Reading Programming Books In Order?
Just wondering whether or not you guys read programming books in order or if you just jump around to different chapters.
Books are laid out in the order they should be read in, unless they're a bad book.
http://stackoverflow.com/q/388242/1959975
http://stackoverflow.com/q/388242/1959975
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closed account (3qX21hU5)
In my opinion it depends on your knowledge of the subject. If I am familiar with the subject I will jump around to parts that interest me otherwise if I am not I will usually read then front to back.
Ya, I've been tempted lately to skip around the book to sections that interest, but at the same time I don't wanna miss anything. I don't want to get into the habit of only reading things that interest me because I will probably miss something that might be incredibly useful.
closed account (3qX21hU5)
In my opinion if you understand the topic enough to just jump into a section of the book and be able to understand it well enough you should be fine. Our brains are funny things and their have been plenty of studies that show if you are having fun learning something you will remember it much better and pick it up much easier.
So I wouldn't worry about missing things to much (Though if you start to not be able to understand what things are doing and why you should probably go back a bit and reread things until you can understand it).
So I wouldn't worry about missing things to much (Though if you start to not be able to understand what things are doing and why you should probably go back a bit and reread things until you can understand it).
Depends: if the book is about technique, then I would read it word for word, in order because technique is not like syntax in regards to it's definition. But, if it's somthing like syntax of C++, and I already know how to declare a class and write member functions, I would skip around because then it's just a reference book on basic syntax.
If you're learning C++, though, I still haven't found a book that gives any really good examples that don't completely screw up your understanding of the syntax.
If you're learning C++, though, I still haven't found a book that gives any really good examples that don't completely screw up your understanding of the syntax.
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The books that I have as of now are all syntax based books, so I guess it wouldn't hurt skipping around especially for a language like Java. Kinda reluctant to try the same approach with C++ (too much detail), but I will take a chance and dive right in.
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