Computer Science majors

[home skillet]

well i'm going to college next year with an intended major of computer science. my first quarter classes are not very hardcore and i am only taking one computer science course, intro to computer science. i've picked up the fundamentals of java and c++ in high school, but nothing too big.

anyhow, i'd really like to get a head start on my computer science work in college. Can anyone reccomend some good books to get started in entering this kind of study? Also, do I need to buy the compilers or can i borrow them from the college? I do have codewarrior and i'm somewhat familiar with it. if any of you are computer science majors please give me some tips on how to excel in this study, i'd really like to get myself a good start.

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"All we need is a little bit of energon and a lot of luck." - Optimus prime

[biosx]

If you are going into programming a programming major with some experience, I have to recommend the book that taught me almost everything I know:

"The C Programming Language" by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie (aka "K&R")

This book is the bible of the C programming language(IMO). The advantage of learning C before any other high-level language is that C is small and standardized (i.e. ANSI standard). So once you learn all of C, you will be able to pick up on other languages very, very easily.

The book may seem a little intimidating at first (they go through and explain about 90% of the language in the first chapter!), however they then go back and explain every part again in detail throughout the remaining chapters. They have clear explanations, examples, and practice programs to write that actually make you think.

Ask any C programmer about K&R and they will agree that it is one of the greatest books ever written on the C Language.

For C++ (I just asked about good books for C++ on this forum) and it seems like the most popular is:

"The C++ Programming Language" by Bjarne Stroustrup

I haven't read it yet, but reviews on Amazon.com say it was modeled after K&R.

Happy Reading!!

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[Strogian]

Yeah, I'm loving this K&R book. I just learned something, that my other C book never taught me. How to read this: char (*(*x[3])())[5]

[praxis]

I agree with biosx, I have both books, and they are by far the best. For any other language/area I also recommend anything from O'Reily press (especially Perl). Get them and use them in everything you do. But don't neglect studies, and don't try to advance yourself too far until you get your general programming classes done. The time to excel is when you start getting the opportunities for specially offered classes, independant studies and large project-oriented classes.

And even better advice is to get to know lots of people (team = good, hotshot loner = bad), especially the teachers you respect...their advice and insight can be invaluable.

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I AM ELECTRO

spex