Ask HN: Similar books to “Raytracing in one Weekend”?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34019549

by augunrik • 4 years ago

150 27 4 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I really liked the "Raytracing in one Weekend" Series [0], in terms of: explaining a complicated concept by programming a toy implementation of the thing itself and afterwards one is left with more knowledge and something to "show".

Does someone know similar series on other subjects than raytracing? I know there is the Advent of Code, but that's more like solving a puzzle.

[0] https://raytracing.github.io

Jemaclus2• 4 years ago

I would recommend Crafting Interpreters (https://craftinginterpreters.com) or Interpreter Book (https://interpreterbook.com/). Excellent ways to learn how to build an interpreter. You have a functioning interpreter by the end of it, and it's easy enough to extend it into new concepts! I'm using some of the lessons learned from that to build a custom interpreter for a small project I'm working on. It's really fun!

jesusinsneakers• 4 years ago

I've been struggling to decide which one (of the two interpreter books you mentioned) to read. Any specific reason I should read one over the other?

munificent3• 4 years ago

I wrote "Crafting Interpreters" and read and very much enjoyed Thorsten's interpreters book. (I haven't gotten to his second one yet.)

They are surprisingly alike. Mine takes you through two complete implementations of the same language: first as a tree-walk interpreter and then as a bytecode compiler. His first book does the former and his second book does the latter.

Both are written in an informal friendly style and focus on working code. If you like one, you'll probably like the latter.

Mine uses Java for the first language and C for the second. Thorsten's books use Go for both. I think mine has more background information, theory, and historical context. His will get you to a working interpreter with less prose to wade through.

I think it's mostly a question of style and preference. I'd dip into the first chapter of each and see which resonates with you.

Jemaclus2• 4 years ago

I've bought and read both, but the one I used for my interpreter was Interpreter Book by Thorsten Ball, because it's written in Go and Go is currently my favorite language. They both work well, though!

maximmcnair• 4 years ago

The "From Nand to Tetris" course or in book form "The Elements of Computing Systems". This steps through building a computer from scratch. Starting with building logic gates from transistors, through to building a CPU and then writing assembly.

renaissance_tea2• 4 years ago

FWIW this book is great. It took me a couple months of immense dedication to finish everything from the first course.

sasas• 4 years ago

This is a fantastic list of projects. From 3D renderers, blockchain protocols, frameworks to emulators.

"Build your own X" - "This repository is a compilation of well-written, step-by-step guides for re-creating our favorite technologies from scratch." [0]

[0] https://github.com/codecrafters-io/build-your-own-x

tmtvl• 4 years ago

Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction has you code a bunch of neat little projects, I'm especially fond of the substitution cypher solving program. It reminds me of Covert Action.

adam_ellsworth• 4 years ago

ty for the recommendation; for those interested in reading it here's a PDF version of it (via the author's website).

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/book.pdf

agluszak• 4 years ago

500 lines or less and the rest of Architecture of Open Source Applications series http://www.aosabook.org/en/

iKlsR• 4 years ago

Game Physics in One Weekend [0], Ten Minute Physics [1]

[0] https://gamephysicsweekend.github.io/

[1] https://matthias-research.github.io/pages/tenMinutePhysics/

pmat• 4 years ago

Fluid Simulation for Computer Graphics by Robert Bridson [0] is one of my favorites. It’s a very approachable introduction to fluid mechanics pdes, and how to code wonderful fluid simulations like this HN favorite [1].

[0] https://www.cs.ubc.ca/~rbridson/fluidsimulation/

[1] https://paveldogreat.github.io/WebGL-Fluid-Simulation/

jchook• 4 years ago

Check out Crafting Interpreters[0]. You learn about Chomsky formal language hierarchy, constructing context-free grammars, lexing, parsing, error reporting, etc by building your own programming language.

[0] https://craftinginterpreters.com/

open-source-ux• 4 years ago

The Sam's Teach Yourself in 24 hours is a series of computing-related books:

https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/series/Sams-Teac...

legends2k• 4 years ago

My curated and update list of Computer Graphics resources you can read online for free [0] with every item having a small description.

[0] https://legends2k.github.io/note/cg_resources/

avinassh• 4 years ago

self plug: I wanted to learn how databases work internally, like how they store and retrieve data, build indexes, etc.

I built an educational KV store to teach someone to write a database from scratch. I have set up this project in TDD fashion with the tests. So, you start with simple functions, pass the tests, and the difficulty level goes up. There are hints if you get stuck. When all the tests pass, you would have written a persistent key-value store in the end.

link: https://github.com/avinassh/py-caskdb

locriacyber• 4 years ago

Generative Design by Benedikt Groß, Hartmut Bohnacker, Julia Laub, Claudius Lazzeroni

It's about 2D programmatic raster graphics.

augunrik2• 4 years ago

Thanks for all your links! I haven't decided on what to next :D

WhiteBlueSkies• 4 years ago

What about now?

Ask HN: Similar books to “Raytracing in one Weekend”?

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