Classic CS Books

 

Based on a poll of ACM members and published in CACM, March, 2006.

 

 

 

% of Votes

Author(s)

Title

Year

 

 

 

 

 

1

28.90%

Kernighan, B.W. and Plauger, P.J.

The Elements of Programming Style

1982

2

13.40%

Yourdon, E.

Classics in Software Engineering

1979

3

13.00%

Aho, A.V. and Ullman, J.D.

Theory of Parsing, Translation and Compiling

1973

4

12.60%

Jensen, K. and Wirth, N.

Pascal User Manual and Report

1975

5

12.50%

Von Neumann, J.

Computer and the Brain

1958

6

11.10%

Dijkstra, E.W.

Selected Writings on Computing

1982

7

10.50%

Goldberg, A. and Robson, D

Smalltalk-80: The Language and its Implementation

1983

8

10.30%

Bauer, F.L. and Eickel, J.

Compiler Construction

1976

9

10.20%

Codd, E.F.

The Relational Model for Database Management: Version 2

1990

10

10.00%

Iverson, K.E.

A Programming Language

1962

11

10.00%

Hopcroft, J.E. and Ullman, J.D.

Formal Languages and Their Relation to Automata

1969

12

9.10%

Bentley, J.L.

Writing Efficient Programs

1982

13

9.00%

Minsky, M.L.

Computation: Finite and Infinite Machines

1967

14

8.90%

Organick, E.I.

The Multics System

1972

15

8.80%

Brinch Hansen, P.

Operating System Principles

1973

16

8.50%

IBM

IBM System/360 Principles of Operation

1964

17

8.00%

Papert, S.

Mindstorms

1980

18

8.00%

Brinch Hansen, P.

The Architecture of Concurrent Programs

1977

19

7.90%

Dahl, O.J.

Structured Programming

1972

20

7.30%

Davis, A.M.

201 Principles of Software Development

1995

21

7.30%

Rich, E.

Artificial Intelligence

1983

22

7.10%

Apple Computer Inc.

MacIntosh Human Interface Guidelines

1992

23

7.00%

Denning, D.E.

Cryptography and Data Security

1982

24

7.00%

C.A. Hoare and C.B. Jones, Eds.

Essays in Computing Science

1989

25

6.90%

Allen, J.

Anatomy of LISP

1978