China’s ancient history and culture is extensive and profound and has a long history. The Four Books are important documents of China’s ancient culture.


It records the historical facts of politics, military affairs, diplomacy, culture and other aspects in the early ideological and cultural development of China, as well as the important thoughts of thinkers such as Confucius and Mencius.





At the same time, the Four Books were also approved as official books, and the imperial examination was resumed from the period of Yanyou in the Yuan Dynasty (1314-1320), and the range of questions was officially limited to the Four Books.


The Ming and Qing dynasties inherited the yuan system and derived the eight-part essay examination system. The questions were also from the Four Books.





The Four Books is not only a Confucian classic, but also a must-read for every scholar.


So in ancient times, if you have not read the Four Books, you are embarrassed to call yourself a scholar.


Now there are also “four books” in IT industry. If you haven’t read these four books, you probably won’t tell others that you are a “programmer”.





Today to introduce to you, IT “four books”, they are: “the beauty of code”, “the beauty of programming”, “the beauty of testing”, “the beauty of mathematics”.


Beauty of The Code

Beauty of Code is A 2009 book by Oram (A), Wilson (G), published by China Machine Press.





It mainly describes the field of computer system development. The beautiful code in each chapter is the result of the discovery of unique solutions, discoveries that come from the author’s foresight to look beyond established boundaries and identify overlooked requirements and find amazing solutions to problems.


This paper introduces the creativity and flexibility of human beings in a field of struggle: the field of computer system development. The beautiful code in each chapter is the result of the discovery of unique solutions, discoveries that come from the author’s foresight to look beyond established boundaries and identify overlooked requirements and find amazing solutions to problems.


The book consists of 33 chapters, with 33 authors, each contributing one chapter. Each author encapsulates his or her vision of “beautiful code” in one powerful chapter.

33 masters, each with their own unique understanding of the beauty of code, put together in a nutshell, it’s a feast for anyone who loves programming.

Although this book covers a wide range, it represents only a small fraction of what is happening in one of the most exciting areas of software development.

The Beauty of Programming

The Beauty of Programming is a book published by Publishing House of Electronics Industry in 2008. The author is a member of the Beauty of Programming group.





The book is a collection of about 60 algorithmic and programming topics, most of which have come up in past written tests, interviews, or been hotly debated by Microsoft employees. The author tries to start from various interesting problems in the book, and guide readers to find problems, analyze problems, solve problems, and find a better solution.


The content of this book is divided into the following parts:

The joy of games: Start with games and other interesting questions, break them down and summarize.

Magic of numbers: The process of programming is actually dealing with numbers and characters. This section is a collection of fun number-crunching problems.

Structure of the method: a collection of common strings, linked lists, queues, and tree operations on the subject.

Math fun: it lists some math problems that do not need to write specific programs to train readers’ ability of abstract thinking.




Most of the topics in the book provide detailed explanations. Each topic is followed by one or two extended questions for readers to delve into further.


The book also tells a variety of short stories about the interview, telling readers what kind of technical talent Microsoft needs, what kind of ability IT values, how to identify talent, and answering readers’ questions about the INTERVIEW, recruitment and career development of the IT industry.

Many of the topics in this book will appear in various written tests and interviews in the IT industry. But the deeper meaning of this book is to lead readers to think, and to share with them the joy of thinking and the beauty of programming.

The Beauty of Testing

Published by Mechanical Engineering Press, the collection of the wisdom and experience of the international top testing elite, its numerous cases, so that readers can feel the full range of testing experts on how to think about the test proposition, positioning, choice and trade-off.





The Beauty of Testing is a collection of 23 articles from 27 great testers and developers about beautiful testing tools, perfect testing processes, aesthetically pleasing testing tips, and testing ideas that highlight the beauty of creativity. Through these personal anecdotes, you’ll learn how they test a wide variety of products in beautiful ways — valuable lessons you can apply to your own projects.


Successful software depends as much on rigorous testing as it does on solid architecture and elegant code. But testing is not a routine process. It is a constant exploration of testing methods and the development of good ideas.

The Beauty of Mathematics

The Beauty of Mathematics was published by Posts and Telecommunications Press in May 2012. The author is Wu Jun.





In the book, advanced mathematical principles are explained more easily, so that non-specialist readers can appreciate the charm of mathematics. Through concrete examples, readers will be taught how to simplify problems, how to use mathematics to solve engineering problems, and how to think out of the box to think about innovation.


Mathematical beauty is the objective reflection of natural beauty and the core of scientific beauty. In short, mathematical beauty is the wonderful, regular, pleasurable beauty of mathematics.





Mathematics, as the language of science, has the characteristics of beauty shared by general language and art, that is, mathematics has its own beauty in its content, structure and method, which is called mathematical beauty.


The meaning of mathematical beauty is rich, such as the simplicity and unity of mathematical concepts, the coordination and symmetry of structural relations, the generality, typicality and universality of mathematical propositions and mathematical models, as well as the singularity in mathematics, and so on, are the concrete contents of mathematical beauty.


Its beauty is that it makes your mind sharp without being visible. Think about things, not so extreme, so single.





Although we are not the kind of artists who can bring visual and sensory beauty to others, for the work or things we love, we can also express them with an “artistic mentality”. We can integrate beauty into them and make them more artistic.


As programmers write code, it is like walking down an uncertain path, creating a solution that has never been created before. It’s a journey of self-discovery and an expression of individual intelligence, and that’s art!

To paraphrase an IT guru, “I cut code to improve functionality.”


Finally, I would like to conclude with a general statement about art: art originates from life and is higher than life.







That’s all I want to share with you in this column. If you have any good ideas, please let us know in the comments or in the comments. See you next time.

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