[justinlardinois]

Agreed. At risk of sounding like an idiot, the K&R C book and Mythical Man-Month are the only books on that list I've even heard of, and I haven't read either of them.

Also, he gives "more of a language reference" as a reason for not reading Stroutstrup's C++ book. Doesn't the same apply to K&R?

[userbinator]

C is a far smaller language than C++, and perhaps the writing style of K&R is somewhat more accessible. Stroustrup's book does have some parts that give an "I invented this language, see how awesome it is" impression, whereas K&R is quite unopinionated and neutral.

[TheOtherHobbes]

K&R actually describes C. You can pick up the original K&R from way back, and it's not so different to the latest ANSI C. The differences aren't quite trivial, but they're not so big they're going to distract anybody for long.

It's probably impossible for any book to fully describe C++ because it'a a perpetually moving target on a three year update cycle.

There are always new idioms and techniques to learn, but they keep being changed/added without any obvious coherent design strategy or logical goal.

Books can barely keep up. Stroustrop's own C++ introduction is for C++11, which is already five years and nearly two releases old.

[rtpg]

For a long time this wasn't really the case. In between C+98 and C++11, Stroustrop's book contained essentially everything you would want to know about C++, including details on how to implement the STL yourself!

The end of the book even included a grammar for C++ (with a slight comment about how the grammar wasn't exact because of C++ context sensitivity)

[OrthoMetaPara]

No. Save for the appendices, K & R can be completed and understood in a weekend. It's kind of fun to read and to work through the problems, even if you rarely use C. The Sepples book, on the other hand, is an encyclopedia. I don't know why anyone would want to read that unless he had to.

In 2016, however, I think that a lot of people would have read CLRS, even if they haven't read ALL of it. It's used as the reference text by a lot of university courses on algorithms.

[cwingrav]

This is a good reading list. You should probably pick up a copy of these, flip through them and see why they are so recommended. Having not done something doesn't make you an idiot. Having an opportunity and a recommendation, and rejecting it for no good reason... that could be different.

[nickpsecurity]

Definitely read Code Complete and pass it onto junior developers. Many teach you how to write code but it breaks down writing maintainable code.