Building a reference library for developers - any suggestions?
I’ve been asked to help build a physical reference library at my office, where we develop websites and applications for media sites. Does anyone have suggestions for must-have books? We have a variety of skill levels and everyone has the chance to change positions and learn new things, so I’d like a mix of high-level stuff with intro-to material.
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5 Answers
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide by O’Reilly is excellent and truly is THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE
PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, & Practice by Apress is an awesome intro to PHP5 and design patterns
DHTML Utopia by SitePoint has a lot of great DHTML coverage & recipies
I also like P2P: Harnessing The Power of Distributive Technologies. It’s not an educational text and is getting kinda dated, but the stuff it talks about is fascinating. It’s my favorite tech-related book :-)
Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckel is probably the best intro to any language – ever.
Sorry to spam you, I just keep thinking of more stuff ;-)
“Design Patterns” is a great book so you can have everyone speaking the same language and using common structures. This one is suited to developers only.
“Mastering Regular Expressions” is a great reference. Its not written as well as other O’Reilly books but it is very thorough. Very helpful for developers of all skill-levels.
“Getting Real” is also very interesting. Its not suited to all workplaces but it has a very progressive philosophy on many aspects of the development process. This one can be read by pretty much anyone: designers, developers even managers.
Design
Bulletproof Web Design-Dan Cederholm
Web Standard Solutions-Dan Cederholm
Defensive Design for the Web -37signals
CSS Mastery -Andy Budd, et, al.
Designing with Web Standards (2nd Edition) Jeffery Zeldman
Usability
Don’t Make Me Think (2nd Edition) -Steve Krug
Information Architecture
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web – Peter Morville & Lou Rosenfeld
Misc
Envisioning Information -Edward Tufte
Programming
The Ruby Way New Riders Press
Ajax on Rails O’Reily
Sed & Awk O’Reilly
Thinking in Java-Bruce Eckel
Good Luck!
R
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