o(ther)l/log

Le Monde en Tique is a computer science bookshop I try to avoid, as I often visit them to get a specific book, and inevitably end buying half of dozen items. Today was one of these days. Among today's discoveries:

• Programming Language Pragmatics by Michael Scott. I like the pedagocial aspects of computer science, and I like textbooks which take a fresh perspective, and especially books that introduce computer science by exposing the reader to a wide, real-world perspective. And this one looks really great from that point of view. It is basically a tour of how programming languages are constructed, and how they lead to actual running code. Which means having to talk about language structure (grammar, parsing) but also explaining how data structure are represented in memory, how some high-level constructs are mapped to low-level constraints.
• The producer as composer: Shaping the sounds of popular music. Virgil Moorefield retraces how the music studio quietly morphed into a full-featured instrument, with the converging roles of producer and musician/composer. Apparently with good examples and analysis, from Brian Wilson to Trent Reznor
• "Icon Design: Graphic Icons in Computer Interface Design", bought this one primarily for my SO, but I will definitively browse it. A bit ouf ot date, but with a lot of examples of multiple styles of icon design, including works by Susan Kare and others.

I did not buy these two, but it was close:

• Morphs, Mallards, & Montages: Computer-aided Imagination by Andrew Glassner. A book based on a regular column in an IEEE graphics journal. A very pratical - should I say procedural ? - hands-on, notebook approach to computer graphics: what is weaving ? image approximation ? curves explorations ? Very visual, a lot of figures.
• Advanced Graphics Programming Using OpenGL. Graphics programming (especially GPU programming with shading languages) is something which is quite high on my play list for the next free slot in my copious free time. This book seems to be a cool tutorial of advanced and modern graphics techniques in color/lighting, texture mappings, non-photorealistic techniques, etc. Very nice layout
• It's fun to see many books about AI in the context of game development. Just by browsing the tables of content, the range is quite impressive: I was expecting some basic info about rule-based behaviors, but the books cover emergent behaviors and agent systems, path planning, genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic, ... simplified, but it's cool to see these fields popularized through games.