A book I consider important

http://dump.udderweb.com/CODE.pdf

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319

The author, Petzold, has been mentioned on /prog/ before, but AFAIK only in the context of his MS Windows books.

This one is different, because it helped me understand the nature of information, how it is part of reality and was so even before people existed.  In that way, it helped me understand what functional programming is.  (I'm sure that there is more than one path to that place, but this is the one I took.)

>>71
Fuck off, troll.  Come back with logical arguments.

>>72
Yes it is, and it's a perfectly valid metaphor.  Both fire and information can be shared without affecting the original.  Sharing information ,,devalues'' it in a scarcity economy, the same way that sharing fire in the metaphor devalues it for the fire masters.  However, neither sharing fire or information is stealing.