Is there such thing as a technical manual that is not inherently staggeringly dull to read?

Question

This question is not about "Code Complete", "Mythical Man Month", the writings of Joel Spolsky or any other technical writing that is theoretical or discussion-oriented.

It's about the hardcore technical manual that describes the nuts and bolts of a particular technical language or technology in all of its gory, clinical detail.

I'm talking about stuff like "Perl in a Nutshell" or "Core Python" or "C++ Primer".

The only writer I have read that has tried to break away from the breathtaking boredom of technnical manuals is "why the luck stiff".

Has anyone come across any books that are strictly technical how-to's that are also actually interesting to read?

Answer 1

I found Effective C++ by Meyers to be fun as well as useful.

Answer 2

I really like reading books by Alistair Cockburn, particular Agile Software Development. I can only describe it as a series of lightbulbs going off as I finally understood why the way I had been taught and was trying to do software development was not working the way I expected. I'll grant you that it's not strictly a technical how-to in the language vein, but it is more-or-less a how-to for developing a software development methodology. The fact that it doesn't read like The Personal Software Process or The Rational Unified Process is one of the things that opened my eyes to a new way to develop software.

Answer 3

"C Programming Language" by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie

Quite simply, the best technical manual I've ever read.

Answer 4

The Head First books from O'Reilly are by far the best attempt at this. They use more engaging and proven learning strategies.

Answer 5

I remember a great book when learning Delphi called The Delphi Programming Explorer narrated by a fictional detective who was programming between cases.

Fun, but rather difficult to get hold of.

Answer 6

The best example I've personally come across is Programming Perl (better known as the Camel Book). A nuts-and-bolts book on using a language, but it (at least the edition I used) is interspersed with discussions of the three chief virtues of a programmer (laziness, impatience, and hubris), stories of the programming hacks done by Job (from the Bible) (such as his use of CTBCPP (Clay Tablet By Carrier Pigeon Protocol)) and so on.

As James A. Harvey noted, the Head First series is also pretty good.

Bruce Tognazinni offers some great examples on how good writing can help even nuts-and-bolts technical matter.

Answer 7

Learn You a Haskell for Great Good! Even the title is funny (once you know a bit of Haskell, anyway).

Answer 8

One of the best and genuinely interesting books I've recently read is this one about rails:

Enterprise Rails

Answer 9

Some candidates:

• Practical Common Lisp
• The FreeBSD Handbook
• The Python Cookbook
• Arthur Naiman-era The Macintosh Bible (can't vouch for later editions)
• Higher-Order Perl

Answer 10

Gerry Blauuw's immortal IBM 360 Principles of Operation.

Anybody with access to the ACM Digital Library can get a copy.

Answer 11

Bjarne Stroustrup's "Programming - Principles and Practice Using C++" is clearly written with the intent of being readable and as enjoyable as you can expect from a technical book. It is, however, targeted at beginners, not only to C++ but also to programming, and it is clearly meant to be enjoyable for them.

I couldn't say whether or not it would be staggeringly dull to someone who already had a strong grasp of the language and/or programming. But as a beginner I find it very enjoyable and not at all dull.

Answer 12

More of a howto than a technical manual, but Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby

Answer 13

The Garbage Collection Programming Guide for Mac OS X is one of the most fascinating things I've ever read (especially the Architecture section).