20 Free Ebooks For Software Developers [Beginners]
Developing and programming software and applications is never an easy task, and sometimes you need a bit of help, whether it’s for managing your workflow, refreshing your knowledge or learning a new programming language. Thankfully, there are a lot of resources on the Internet that can help, including free ebooks.
Here, we’ve compiled a list of 20 free ebooks that should definitely be of use to beginner software developers and programmers. They cover a decent range of topics, from more general workflow advice to nitty-gritty code and quite a few things in between. Without further ado, here’s the list.
13 Sites to Learn How to Code for Web Developers
Gone are the days when programming languages could only be mastered programmers like Bill Gates, who later got... Read more
Everything You Need to Know About Custom Software
Author: Bitbean
Here is an ebook that talks about everything related to custom software. When creating a custom software, you need to know if your company needs such a tool, how will it benefit you or how to integrate it in your business processes.
The book also gives some good insights on the things to consider when hiring an IT team, technical considerations according to company’s goals, and whether you should outsource your project or create it in-house.
An Introduction to Software Engineering and Fault Tolerance
Authors: Patrizio Pelliccione, Henry Muccini and Nicolas Guelfi.
This book gives you a good look at the introduction of software engineering and integration of fault tolerance in the process of software development. For beginners to professional software engineers, this book holds a lot fo knowledge and insights related to the field.
The topics covered in the book relate to fault tolerance, software engineering techniques, and software development in general. Moreover, you can learn about languages and tools for creating fault tolerant systems.
Building Software For Simulation
Author: James K. Nutaro
From aviation to medicine, simulations are used in an array of fields these days. This ebook gives comprehensive information on creating simulation software – from prerequisites to the process. The book includes theoretical knowledge as well as the algorithms along with practical application using the C++ language.
Software For Data Analysis Programming With-R Book
Author: John M. Chambers
If you’re learning the art of data analysis using R as your primary language, then this book will turn out to be a boon for you. You can learn from it as a beginner or add to your basic skill towards advance level, it guides you through programming with R.
You will learn some of the advanced techniques of data analysis with R such as classes and methods, namespaces, and interfaces to spreadsheets or data bases etc. There’s also much talk about computations for data visualization, numerical methods, and the use of text data.
How To Become A Programmer
Author: Rob Wailing
The title says it all, really: this ebook should be one of your first reads if you’re just starting out, or even if you’re trying to decide whether programming is the right path for you. It’s not a deep ebook, but the author covers a decent amount of non-technical topics such as where to start, how to gain experience, and other real-world questions.
Back To Basics: Hype-Free Principles For Software Developers
Author: Jason Gorman
This ebook cuts through a lot of the hype and marketing speak that’s present in the software development world and tries to reintroduce some of what the author thinks are basic tenets of software development.
Topics such as the need for testable goals, automating donkey work and the need for customer involvement are all discussed in this ebook.
Don’t Just Roll The Dice
Author: Neil Davidson
This ebook tackles one of the most important parts for any software developer looking to sell their work: pricing. After all, there’s no use writing a great program if you don’t price it correctly; this ebook should help, and discusses issues such as economics, pricing psychology and pricing perception.
Programming From The Ground Up
Author: Jonathan Bartlett
As the title might indicate, this ebook is really aimed at beginners to programming and development, teaching them how to think, write and learn like a programmer. The ebook teaches the principles of programming using assembly language for x86 processors and GNU/Linux operating systems.
97 Things Every Programmer Should Know (Extended)
Author: Shirish Padalkar
This ebook is a collection of essays and articles from the 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know wiki that weren’t included in the book. There’s a great variety of contributions in this ebook, discussing a lot of topics ranging from explicit advice with code and programming to more general advice on being a programmer or software developer.
Foundations Of Programming
Author: Karl Seguin
This ebook, as the title suggests, tackles the basic foundations of programming and how to build better software. The author discusses topics such as ALT.NET, domain driven design, unit testing and dependency injection, as well as some simpler "back to basics" topic. Quite a good read to really get to grips with the foundations.
Hacknot: Essays On Software Development
By Ed Johnson
This ebook is a collection of essays written between 2003 and 2006, discussing and critiquing various concepts within the field of software development. From extreme programming and agile methods to debugging and maintenance to the software development industry itself, no topic is safe from Ed Johnson’s critical eye.
Invent Your Own Computer games With Python
By Al Sweigart
If you’ve been interested in learning Python but never knew how, this ebook is a great place to start. It’s admittedly aimed more towards younger learners, but it’s still a great place to start, especially since it uses the process of making a game as a way to teach you some of the characteristics and intricacies of Python.
Learning to Program With Python
By Richard Halterman
This ebook is quite an exhaustive guide to programming with Python 3.2. The author starts with the basics of Python, such as software and development tools, before going into more detailed territory such as Python’s iterative processes, using and writing functions, different types of objects and custom types.
Open Data Structures (In Java)
Author: Pat Morin
This book has a pretty noble goal, giving students free access to an open-source, updatable textbook related to data structures in Java. As you can imagine, the content is geared more towards learners of Java rather than seasoned experts, but it’s likely that even seasoned programmers will get some use out of this textbook, if only as a refresher.
F# Succinctly
Author: Robert Pickering
This ebook is a to-the-point introduction of the F# programming language. The author devotes a few chapters to introducing F#, functional programming and why it’s important, before guiding you through the classic "Hello World!" exercise. Later topics include object-oriented programming, simulations and graphics as well as creating an application in F#.
Getting Started With Open Source Development
Authors: Rachna Kapur, Mario Briggs, Pedro Carvalho, Ulisses Costa, Tapas Saha, Raul F. Chong and Peter Kohlmann
This thorough ebook is a great introduction to the world of open source software and issues related to it. Topics discussed include licensing, open source business models, the role of the open source community in development and starting your own open source project.
Git Succinctly
Author: Ryan Hodson
GitHub is one of the most useful version control systems on the Internet right now, and is incredibly important for any software developer. This ebook is a great introduction to how GitHub works, discussing everything you need to know, from a general overview of GitHub to specific topics such as recording and undoing changes and remote repositories.
The Rook’s Guide To C++
Author: Jeremy A. Hansen
This ebook is pretty much a comprehensive C++ textbook that covers all you’d need to know about programming and developing software using C++. Topics discussed include variables, data types and conversion, loops, file I/O and dynamic data. The ebook also includes review questions and answers for each chapter to further aid learning.
C++ Succinctly
Author: Michael McLaughlin
This ebook was written with C# developers in mind. Specifically, it was written to help developers familiar with C# learn C++. It does this by trying to refer to prior C# knowledge as much as possible while it discusses topics such as types, namespaces, resource acquisition and strings.
.NET Technology Guide For Business Applications
Authors: Cesar de la Torre and David Carmona
This ebook’s main goal is to help you choose the right Microsoft development technologies and approaches for your .NET project. It does this by guiding you through a number of different application patterns and scenarios, with recommended technologies for each pattern and scenario, in order to help you make the right choice.
