Me too. having read TECS and gotten through it despite setbacks it's given me the confidence to feel like I can
develop a more comprehensive understanding of specific areas
of CS as long as I have a good course to follow. 2 other books interest me because they have accompanying software. One is the Tannenbaum/Minix combo and the other is Jeanna Matthews book Computer Networking which also has supporting software. I recently got the latter but I haven't started it yet. It has good reviews on Amazon so I'm hoping for another TECS experience! The Tannenbaum book has more mixed reviews and it is a bit pricey so I'm holding off on that for awhile
Cool, the Jeanna Matthews' book also looks pretty hands-on. I'll check it out (yay! I found it in my country's library network :-).
Otherwise, I know quite a few books that have good and interesting code (say, Norvig's PAIP, but a good list can be found in answer to this SO question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/282470/which-books-have-r...). But these books are more passive by nature. You just read and understand the code. While TECS is really all about the projects (there is not much point to the book otherwise).
I also had a good experience with Building Problem Solvers, but I think it's because I used with a particular idea in mind (applying the truth-maintenance systems of the book to debugging metabolic networks; see biohacker.googlecode.com). So I also took a very hands-on approach: not only understanding the code, but running it, fixing it, extending it, etc.
Comments
"I wish there were more like it!"
Me too. having read TECS and gotten through it despite setbacks it's given me the confidence to feel like I can develop a more comprehensive understanding of specific areas of CS as long as I have a good course to follow. 2 other books interest me because they have accompanying software. One is the Tannenbaum/Minix combo and the other is Jeanna Matthews book Computer Networking which also has supporting software. I recently got the latter but I haven't started it yet. It has good reviews on Amazon so I'm hoping for another TECS experience! The Tannenbaum book has more mixed reviews and it is a bit pricey so I'm holding off on that for awhile
Cool, the Jeanna Matthews' book also looks pretty hands-on. I'll check it out (yay! I found it in my country's library network :-).
Otherwise, I know quite a few books that have good and interesting code (say, Norvig's PAIP, but a good list can be found in answer to this SO question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/282470/which-books-have-r...). But these books are more passive by nature. You just read and understand the code. While TECS is really all about the projects (there is not much point to the book otherwise).
I also had a good experience with Building Problem Solvers, but I think it's because I used with a particular idea in mind (applying the truth-maintenance systems of the book to debugging metabolic networks; see biohacker.googlecode.com). So I also took a very hands-on approach: not only understanding the code, but running it, fixing it, extending it, etc.
biohacker looks very interesting (also same Joyce quote on the website as in the TECS book!)