Good book for puzzle

Question

I am great fan of book like "Java Puzzler". I want to know about other book titles which provides similar contents like "Java Puzzler" (Mostly for java). Same time looking for good general puzzle book also. Please suggest some titles.

Answer 1

Maybe not 100% similar to Java Puzzlers but i found

Practical API Design Confessions of a Java Framework Architect (Jaroslav Tulach, Apress, 2008)

excelent. The book is a must-read for API designers, where as Java Puzzlers are for more general programming.

Of course there is

Effective Java, 2nd edition (Joshua Bloch, Manning?, 2008)

Or

The Java Developer's Almanach 1.4 (Addison Wesley, 2003?)

but its more like a collection of samples for particular tasks (without using any 3rd party library most of the case).

Also there are excellent video casts on Parleys.org on these topics, for example Joshua Bloch and Brian Goetz appear several times in conference videos. There are also the videos of previous' years JavaOne conferences on its site.

Answer 2

Althought not exactly a puzzle book, Effective Java by Joshua Bloch is probably going to be a good read as well -- it is organized by "items" which can more or less be independent from other items with plenty of example code and very helpful explanations.

Joshua Bloch was one of the people behind designing the Java Collections Framework and is also the coauthor of Java Puzzlers, so the "feel" of Effective Java will be somewhat similar to Java Puzzlers.

Answer 3

Why just books and why just Java? here are some links online:

http://www.techinterviews.com/programming-puzzles-riddles-and-interview-problems

http://www.coderanch.com/t/35115/Programming-Diversions/Java-Programming-Puzzles

And many more by doing a search on your favorite search engine...

http://www.gowrikumar.com/c/

http://bytes.com/groups/c/217806-programming-puzzle

Answer 4

Try Programming Pearls. Some of the code in the book is in C and C++ but the code in the book is minimal and the purpose of the book is for you to try to implement the puzzles/challenges in your favorite language. Its a great book and a must-have for any programmer.