Do Judge a Programming Book by its Cover

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July 15, 2019

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I love reading. I love when books have nice typography, when they are printed on nice paper, and are bound with a hardcover that has just the right touch. The content becomes unforgettable.

When I see the cover of an old (comic) book, I'm instantly teleported back in time to when my mom bought one for me on the way to kindergarten. The experience of these comics were so memorable that I remember every detail of the issues I read as a five year old, while I regularly forget what I've read this morning.

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It would be awesome if the covers of my own programming books could be created by these masters.

Back to reality. A great thing about most programming books is that they do regularly have nice covers. Having a honey badger on a book that's not about zoology is cool, in a nice geeky way.

Interactive Programming for Artificial Intelligence

I needed an idea for the covers of the series of books that I'm writing, Interactive Programming for Artificial Intelligence.

My budget was (close to) zero, and I can't call myself an artist. Many ideas came and went; none of them were distinctive enough. They weren't communicating the message of the book series.

The main message of the book series? These aren't just tutorials teaching some contemporary programming skills. I hope they are much more than that!

This book series has an interactive approach. Every concept I'm writing about is immediately illustrated with executable code. You can try it right away in Clojure's amazing super-console: the REPL, which provides a genuine connection between the programmer and the running program.

These are programming books. They go beyond theory, and they do not stop at cute demos. The code you'll write is fast, flexible and extendable. The real thing. Comprehensive, but approachable.

Not all of the books are strictly about Artificial Intelligence, they are also about the programming foundations that are important in building AI software.

These are several challenging areas on their own. Math: it's tough. AI: it's abstract. Functional programming: it's funky. High performance computing on the GPU: get out of here! Together? It's a tough sell!

Finally though, the answer fell into my lap. Meet Dog and Bird, they are two friends that bravely immerse themselves into challenging activities and make them effortless and fun!

These books are great for beginners. It's not easy, but everything is simply explained. You don't have to be an expert to start, but you will become one as you progress.

Deep Learning for Programmers

The flagship book in the series is Deep Learning for Programmers: An Interactive Tutorial with CUDA, OpenCL, MKL-DNN, Java, and Clojure.

Instead of me giving you the pitch, let Dog and Bird show you what it's all about. Yes, if a dog and a bird can surf the waves, you, a programmer, can conquer deep learning.

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Numerical Linear Algebra for Programmers

The second book in the series is Numerical Linear Algebra for Programmers: An Interactive Tutorial with GPU, CUDA, OpenCL, MKL, Java, and Clojure. Math might have thorns, but look at how Dog and Bird easily handle it with love.

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Available now!

These are just a couple of the books in the upcoming series.

It is never too early to voice your support by subscribing to the Deep Learning book and reading the chapters as they are written. You can subscribe to the Linear Algebra book, too.

Download free sample chapters here or here.

You'll be glad to hear that all proceeds from the books go toward my work on open-source libraries.

Discover these awesome topics through programming!

Do Judge a Programming Book by its Cover - July 15, 2019 - Dragan Djuric