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CSE 303 08au Textbooks
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Are the textbooks required?
There are two books listed for the course:
- Linux Pocket Guide by Daniel J. Barrett, O'Reilly, 2004.
- C: A Reference Manual (5th ed) by Harbison & Steele, Prentice-Hall, 2002.
Although these are listed as "required", additional explanation
will help...
- Both books are reference-style books (not
textbook) with reliable, useful information related to parts of the
course. Much of the information is available elsewhere for free, but
the time you save by having this book in your hand is probably well
worth the cost.
It is also good practice to learn to find information in professional level reference
books.
- Many of the topics covered in the course are not covered by any
of the texts. However, they are covered well by free resources
such as man pages and web pages.
- Having good reference books should prove useful in many parts of
the CSE curriculum and even after you graduate. So these are
excellent books to have even if much of the information is available
elsewhere.
- If you would like even more information
about Linux, shells, emacs, etc. in your hands, "Linux in a
Nutshell" published by O'Reilly has about 900 pages of useful
stuff. (Apparently the nutshell is for a rather large nut.)
Bottom line: It is possible for some students to get all the
information they need in this course without the textbooks since they
will only occasionally be referred to. However, they are good books
with lots of information and alternate explanations, so not getting
them and making the course and your future endeavors more difficult
may be a very bad idea.
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Computer Science & Engineering
University of Washington
Box 352350
Seattle, WA 98195-2350
(206) 543-1695 voice, (206) 543-2969 FAX
[comments to Hal Perkins]
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