From the guy who wrote all the Programming Microsoft books and the Annotated Turing book. Comes this book.

This book is great for beginners great for people who don’t know a lot about software and how computers work, simple read. I like it because it also gives a different prospective, beginning at Morse code and works up from there all the way up to high level languages.

The book gives snippets of code to discuss it not really a tutorial book. It’s a different type of book that all people could understand.

Good read

As you read all those.. do you actually write code?

I didn't read much of these kinds of books but they always make coding less fun. Because after reading them you know 12000 patterns and 8000 antipatterns and as soon as you want to write a line of code they conflict in my head.

Nice keyboard flash

@nitwhiz do I write code? Do you mean when I read I do the examples or do you mean do I implement / test the ideas presented in books like patterns?

The answer depends on the book.

I’m at a point in my career where I can look at code and can visualize the assembly output thus confidently knowing what the code will do. So sometimes I can go thru the book just reading it.

But other times I do sit down and workout the examples.

I personally hate fiction books, because I don’t see the point at the end of the day when the book is read what have I gained... nothing just imagination. so instead I read technical books and all non-fiction because when it’s done I have gained something from it. Just personal purgative.

Anyway the dilemma you describe is very real, I remember being in your situation. It’s comes down to two principles:

Analysis Paralysis, happens to many people when they REALLY think about OOP and trying to balance things and stick to the strict rules of the paradigm that are almost impossible to follow. Everyone breaks it.

And the other is you “know” the patterns but don’t know how to use them or where to use them why to use them. also can be related when you can’t sniff out or see the patterns in the code. And that just comes with experience everyone has those issues at some point.

@ScriptCoded I’m going to keep flashing just for you hahah

@QuanticoCEO I mean if you are actually coding on daily basis and/or for money and stuff. But you answered that I guess.

For me it's the first one, Analysis Paralysis. There are so many options with the same amounts of ups and downs or the one with too many downs is the "right" way to do it and so on. And then there is the "own style", which makes it even more complicated, because it doesn't feel natural to code against your own style.

I guess that's something which will go away with time, too. I hope so at least :D

@nitwhiz yes I code on a daily basis.

From experience it scares me when people have a “personal style” I had one coworker (still do ...for now) who solves does almost everything with if statements... I’m not talking normal.. I’m talking nested if statements 10 deep, extreme arrow head programming.

I tell him we can’t unit test that. I also say when your doing this does it ever remotely occur to you this seems strange or redundant there must be a better way??? NOPE... continuously states this is his style...

Essentially he has the golden hammer anti pattern of knowing only one thing
“When you only know how to use a hammer.... everything is a nail”

His STYLE hinders the team.. his STYLE is a code smell.. his style reduces quality.

He’s also very big into copy and paste switch statements and cases and change a few variable names and call it done... ugghhh stop mofo... I just read a 2500 line driver containing 26 cases of a switch statement and the only thing that is different in each case is a variable name.. like GTFO.. thats not style that is pure lack of skill...

Does it work? Yes...
Is it maintainable? NO
Is it scaleable? NO
Is it readable? NO!

he also has a style of putting way too much white space ... like absurd white space. “Helps him concentrate” well sorry you got a problem..don’t use the lame excuse the compiler removes white space so it don’t matter... fuck that we gotta read it.. code like the rest of us.

He also had this idea and style of redefining == as the word EQUALS so he doesn’t get confused with = and == it’s like stop! Because he did it with all symbols...

Anyway strangest programmer I ever meet.. somehow he has 20 years of experience idk how but worst programmer imo.. because of “Style”

Sorry about ranting about style .. just be careful when you choose personal style over what is normal style for the industry.

@QuanticoCEO haha holy shit, that's not a style, that's just dumb.:D

With style I meant not this kind of crazy-stupid simplicty of just using one kind of way to bring shit up.

I meant patterns you learned to love. But with knowing when to use them and when not to.

@nitwhiz ahhh I’m yeah I see hahah I just have PTSD when ever anyone says “Style” hahahah ... if you had to deal with what I’ve had to you would also have PTSD anytime anyone says style..

Imagine trying to approve for release... do peer reviews and be that “asshole” that is willing to speak up and say this is not acceptable redo it. Sure once I bring it up the others begin to speak but like I always have to be the “icebreaker” lol

I’ve been recommended this book before and I’m still on the fence. If I read this book what should I expect to be learning and what kind of direction should I expect the book to go into

@Bubbles it’s more of a prospective thing, give you better ways of explaining things to people who don’t code or very green interns or when you talk to high school students etc.

If you are a purely high level developer java c# or pure web stack person this book would be a great into more of the hardware side of things as far as how everything works and the history

@QuanticoCEO as of right now I’m only a high level dev but planning to work with low level stuff due to my fascination with it, so I might actually go through with this, thanks!

Btw subbed just for these book talks they’re great! Giving me a lot to read and I love it.

@Bubbles nice nice! Glad to hear you are coming down closer to the real world level lol!

I have a book for tomorrow that you will also really like and if you are wanting to learn more of the low level, tomorrow’s books is the beginner book for making that transition into that type of thinking.

Thanks for Subbing haha.

@QuanticoCEO that’ll be great! I’ve been wanting low level resources that I’ll be able to consult so I am excited

Keyboard name?

@PrivateGER IBM Model M - March 11th 1986

Can you still buy that?

@PrivateGER you can buy the a new 1990s version from Unicomp brand new made from the Lexmark tooling from when ibm sold the keyboard business to Lexmark.

If you want an original IBM prior to Lexmark you need to fix a new (incredibly rare) or used rareish pre1990s IBM Model M on eBay or clickykeyboards.com or some other site.
Mine being March 11th 86 is 3 months into production of the keyboard so it’s one of the rarest due to condition it was in and date.

Nice keyboard men 🤘🏻

@AkshayTolwani it depends on what point in your career you are in it also depends what you do too. If you are a beginner yeah reading TAOCP is nuts

@AkshayTolwani I would say when you understand programming is not about the syntax. When you design systems rather than small projects.

Here’s the best test I think ..If you know or are familiar enough with assembly and understand how it works.. as in you write c code or c++ and can visualize the assembly instructions as you write.. as in you know what your code will be compiled into. Then you are probably prepared to read it

TAOCP is all about algorithms and all the examples are written in assembly language of a theoretical computer that doesn’t actually exist.

If you are in college or first few years of your first software job I would say it might hinder reading it that early. Like I would say it’s PHD level content almost.

If you are a web dev or scripter or java c# TAOCP tends to be far advanced and so different from their way of thinking it would be a culture shock in a way. But will it help absolutely if you want the most optimized solution for whatever algorithm.. sorting or whatever that’s the book for you . But if you aren’t to the point to understand the optimized version and in optimized version and why they differ etc then it’s not for you.

Similar you don’t teach a beginner the most optimized methods of doing things

Is that a Model M? Oh my god!

@OmerFlame yes a March 11th 1986 ORGINAL silver sticker IBM Model M

@QuanticoCEO DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH THAT COSTS

Of course you do. Money well spent. I really envy you even though I have a mech keyboard here.

@OmerFlame yes it was 450 dollars hahaha, and it was in mint condition with the bolt mod, to replace the heat stake riviots.

@QuanticoCEO iirc it doesn’t yellow with age because it’s heat-treated, right? Just the thought about the sound of that thing makes me salivate

@OmerFlame literally my favorite keyboard of all time.. I might have to buy more Model Ms and keep them in storage because I don’t think I could go back to another keyboard.. I used cherry Mx blue switches for the last 10 years or so.. I could not even go back to those.

@QuanticoCEO seriously? Wow, it’s actually that addicting.

Do you think that Unicomp is comparable?

@OmerFlame it doesn’t yellow because it’s the caps are PBT, but the case is ABS, but I guess it doesn’t have the bromine in it to cause it to yellow.. it still is the beige/white color as it was years ago.

@QuanticoCEO absolutely insane. I want one so bad lmao

@OmerFlame Oh yeah, like I love doing documention now because I use LaTeX.. for all my data sheets and ref manuals and specifications I write, use to hate when I had to dedicate time to just documention instead of coding all the time.. with this keyboard paired with vim and LaTeX... fuck I could write for hours. It’s that addicting

For the unicomp, I’m not sure I never typed in a unicomp, I have considered buying one just to have and compare against, it is obviously a model m the only disadvantage is it’s based on the last model made by Lexmark in the late 90’s which is not quite the same as the IBM manufactored ones from 86-87

@QuanticoCEO exactly, they swapped the membrane keys for the

“CATASTRPHICALLY BUCKLING COMPRESSION COLUMN SWITCH AND ACTUATOR (c)”

(This is the name of the original patent lmfao)

@OmerFlame the biggest difference between typing on this vs a regular mechanical keyboard like cherry blues... is it’s a much “tighter” typing experience is the best way I can describe the actuation force for each key...
Like for me the cherry blues were very “loose”.. as it yes had higher actuation force than the clears and browns.. but still not like the model m... I feel like typing on the model m only the keys you deliberately press get pressed, so technically you can move faster as you don’t have to backspace on fat fingered presses as it’s less likely to register on the model m like that..

Idk how else to discribe it .. I know at first I was like this is gonna be a pain my fingers gonna hurt.. but that’s not true. You adapt and it’s better