The idea of this page is for people to share reviews and recommendations for books related to software development, programming and subjects relevant to TC contests.
Rather than a simple review or single general recommendation for a book, I think recommendations should be based on a book's suitability for specific groups of people. For instance we might have two categories: "C# for new programmers" and "C# for experienced programmers." The same book might be brilliant for new teaching C# to new programmers, covering programming basics, but unhelpful for experienced C++/Java programmers who just want to learn C# rather than "what is a variable."
A full book review should cover for whom it is most likely to be useful, whereas a recommendation should be made specifically for some category.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To start, let's just use one page
for recommendations/requests, and reorganise if we get many submissions. Reviews of a book should each get their own page.
The format for a category title is: <BOOK SUBJECT> : <TARGET GROUP>.
The format for an entry in a category is <RECOMMEND|WARN> : <TITLE> : <AUTHOR> (<YOUR HANDLE>) with an optional short comment. Full reviews should each go on their own page. The same book can and should be listed in multiple categories where it makes sense. Feel free to post books which you wish to warn members to AVOID. Please keep all recommendations and warnings in separate groups. If you agree with a recommendation already made, add your handle to the list.
e.g.:
C++ : For beginners
RECOMMEND: A nice introduction to programming with C++ : bmerry (d000hg)
AVOID : An extremely complicated look at advanced C++ topics : bmerry (d000hg)
It's a great book, but it's not going to help you if you don't already know C++!
C++ : For experts
RECOMMEND : An extremely complicated look at advanced C++ topics : bmerry (d000hg, bmerry)
AVOID : A nice introduction to programming with C++ : bmerry (d000hg)
This book is only teaching basic C++
Making Requests
If you want a recommendation for a specific topic, just add a new category for it. Please make sure to keep categories sorted alphabetically for now.
REVIEWS
If you want to leave a more complete review of a book, please create a new page <TITLE> - <AUTHOR>
Posted by d000hg
at
"Reviews of a book should each get their own page."
Do you mean "each review should get its own page" or "each book should get its own page of reviews (possibly a different page of reviews for each target group)?"
I think the latter organization might be useful. (Which brings up the side point, are we going to use American spellings?)