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Best Graphics & Multimedia Programming

The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, Second Edition
Good game design happens when you view your game from as many perspectives as possible. Game Nite ’s Editors’ Choice "… this book is considered by many to be the ‘bible’ of game design. … Much of the material has been updated … the introduction to probability … is a must read for aspiring game designers … engaging and thought provoking … a substantial book for someone looking to get serious about game design. … this book trains you to think as a designer …". ―James Portnow, Game Designer, CEO of Rainmaker Games, and Writer of Extra Credits. "This book was clearly designed, not just written, and is an entire course in how to be a game designer. "As indicated by its title, Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses uses many different perspectives (the titular lenses), which each prompt their own important questions, ranging from ‘What problems does my game ask the players to solve?’ to ‘What does beauty mean within the context of my game?’ These distinct points are interwoven throughout a step-by-step analysis of the design process that begins with the designer and his or her basic idea, and builds successfully from there. "Easily the most comprehensive, practical book I’ve ever seen on game design." "Jesse Schell’s new book, The Art of Game Design , is a marvelous introduction to game design by a true master of the form. " The Art of Game Design describes precisely how to build a game the world will love and elegantly crank it through the realities of clients and publishers. "Packed with Jesse’s real-world experience and humorous insight, The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses is a tool chest crossed with a kaleidoscope. Like a chemistry set for making mental explosions, it’s an idea(l) book guiding the design process for both new and seasoned game designers. "On games industry desks, books tend to come and go, but they all seem to go on top of Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design , because that’s the one book that seems to stick around." "Ken Rolston, internationally celebrated game designer, recommends Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design both for smart people and for people who are learning how to be smart."
Reviews
"A great tool for checklist of elements and find some other issues, is not absolute, and depends more of the way of use, team and school of knowledge, frameworks one uses, but is it indeed effective, especially on Gamified Designs."
"Schell does a great job outlining the philosophy and process of game design."
"Best and most useful textbook to date."
"This is a great, straight-forward book on iterative game design created by someone active in the field."
"And he also covers methods that other entertainment industries use, giving anyone interested in designing games more options in creating better experiences."
"Fantastically good book on game design."
"This clear vocabulary is empowering, as it enables a designer to more easily think about the elements of their game, and in addition, to add to the foundation that Jesse has already put together."
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Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning (Information Science and Statistics)
It uses graphical models to describe probability distributions when no other books apply graphical models to machine learning. "This beautifully produced book is intended for advanced undergraduates, PhD students, and researchers and practitioners, primarily in the machine learning or allied areas...A strong feature is the use of geometric illustration and intuition...This is an impressive and interesting book that might form the basis of several advanced statistics courses. "In this book, aimed at senior undergraduates or beginning graduate students, Bishop provides an authoritative presentation of many of the statistical techniques that have come to be considered part of ‘pattern recognition’ or ‘machine learning’. … With its coherent viewpoint, accurate and extensive coverage, and generally good explanations, Bishop’s book is a useful introduction … and a valuable reference for the principle techniques used in these fields." "Bishop (Microsoft Research, UK) has prepared a marvelous book that provides a comprehensive, 700-page introduction to the fields of pattern recognition and machine learning. Aimed at advanced undergraduates and first-year graduate students, as well as researchers and practitioners, the book assumes knowledge of multivariate calculus and linear algebra … . Extensive support is provided for course instructors, including more than 400 exercises, lecture slides and a great deal of additional material available at the book’s web site … ." … In summary, this textbook is an excellent introduction to classical pattern recognition and machine learning (in the sense of parameter estimation). "Author aims this text at advanced undergraduates, beginning graduate students, and researchers new to machine learning and pattern recognition. … In more than 700 pages of clear, copiously illustrated text, he develops a common statistical framework that encompasses … machine learning. … it is a textbook, with a wide range of exercises, instructions to tutors on where to go for full solutions, and the color illustrations that have become obligatory in undergraduate texts.
Reviews
"An excellent book!"
"The material is both rigorous, in-depth and at the same time suitably presented for a beginner with limited mathematical background to start smoothly."
"A compulsory book required by statistical machine learning, good for the course and research, but not recommend for practical machine learning."
"One of the best text books covering probabilistic background of learning in deep."
"Accept no substitute."
"Authoritative reference ... though very dense on information but very readable ..."
"This is a good intro book - wide coverage of topics."
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Adobe Photoshop CC Classroom in a Book (2017 release)
Creative professionals seeking the fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Photoshop choose Adobe Photoshop CC Classroom in a Book (2017 release) from Adobe Press. Conrad Chavez has provided education, training, and support for digital-media applications for over 20 years, originally contributing countless pages to the user guides for print, Web, and digital video products at Aldus Corporation and Adobe Systems Inc. Now a freelance writer and editor, Conrad creates books and videos that teach Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Creative Cloud workflows. His work includes the last three editions of Real World Adobe Photoshop for Photographers and the video Color Management for Photographers and Designers .
Reviews
"how to create bokeh or the appearance of motion in a photo by fine-tuning the various types of "blur" available in the filters menu, (3.). how to combine a photo of a train taken at one angle with a photo of a bridge taken at another angle, and use the perspective tools to make it look like the train is actually coming right over the bridge at you... Believe me, reading about how to use vector-drawing tools to trace a photo and create a reusable logo from it is very different from actually creating the paths, subtracting one path from another, converting the paths into shapes, turning shapes into assets, saving color schemes along with your assets, and all the rest."
"Great asset for anyone rather new at Photoshop."
"If any of you have tried to self learn Photoshop, good luck. I bought because it was like the class I took it first wanted to explain what a pixel was."
"It gets the reader into the program to perform a number of keystrokes on an image file provided from the Peachpit web site. As stated above, the first chapter is intended to familiarize the user with the Photoshop work space and tools. Each chapter ends with some Review questions and answers designed to solidify the user’s grasp of the lesson matter. With this aid, the user just starting out in Photoshop can gain a picture view of a specific tool’s purpose. Going on from this point in the book, the authors take the reader on a learning journey through Photoshop’s other features by providing a project involving that aspect of the program. I have been a Photoshop user for a number of years going back to the early single digit versions. Having a “Classroom in a Book” in my earlier years would have made life and digital photography considerably easier for me. For those fairly familiar with Photoshop, this book will make an excellent refresher and reference volume."
"Sure, considering we live in the digital internet age it was hard at times to concentrate doing lessons in a book, but they do have good source files for you to work on so you can drill the program into your head."
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Best DirectX Software Programming

Introduction To 3D Game Programming With Directx 9.0 (Wordware Game and Graphics Library)
Understand basic mathematical and 3D concepts; learn how to describe and draw interactive 3D scenes using the Direct3D 9.0 API; use Direct3D and the D3DX utility library to implement a variety of techniques and applications, such as transparency, shadows, reflections, fonts, meshes, using XFiles, progressive meshes, terrain rendering, particle systems, picking, cartoon rendering, and multitexturing; find out how to write vertex and pixel shader programs with the High-Level Shading Language; discover how to write and use effect files with the Direct3D effects framework. Frank Luna is a programmer for Hero Interactive.
Reviews
"This book simply covers the fundamental Direct3D topics as well as a bit of math, and it does so from the ground up as far as the DX API goes. But a small warning is in order as well: If you are not an experienced programmer and just want to get started with game development, then this book is NOT for you!"
"Lenghtier explanations and a few more examples would could really benefit the beginner.. especially since like for many books of this kind the author is more a programmer than a technical author or tutor so the writing style is pretty much like: here are the basic points about the theory and here is the program I wrote to show you how it works."
"If you are like me and look at a bunch of DirectX books and just have no idea what the author(s) is talking about, you should try this book, especially if you have a good math background. And if this dude releases a book on DirectX 10, I'll definitely get it. If you know DirectX and are looking for a book on game programming, look for another book."
"It devotes 20 or so pages to each of 20 or so topics (the dimensions of the book are real small though, so the page counts are somewhat misleading)."
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Best GIS Programming

Getting to Know ArcGIS
Getting to Know ArcGIS , fourth edition, is a comprehensive introduction to the features and tools of ArcGIS for Desktop. He has worked for Rand McNally Canada and for Esri, where he developed cartography for books, and edited and tested GIS workbooks.
Reviews
"This book is designed for even the least GIS inclined person."
"Book includes a six month license for ArcGIS."
"Concise but very detailed.... , does not contain a disk with data, you have to download it off of the internet."
"Awesome book with code to use on computer."
"Fantastic illustrations and clear, easy-to-follow text."
"This is one of the few guides published directly by ersi."
"It’s a good book."
"NOTE: If you want to utilize the 180 day trial of the product, don't buy this book used."
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Best OpenGL Software Programming

OpenGL Superbible: Comprehensive Tutorial and Reference (7th Edition)
OpenGL® SuperBible, Seventh Edition, is the definitive programmer’s guide, tutorial, and reference for OpenGL 4.5, the world’s leading 3D API for real-time computer graphics. The authors explain what OpenGL does, how it connects to the graphics pipeline, and how it manages huge datasets to deliver compelling experiences. This revised and updated edition introduces many new OpenGL 4.5 features, including important ARB and KHR extensions that are now part of the standard. It thoroughly covers the latest Approaching Zero Driver Overhead (AZDO) performance features, and demonstrates key enhancements with new example applications. Richard S. Wright, Jr., Senior Software Engineer for Software Bisque, developed multimedia astronomy and planetarium software using OpenGL.
Reviews
"If you are a beginner to Opengl, there's going to be some frustration getting through this book, but you will eventually learn the ins and outs of Opengl."
"So complaints about having to learn the framework instead of OpenGL are unfounded."
"OpenGL is hard - no [existing] book is going to get you up to speed."
"If you run into a problem where you can't get the single point to show up, you might need to just move onto an example that actually feeds vertex data to the shader. So if you've struggled for hours trying to get a stupid little dot to show up on your screen and it just doesn't work, just move onto an example where you feed vertices to shader program."
"Can serve as a reference book too."
"Chapters 4 through 6 deal with a lot of concepts and background things, but were mostly necessary to cover. I personally believe that Chapter 5 should have come later in the book because it deals with atomic operations and memory barriers."
"Almost all of the new content in this edition requires features introduced with OpenGL 4.4 or 4.5, or recent OpenGL extensions -- none of which were supported by OS X at the time of writing. 7th ed: OpenGL 4.5. 6th ed: OpenGL 4.3. 5th ed: OpenGL 3.3. 4th ed: OpenGL 2.1. 3rd ed: OpenGL 2.0 and 1.5. 2nd ed: OpenGL 1.2, 1.1."
"As others have said, many figures in the printed version are nigh-on useless (directed at the printer/publisher rather than at the authors)."
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Best Computer Graphics

The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, Second Edition
Good game design happens when you view your game from as many perspectives as possible. Game Nite ’s Editors’ Choice "… this book is considered by many to be the ‘bible’ of game design. … Much of the material has been updated … the introduction to probability … is a must read for aspiring game designers … engaging and thought provoking … a substantial book for someone looking to get serious about game design. … this book trains you to think as a designer …". ―James Portnow, Game Designer, CEO of Rainmaker Games, and Writer of Extra Credits. "This book was clearly designed, not just written, and is an entire course in how to be a game designer. "As indicated by its title, Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses uses many different perspectives (the titular lenses), which each prompt their own important questions, ranging from ‘What problems does my game ask the players to solve?’ to ‘What does beauty mean within the context of my game?’ These distinct points are interwoven throughout a step-by-step analysis of the design process that begins with the designer and his or her basic idea, and builds successfully from there. "Easily the most comprehensive, practical book I’ve ever seen on game design." "Jesse Schell’s new book, The Art of Game Design , is a marvelous introduction to game design by a true master of the form. " The Art of Game Design describes precisely how to build a game the world will love and elegantly crank it through the realities of clients and publishers. "Packed with Jesse’s real-world experience and humorous insight, The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses is a tool chest crossed with a kaleidoscope. Like a chemistry set for making mental explosions, it’s an idea(l) book guiding the design process for both new and seasoned game designers. "On games industry desks, books tend to come and go, but they all seem to go on top of Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design , because that’s the one book that seems to stick around." "Ken Rolston, internationally celebrated game designer, recommends Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design both for smart people and for people who are learning how to be smart."
Reviews
"A great tool for checklist of elements and find some other issues, is not absolute, and depends more of the way of use, team and school of knowledge, frameworks one uses, but is it indeed effective, especially on Gamified Designs."
"Schell does a great job outlining the philosophy and process of game design."
"Best and most useful textbook to date."
"This is a great, straight-forward book on iterative game design created by someone active in the field."
"And he also covers methods that other entertainment industries use, giving anyone interested in designing games more options in creating better experiences."
"Fantastically good book on game design."
"This clear vocabulary is empowering, as it enables a designer to more easily think about the elements of their game, and in addition, to add to the foundation that Jesse has already put together."
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Best Design

Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling, The
Also available: The Laws Sketchbook for Nature Journaling , a blank journal constructed to withstand excursions in the field and containing several exercises from The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling. “This beautiful art book will teach you how to be ‘still, quiet, and attentive…to organize your thoughts, piece together answers, and ask richer questions.’ The overall goal is to stimulate your curiosity, and you won't find a better guide.” -- Foreword Reviews.
Reviews
"I originally purchased this book to have easy access to the information on John Muir Laws blog and in the videos. I believe the strength of John Muir Laws blog, classes, and books lies in the fact that he is dyslexic. Having read the blog, I recognize Jack's voice, but she lends a harmony and richness that is strikingly beautiful. Using large photos from his own journal, John details 13 different types of field investigations, noting their strengths and potential problem spots. For an amateur naturalist, this chapter will provide at least a year's worth of projects that will open the door to a lifetime of investigation. He begins with a nod to the (insanely tedious) Grinnell Method, and then moves on to teach techniques for presenting information graphically. We have all grown accustomed to slick infographics produced on the computer, but learning how to accomplish this in field journaling is an entirely different beast. One quick note here: the "Elements to Include in Your Journal" intended to be copied isn't photocopyable -- it lies next to the gutter and the background/text don't have enough contrast to photocopy well. From color theory to edges to values, he succinctly shows how to capture your subject in a way that is scientifically accurate and artistically compelling. John Muir Laws employs a method of teaching drawing/painting that allows students to catch scientifically unique features with a minimum of fuss. Fans of his blog and video classes will notice some of the details missing from these pages -- the clock trick for placing a bird head and tail, for instance. John and Emilie clearly demonstrate their love, passion, and experience with nature journaling throughout all three hundred pages of this book. (The blog contains an elementary level curriculum with complete lesson plans) Amateur naturalists will be ecstatic to find a resource that is entirely devoted to and illustrated with field work."
"He demonstrates step by step how to document nearly every aspect of Nature, so you can record your own nature observations- covering landscapes, insects, flowers, mammals, rocks, trees and much (much!)."
"I loved the way he taught and bought the book to support his work. As a former middle school and high school science and math teacher, I highly recommend this book to teachers and students."
"As soon as Jack’s book Law’s Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling was being shipped one of our students purchased it and it has been as popular as the play yard water fountain on a hot August day. Our students find it a consent source of reference and is quoted freely not only from his How to Draw sections, “You draw the rocks not the river.” But also his use of awareness and divergent thinking, “Come up with as many explanations for a phenomenon, and begin each one with ‘Could it be…’ “. Law’s Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling with over 300 packed pages is a detailed and comprehensive work."
"This is one of the most beautiful books I've ever seen."
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Best Adobe Software Guides

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)
Since Lightroom 1.0 first launched, Scott’s Kelby’s The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers has been the world’s #1 bestselling Lightroom book (it has been translated into a dozen different languages), and in this latest version for Lightroom 6, Scott uses his same award-winning, step-by-step, plain-English style and layout to make learning Lightroom easy and fun. This is where Scott dramatically answers his #1 most-asked Lightroom question, which is: “Exactly what order am I supposed to do things in, and where does Photoshop fit in?” You’ll see Scott’s entire start-to-finish Lightroom 6 workflow and learn how to incorporate it into your own workflow. Scott is a photographer, designer, and award-winning author of more than 60 books, including Photoshop for Lightroom Users, Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers Using Photoshop, Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It: Learn Step by Step How to Go from Empty Studio to Finished Image, The Adobe Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers, and The Digital Photography Book, parts 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5. His books have been translated into dozens of different languages, including Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Korean, Polish, Taiwanese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Arabic, Swedish, Turkish, Hebrew, and Portuguese, among others, and he is a recipient of the prestigious ASP International Award, presented annually by the American Society of Photographers for “…contributions in a special or significant way to the ideals of Professional Photography as an art and a science.”.
Reviews
"For example, tonality is one of the key steps in post processing images and the author provides enough detail so that you will not only be able to follow his instructions for dealing with the sample images, but also to understand how the process works. For long-time users of Lightroom, there are a few new functions, and Lightroom is so user friendly that the operation of some of the new functions, like panoramas and HDR, will be intuitive and not require explanation, so that those long-time users might think they don't need this kind of introduction. Experienced users may also find something they didn't know in this book."
"Here's the summary if you're in a hurry: Pros: -Easy to read but very good and detailed information. -Well laid out and organized. -Word searching in the digital version makes finding things a breeze. -A full photo shoot (for the cover of the book) is laid out and described, including the Photoshop editing. It is laid out in the order of things you would encounter if you were a first time user new to the program and to organizing your images. It works for me and I would especially recommend his books to beginners as they have a lot of information in small chunks. The beginning is dedicated to good organizational practices which I partially followed from the last edition. I used to be very casual about my hard drives and use them for a lot of stuff and lost pictures several times. There are a LOT of small tips, which makes reading through the book worthwhile even for those who have used Lightroom before. I found this book full of good ideas and techniques easily explained."
"Lightroom is primarily for professionals who make a lot of photos per day like the author Scott Kelby."
"Very good book for someone who switched from another program to Lightroom 6."
"I cannot find any reference for Window diagrams and this is disappointing as the little blue pull down boxes shown throughout Chapter One do not exist on Windows LR and this would be too confusing to my students."
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Best Apple Programming

iOS 11 Programming Fundamentals with Swift: Swift, Xcode, and Cocoa Basics
Move into iOS development by getting a firm grasp of its fundamentals, including the Xcode 9 IDE, Cocoa Touch, and the latest version of Apple’s acclaimed programming language, Swift 4.
Reviews
"Finally someone wrote an iOS programming book that isn't half useless space-wasting screenshots of dialogue boxes in Xcode!"
"This is my second week in Swift 4 and all of the questions I had about Cocoa and the general app architecture have all been resolved after spending hours skimming sites and videos trying to get a clear, high level picture."
"Of course I was learning, but a good book provides so much more! I like to be able to imagine, and although it may in my personal opinion it is slower to learn using a book in the sense that it takes time to make the connections, apply what you learned, and see the results; a good book as this one is, is always worth reading!"
"This book is super hard to read, not because of the content, but because the author makes it super boring."
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Best Microsoft Programming

Excel VBA Programming For Dummies
If you're a beginning to intermediate VBA programmer looking to get up to speed on creating customized solutions with Excel applications, Excel VBA Programming For Dummies, 4 th Edition makes it easier. Learn to:
Reviews
"I now understand absolute vs. relative references! Understand this is an INTRO book."
"Well written but you need something a little simpler if you're a noob."
"Excellent!"
"This book explains VBA/Macros very simply, and is a definitely worth having as a reference!"
"This book strikes the perfect balance between simplicity and usefulness."
"Excellent for those new to VBA!"
"Starting around Chap 7, Mr. Walkenbach starts giving a lot of examples of code that is setting dimensions; static counters, offsets; cells vs ranges, etc, but he doesn't complete those examples with the actually code that would run some macro after the previously defined dimensions. I recommend this book as a good starting place for someone like me who has some experience using the Macro Record tool in Excel."
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Best Parallel Computer Programming

Hadoop: The Definitive Guide: Storage and Analysis at Internet Scale
With the fourth edition of this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn how to build and maintain reliable, scalable, distributed systems with Apache Hadoop. Previously he was as an independent Hadoop consultant, working with companies to set up, use, and extend Hadoop.
Reviews
"So, companies that are using large distributed systems that operate using Hadoop are generally closed shops and Catch 22 applies."
"Good overview of the Hadoop ecosystem."
"This book is so good that it forced it me to write my first book review on Amazon :)."
"Howdy Hoop, look at all of that data!"
"Wasn't as complete as I would have like with multiple syntax examples."
"This book covers a wide range of technologies in Hadoop ecosystem."
"Book covers all the topics with sufficient depth."
"Great new book that will help me learn about Hadoop!"
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Best Introductory & Beginning Programming

A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript: The new approach that uses technology to cut your effort in half
After reading a short chapter, you go to my website and complete twenty interactive exercises. Many learners hit a wall when they try to understand advanced concepts like variable scope and prototypes. But the fault lies with the authors, coding virtuosos who lack teaching talent. Thanks to the interactive exercises on my website, you'll always understand and remember everything necessary to confidently tackle the next concept. "I've signed up to a few sites like Udemy, Codecademy, FreeCodeCamp, Lynda, YouTube videos, even searched on Coursera but nothing seemed to work for me. It's how you wind up satisfied, confident, and proud, instead of confused, discouraged, and defeated. The exercises keep you focused, give you extra practice where you're shaky, and prepare you for each next step. But, as Amazon reviewer James Toban says, when you get to the end of the book, you've built "a tower of JavaScript." But if you're new to programming, more than a thousand five-star reviews are pretty good evidence that my book may be just the one to get you coding JavaScript successfully. "Mark Myers' method of getting what can be...difficult information into a format that makes it exponentially easier to consume, truly understand, and synthesize into real-world application is beyond anything I've encountered before." My professional focus is on using technology to reduce the effort and tedium of learning, primarily through interactivity. I'm developing the "A Smarter Way to Learn" series on programming, a collection of instructional books paired with online interactive exercises. Along with my wife Judy and our two politically-active cats, I live in Taos, NM, where I cook under the ghostly supervision of Marcella Hazan, read extensively, play showboat frisbee once a week, and long for more episodes of "Breaking Bad."
Reviews
"As part of my learning, I'm also taking another class by Jeff Escalante, it's called "Making Kittens fly with JavaScript", I'm learning so much already because his course actually involves building a project from scratch. I tried learning javascript before from the "Eloquent Javascript" book and it was more intermediate than beginners so hopefully once I'm done with a smarter way to learn javascript and the other class I'm taking, I'll be able to finally understand the content of that book."
"I love this book and it is helping me to learn JavaScript the way that I want to learn because Mark is teaching you new things in every chapter and reinforcing things that you learned in other chapters so that you don't forget what you have already learned."
"But it never has worked very well for me - I simply don't remember the details in order to write the code without going back to reference the lessons. I like the way Mark has divided up the content into small chunks, and then drills me on that material with the exercises on his website. Mark has invested a lot of time in creating these materials, and the price for the Kindle versions is so low - it's almost embarrassing!"
"I have done some programming in the past, so although I've never written a line of JavaScript the first 10 chapters have felt like extremely basic review. There are a couple exercise components I do not like including one where you need to drag and drop random code bits to form a proper JavaScript statement."
"I usually get sleepy learning to code even during working hour but with this book, learning is fun and keeps me alert even at 4 in morning. This book makes learning code fun and not overwhelming."
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Best Functional Software Programming

Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!: A Beginner's Guide
Packed with the author's original artwork, pop culture references, and most importantly, useful example code, this book teaches functional fundamentals in a way you never thought possible. Then once you've got the basics down, the real black belt master-class begins: you'll learn to use applicative functors, monads, zippers, and all the other mythical Haskell constructs you've only read about in storybooks. This book is aimed at people who have experience programming in imperative languages—such as C++, Java, and Python—and now want to try out Haskell. But even if you don’t have any significant programming experience, I’ll bet a smart person like you will be able to follow along and learn Haskell. NOTE If you ever get really stuck, the IRC channel #haskell on the freenode network is a great place to ask questions. Miran Lipova?a is a computer science student in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Reviews
"Here are some of the crucial things it taught me above and beyond LYAH: Cabal, Stack, testing, Foldable, Traversable, parser combinators, monad transformers, non-strictness, and profiling. For example, my personal blog is a Snap web app that reads posts from a PostgreSQL database."
"Good pace and easy to pick up, now if only Haskell was an easy language."
"Excellent introduction to Haskell and basic functional programming concepts."
"Even though there is a free version on the web, I purchased it to say thank you to the author."
"Although I haven't read many books on Haskell, I am satisfied by this purchase and recommend it without hesitation."
"Functional programming is often be presented as a bunch of abstract mathematical proofs."
"It's first book I read when starting with Haskell and it's done successfully with its job."
"This is an awesome book for beginners (either to programming or to Haskell)."
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Best Web Development & Design Programming

HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites
This book is also available as part of a set in hardcover - Web Design with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and jQuery , 9781119038634; and in softcover - Web Design with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and jQuery , 9781118907443. Large info-graphics are used to help simplify new or complex concepts Clean design and layout presents each topic on a new page for easy reference Printed in full-color, using a vibrant palette to distinguish different types of code Attractive code samples help you make beautiful web sites.
Reviews
"The book starts easy and takes each concept step by step in order to make it as easy as possible for you to learn the content, contains examples almost every page that you can try yourself and tinker with to your hearts content."
"Several years later I finally got around to reading it cover to cover (I took a class) and let me tell you I could not have gotten by without this book."
"I love this book, but the only caveat about it, if you are really using it the pages are not glued well, so the book falls apart super fast."
"The fact that the lessons are, in fact, so casual left me going through chapters as though I were in the sitting there with a friendly teacher right in front of me."
"Every page feels like a well-designed web page."
"I highly recommend this book if you are going to learn HTML, or need like a reference book to HTML."
"I bought this book because during the winter brake I wanted to learn how to create a personal website to use as an online portfolio, and I have to say that this book has given me the foundation to be able to create a decent looking web page."
"To add to my happiness, shipping was amazing, I received my book way sooner than anticipated."
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Best Programming Algorithms

Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd Edition (MIT Press)
A new edition of the essential text and professional reference, with substantial new material on such topics as vEB trees, multithreaded algorithms, dynamic programming, and edge-based flow. The second edition featured new chapters on the role of algorithms, probabilistic analysis and randomized algorithms, and linear programming. (Gabriel Robins, Department of Computer Science, University of Virginia) Introduction to Algorithms , the 'bible' of the field, is a comprehensive textbook covering the full spectrum of modern algorithms: from the fastest algorithms and data structures to polynomial-time algorithms for seemingly intractable problems, from classical algorithms in graph theory to special algorithms for string matching, computational geometry, and number theory.
Reviews
"I have attended several major Southern California universities, all computer instructors bow to this text."
"If you don't understand any terms or even some of the math that is shown, the appendix and sections in the back will tell you everything you need to know."
"This is widely considered the one algorithms book that every computer science should read."
"Book."
"Very thorough and complete book, although a bit hard to read."
"More often than I thought, I go back to refer to it for nearly anything algorithm-related; time complexity of common algorithms, linear programming, NP-Completeness, Dynamic Programming."
"The best book in algorithms, its kinda like a bible as far as algorithms is concerned."
"It is a very nice book, but sometimes you can find a simpler description/explanation of some algorithms."
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Best Programming Languages

A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript: The new approach that uses technology to cut your effort in half
After reading a short chapter, you go to my website and complete twenty interactive exercises. Many learners hit a wall when they try to understand advanced concepts like variable scope and prototypes. But the fault lies with the authors, coding virtuosos who lack teaching talent. Thanks to the interactive exercises on my website, you'll always understand and remember everything necessary to confidently tackle the next concept. "I've signed up to a few sites like Udemy, Codecademy, FreeCodeCamp, Lynda, YouTube videos, even searched on Coursera but nothing seemed to work for me. It's how you wind up satisfied, confident, and proud, instead of confused, discouraged, and defeated. The exercises keep you focused, give you extra practice where you're shaky, and prepare you for each next step. But, as Amazon reviewer James Toban says, when you get to the end of the book, you've built "a tower of JavaScript." But if you're new to programming, more than a thousand five-star reviews are pretty good evidence that my book may be just the one to get you coding JavaScript successfully. "Mark Myers' method of getting what can be...difficult information into a format that makes it exponentially easier to consume, truly understand, and synthesize into real-world application is beyond anything I've encountered before." My professional focus is on using technology to reduce the effort and tedium of learning, primarily through interactivity. I'm developing the "A Smarter Way to Learn" series on programming, a collection of instructional books paired with online interactive exercises. Along with my wife Judy and our two politically-active cats, I live in Taos, NM, where I cook under the ghostly supervision of Marcella Hazan, read extensively, play showboat frisbee once a week, and long for more episodes of "Breaking Bad."
Reviews
"As part of my learning, I'm also taking another class by Jeff Escalante, it's called "Making Kittens fly with JavaScript", I'm learning so much already because his course actually involves building a project from scratch. I tried learning javascript before from the "Eloquent Javascript" book and it was more intermediate than beginners so hopefully once I'm done with a smarter way to learn javascript and the other class I'm taking, I'll be able to finally understand the content of that book."
"I love this book and it is helping me to learn JavaScript the way that I want to learn because Mark is teaching you new things in every chapter and reinforcing things that you learned in other chapters so that you don't forget what you have already learned."
"But it never has worked very well for me - I simply don't remember the details in order to write the code without going back to reference the lessons. I like the way Mark has divided up the content into small chunks, and then drills me on that material with the exercises on his website. Mark has invested a lot of time in creating these materials, and the price for the Kindle versions is so low - it's almost embarrassing!"
"I have done some programming in the past, so although I've never written a line of JavaScript the first 10 chapters have felt like extremely basic review. There are a couple exercise components I do not like including one where you need to drag and drop random code bits to form a proper JavaScript statement."
"I usually get sleepy learning to code even during working hour but with this book, learning is fun and keeps me alert even at 4 in morning. This book makes learning code fun and not overwhelming."
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Best API & Operating Environments

The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook
The Linux Programming Interface (TLPI) is the definitive guide to the Linux and UNIX programming interface—the interface employed by nearly every application that runs on a Linux or UNIX system. Michael Kerrisk has been using and programming UNIX systems for more than 20 years, and has taught many week-long courses on UNIX system programming.
Reviews
"I can't imagine the work done in writing such a massive book, but I appreciate it."
"If your serious about developing AAA Linux applications this is an excellent guide."
"The images are all broken on the Kindle version."
""The Linux Programming Interface" is a very comprehensive book targeted at programmers and is concerned with teaching the system calls and library functions provided by the Linux operating system."
"This book is pretty amazing in explaining complex subjects in Linux programming."
"I purchased this book to use on my job as a part time programmer working from home on scientific applications in a Linux environment."
"It's a great reference, better than googling!"
"This is a thorough, well-organized, lucidly written treatment of the somewhat arcane world of programming in the Linux environment."
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Best Software Design, Testing & Engineering

Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions
And as such, I know what it's like to be asked to whip up brilliant algorithms on the spot and then write flawless code on a whiteboard. Learn how to uncover the hints and hidden details in a question, discover how to break down a problem into manageable chunks, develop techniques to unstick yourself when stuck, learn (or re-learn) core computer science concepts, and practice on 189 interview questions and solutions. Extensive coverage of essential topics, such as big O time, data structures, and core algorithms. At Google, she interviewed hundreds of software engineers and evaluated thousands of hiring packets on the hiring committee.
Reviews
"The DP solutions in this book are not actually tabular DP formulations--I recommend looking at the problems here http://people.cs.clemson.edu/~bcdean/dp_practice/ (Brian Dean's Dynamic Programming Practice Problems)."
"The main reason I bought the book is that it closely reflects the status quo of the technical interviews in large tech companies. For many of the problems, unless you know the solutions beforehand, there is no way you can code up a decent one within an hour. The book mentions an example, a good candidate whom the author knows very well but just cannot pass the coding interviews. I am guessing the assumption is that the coding problems we do nowadays on the interviews somehow achieve minimal number of false positives. One solution reduces the problem to checking for substrings. The author claims the time complexity is O(m+n), which I believe for Java is actually O(mn). Overall this is good book for preparing for coding interviews."
"I've been writing software for a long time, and I'm competent at my job. Because the presence of books like these create a vicious cycle: prep book gets written; interviewees study/memorize answers; interviewers make questions "harder" to compensate; new book gets written! The grinder continues to turn, and whereas ten years ago you could get a good job with some string or linked-list manipulation questions, now you've got people who consider whiteboard coding of topcoder elite questions to be the baseline measurement of programmer competency. You'll even run into lazy interviewers who take questions directly from this book, which is the ultimate in stupidity: if "good" candidates have prepared from the book, and you ask questions directly from the book, what are you really accomplishing, other than a test of memorization skills? I've seen it myself."
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Best Cross-platform Software Development

Building Microservices with ASP.NET Core: Develop, Test, and Deploy Cross-Platform Services in the Cloud
Learn test-driven and API-first development concepts Communicate with other services by creating and consuming backing services such as databases and queues Build a microservice that depends on an external data source Learn about event sourcing , the event-centric approach to persistence Use ASP.NET Core to build web applications designed to thrive in the cloud Build a service that consumes, or is consumed by, other services Create services and applications that accept external configuration Explore ways to secure ASP.NET Core microservices and applications. He's written over a dozen books on computer programming and has presented at a number of user groups and conferences, including Apple's WWDC and ScalaDays.
Reviews
"I've been wanting a book on MicroServices but something that walks me through building good code examples and this has that too. Additionally, the introduction to .NET Core is very good because it gives you exactly what you need to try it out without overwhelming at the first parts of the book."
"Very good advice when developing and deploying microservices."
"It's one of those books that constantly points you to a URL in order to learn about different technologies."
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