in reply to Useful non-Perl-specific references

Two online books that I really appreciate and advise to any programmer using any reasonable (VB excluded :-P ) language:

The Art of Unix Programming by Eric S. Raymond. This is a high quality book talking about the essential points, important design principles, etc.

How to Be A Programmer by Robert L Read. Pretty nice document about the real life pragmatics of a programmer.
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Re: Re: Useful non-Perl-specific references
by stefp (Vicar) on Jun 26, 2003 at 16:52 UTC
    Unix programming is more than historical UNIX (for ESR, make that hysterical UNIX). ESR completely forgets to talk about the ML class of languages and especially OCAML. But OCAML is French and must be too unamerican for ESR.

    People are very productive using this language and write very effective type-safe programs. The ML class of languages fares very well in programming contests.

    Perl6 will deal with (optional) types and I hope that it will get some good stuff from the other camel. Actively studying OCAML, I wonder how many Perl6 ideas originate from there or from some other common source. Example: the idea of a clean way to extend the grammar is evoked in this slide (the whole set is a must read for people familiar with C++ and Scheme).

    yapc::eu will include a lightning talk about OCAML.

    -- stefp
    Come to YAPC::Europe 2003 in Paris, 23-25 July 2003.

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Re: Re: Useful non-Perl-specific references
by YAFZ (Pilgrim) on Jun 26, 2003 at 20:08 UTC
    Thanks for the pointers ;-) I've already studied Scheme a little bit and am aware of the beauty of functional programming languages. I'd give the reference to the Purple Book if it wasn't already mentioned by another member.

    I'm also interested in Objective Caml since the time I've learned it was used to design MLDonkey (I was impressed ;-). By the way the online Caml book from O´Reilly: Developing Applications with Objective Caml looks quite cool. I must find time to read and study it :)
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