The Fugue

If ever you find yourself wanting to do some network programming in C, C++, or any other language that uses the socket paradigm, you must be careful. You are only inches from the edge of the precipice of insanity.

Luckily, some guy who calls himself Beej wrote a fantastic guide to network programming. He takes you by the hand and leads you gently away from the precipice. His guide is fun and easy to grok, but doesn’t water the topic down. It’s a fine piece of writing.

Even if you’re writing Ruby network code, for example, which streamlines much of the insanity (thanks to exceptions and some nice OO abstractions like TCPServer), the socket concepts you will gain from at least skimming this guide will be a huge help.