Reader reviews

Excellent from start to finish. No filler, no padding.

This is the third book I have read on latex this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.

The clearest explanation of programming I have come across.

This is the third book I have read on programming this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

Better than I expected. Rare to find a technical book this well judged.

I came to this book already familiar with the basics, and it still had plenty to offer. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. An easy five stars from me. I look forward to whatever the author writes next.

Well worth picking up if you already have the basics.

I picked this up after getting stuck on a project and it turned out to be exactly the right book at the right time. The chapters on webgpu are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. Good value for the price and worth the time it takes to work through properly.

Good in places. I would borrow it before buying if you can.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. The examples are small enough to type out and experiment with, which is exactly what I want from a book like this. The explanations are careful without being condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. Useful as a reference, less so as a straight read from cover to cover.

It does the job, though it took some patience to get through.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. Three stars feels about right. It will stay on my shelf, but it will not be the first one I reach for.