Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : POLL: CS textbook prices


sans-hubris
09-19-2001, 09:57 PM
So how much are your textbooks? I know textbooks in general are expensive, but I'm curious as to everyone else's prices.

mine:
Data Structures, Algorithms, and Object-Oriented Programming by Gregory L. Heileman (McGraw-Hill) $53.05 used
(kinda ridiculous considering that the book is only about 400 pages long)
Digital Electronics A Practical Approach by William Kleitz (Prentice Hall) $68.94 new
(more reasonable, this is a BIG book)
Introduction to RISC Assembly Language Programming by John Waldron (Addison-Wesley) ~$35.00 new (I think, this was last year)
(even more ridiculous, only 180 pages long and the pages aren't even that big, not expected for an assembly book)
C++ How to Program by Deitel & Deitel (Prentice Hall) ~$70.00 new (I think, last year)
(this one seems to be the right price for quite a bit of material, but we never used it)

I'm missing a few books, but I don't have them at hand atm. I always debate about getting a new or used book because I'm keeping all my CS books. I am keeping the Digital Electronics book even though it's not really a CS book, but it still has a lot of interesting stuff about computers and electronics in general.

I can't wait until the artificial intelligence course. I already had the professor for that course in another course and he was really cool in the course I had him in. There is one professor I have a lot of respect for as a computer scientist, but not as a teacher. You might think you would want to be taught by a l33t teacher, but the entire attitude doesn't make for a good learning environment, no matter how much the teacher knows. I'm glad that I have thus far been able to keep up and get through the courses I had with him without having to ask him a lot of questions. All my friends tell me they hate asking him a question because he makes them feel like a gnat and that their brain is about the same size. So, yeah, I respect him because he really knows his stuff, but I don't look forward to having to take his courses.

[ 20 September 2001: Message edited by: Muad Dib --formerly ndogg ]

EscapeCharacter
09-20-2001, 05:22 AM
i saved 200 bucks this quarter since i knew some people that alreayd had the classes im taking and just bought the books off of them for really cheap. i think ill make this a habit.

i can feel you pain about having leet teachers i had one for c++ and this guy would look at you like you were a moron if you didnt understand something.

Danger Fan
09-20-2001, 09:06 AM
C++ How to Program by Deitel & Deitel

a worthless book. worst textbook I've had to use in my 3 years of college. even my professor said it sucked.

mrBen
09-20-2001, 09:16 AM
The only one I ever bought when I did a bit of computing at Uni was 'Ada 95 from the beginning' by Jan Skansholm which I picked up second hand for £17.50, now retails on Amazon at £31.99 But why pay money for a book on Ada (particularly one that doesn't include a decent command reference, meaning you have to search for ages to find anything)

I only did 1st and 2nd year programming, so I never got onto the cool C and Java stuff :(

(There's only so much programming they'll allow you to do as part of a Divinity degree :) )

lazy_cod3R
09-22-2001, 02:18 AM
I didn't buy books after first year because alot of people told me that books are not used much after you spend your 60-80 dollars on them , so i took the advice of these people and instead went hard on the xerox at the beginning of each semester :) Maximum of about 25 dollars on just the pages i need, plus the net helped alot with new languages and stuff.

Now though i buy books which i think will be helpful for me in terms of my own programming, not what professors suggest for courses.