Hacker News User Shares 2025 Reading Highlights: Technical Books on Programming Languages and Telecommunications Systems
By
kwar13
Master baker tier. Every paragraph earns its place on the tray.
Summary
A Hacker News user shares their 2025 reading highlights, focusing on technical and non-technical books. The technical selections include 'Mouse, a Language for Microcomputers' by Peter Grogono, described as an esoteric programming language with minimal abstraction but compelling to explore, and 'Notes on Distance Dialing' by AT&T, a detailed but dry technical document about 1950s telephone systems in the USA and Canada that offers insight into solving complex engineering problems. The user notes they read more than these highlights and plans to share non-technical recommendations separately.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledMouse is basically an esolang with barely any abstraction facilities, but the book was well-written and the language compelling enough to explore further.
The reading is a dry as it gets, but it was a fascinating dive into a vastly complex system solving extremely hard problems.
This is a must-read for folks interested in syste
Technical followed by non-technical. I read more than these, but these are the highlights.
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