx.com and I was looking
| for a book on CS like this one for a long time. Further
| readings are especially good - I'm going to steal some of your
| recommendations ;)
| tunnuz wrote:
| Is there any chance to get this as a PDF for offline
| consumption?
| killingtime74 wrote:
| Along with the links to the PDF, you can always download a
| website, https://superuser.com/questions/970323/using-wget-
| to-copy-we...
| bambataa wrote:
| The Leanpub link provides a DRM PDF.
|
| Email me if it's unaffordable for you.
| tunnuz wrote:
| Oops sorry, somehow I missed it.
| bnycum wrote:
| Looks like you can at the base URL:
| https://thecomputersciencebook.com/
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