Although learning programming can be achieved via online tutorials,
reading books is still the preferred way for systematic learning (see
some discussions here,
here,
and here
from author's point of view). Following list is gathered along my
adventure on reading programming books, especially on programming
language books (for books not requiring
active participations, it is recommended that you follow advice
from Charles Petzold). Some suggestions are easier to be said than
to be done, therefore the list is also a reminder to myself.
1. Select the right book
Reading a programming book requires enormous time and
energy. Before embarking on the hundreds-hour-adventure, it is
justified to spend sometime to select the correct path. Sometimes
starting reading an excellent book itself is an achievement. So which
book to read? The simplest solution is to search in Google or Amazon
and select those with enthsiastic reviews. Google/Amazon are always
handy since you can get more details/reviews on books. There are
alternatives of course, as we will discuss below.
If you just want to read great programming books without
any specific topics, you are lucky since this important question has
already been discussed again and again. For example, you may refer to
this Reddit
thread, or you can consult the opinions of some outstanding
programmers/bloggers (e.g. Steve Yegge's recommendations here and
here,
Joel
Spolsky's advice, and Jeff
Atwood's list).
If you do have some topics in mind (e.g. one particular programming
language), there are various ways in addition to Google/Amazon
approach.
- Lookup in Wikipedia. Typically for one programming language,
there will be one related article. At the end of the article, there
is one References section, where you can find some
interesting links to books.
- Consult the FAQ of the language newsgroup. Normally, language X
has one corresponding newsgroup like comp.lang.X. Generally the FAQ
(sometimes quite outdated) of the newsgroup contains some book
recommendations.
- For some languages with official website (e.g. Haskell, Perl, and Python), you can easily find book
recommendations in the site.
Let's name a few commonly recommended books for some programming
languages: SICP (a.k.a. Wizard Book) for
Scheme, Practical Common Lisp for Common Lisp,
Programming Ruby (a.k.a. The PickAxe Book) for Ruby, and
Javascript, the Definitive Guide (a.k.a. The Rhino Book) for
the Next Big Language.
2. Setup programming environment and prepare related resources
You can't learn programming without getting your hands dirty. To study one
programming language, you have to install necessary package(s).
"Modern" programming books (e.g. Practical Common Lisp,
Programming Ruby, Javascript, the Definitive Guide,
and Programming Erlang) typically have one chapter getting
you started. If your book does not contain such part, you can always
consult online tutorials to setup the environment.
Typically the package contains some kind of editor or IDE for
developing. You need to familiarize yourself with them either by
reading your book or tutorial. For Emacs users, you can install
related mode and simply fire up Emacs.
If the book is not so cutting-edge, you can find abundant resources
in the web: source code, discussion on exercises, and even video
lectures. You can bookmark or download these resources for your future
reference. SICP is an excellent example here: great video
lectures, and nice wiki to
discuss solutions to exercises.
3. Practice, practice, and practice
You can't learn a language without sustained practice. We will
focus on the examples and exercises contained in the book here.
When you read one example, simply reading is not
enough. It is better if you type the example and run
it. Note: type, not copy & paste. The reason is the same
as when you write programs. After compilation, you think your code has
done what it's supposed to do. But typically you need several iterations to make
it right. Similar thing happens for reading. You think you understand
the code on paper, but actually you do not. You should type it in and
run it to really understand it. When you type, you can think about the
meaning of the code, syntax and idioms associated simultaneously. A
more paranoid yet effective way is that you first read the example,
and then enter it without even referring to the book. You then run the
code, analyze the results, and compare your code with the example
supplied in the book.
Now for exercises. Do them all if you can. Excellent books come
with excellent exercises, if any. You could gain more insight when you
employ the techniques you just learned. (If you have any doubt on the
value of exercises, you can look at Steve
Yegge's example on how doing exercises can change a person's view
about a language.) If you cannot solve one problem with
serious try, you can leave it for a while and attack it
later. If you really cannot handle it, you can refer to the solutions,
which you can typically find online. Believe me, you can easily find
the answers to these hard problems of excellent books in the web.
4. Develop hobby project
When you have already read several chapters of the book and feel
comfortable to write a few small programs with the language you just
learned, you may consider to setup some hobby projects. You can use
the project to automate some day-to-day tasks, either in home or at
work. Or you may try to implement/interface some (emerging) cool
things (e.g. Google Chart
API or Ray
tracing) with the language you are learning. Make sure the skills
to complete the project match the skills you just learned. You may
meet some problems you cannot handle with the skills you just
acquired. Don't panic. Just peep the later chapters of the book you
are reading, or Google around. Try to finish the project if you can
(and then you can blog about it if nobody has not done so or your way
is quite interesting). If you cannot finish it, you can leave it for a
later attempt. You may try several such projects when you progress in
the reading. The further you progress, the more ambitious task you can
try. Such hobby project itself can be viewed as extended exercises,
but designed by you, instead of the author.
(Note: this section is largely influenced by a nice article/post
related to reading On Lisp. Unfortunately I cannot find the
URL now.)
5. Never give up
The last but not the least advice is that you should read the book
from the beginning to the end. Spending a lot of time on one book but
giving it up when approaching say one third of it is just wasting
time. Since you only touched the surface of the book, which is easier
to learn and also easier to forget. Authors arrange the books
in such a way that you could linearly read along, which typically
means that advanced topics come later. You may get stuck with one
chapter and cannot understand the topics discussed there. At this
point, don't give up. Remember that you can only achieve a higher
level of understanding of one language/technique if you can understand
the difficult part of it. Just read it, understand it, try it, or
Google around to find different (maybe better) treatment of the
topic. Attack this gnarly
problem and you will gain lots from it. You have now learned some
unique things of the language, you can now look at the language in a
different yet more insightful view, and of course, you can now proceed
further to read the great book and learn more.
Happy reading!
Update (2010-2-21): editorial corrections (thank you justin for your suggestions).
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