[HN Gopher] Quirky computing books
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Quirky computing books
Author : llvm
Score : 104 points
Date : 2022-08-13 18:53 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| teddyh wrote:
| http://worrydream.com/AlligatorEggs/
| jimmaswell wrote:
| Comparatively mainstream but I enjoyed reading "Windows 98 For
| Dummies" front to back as a kid. It really kickstarted my
| computer skills.
| geoffeg wrote:
| I think one of the first "quirky" computer books I can remember
| is a user manual for the Epson MX-80 dot matrix printer from the
| 1980s. It was written in a much more relaxed, personable style
| than almost any other computer books of the time.
| https://www.apple.asimov.net/documentation/hardware/printers...
| jeffwass wrote:
| The page isn't loading right now for me.
|
| But if it's the same manual I had for that same printer, it was
| hysterical. For example at one point they showed how to
| generate arbitrary graphics for the 7 (I think) pin head by
| encoding as binary. Then just before the next section the
| manual said something like "now before you run off to forge a
| copy of the Mona Lisa..."
| geoffeg wrote:
| That's the one. It was full of those fun little notes. A nice
| balance of humor without going over the top. Helped me figure
| out how to use all of the features of the printer.
| rufius wrote:
| Both of those books by Henderson are great. I did my senior year
| thesis on a LispKit implementation.
| tpmx wrote:
| One more quirky computing book:
|
| "Elementary Basic, as chronicled by John H. Watson" (1982)
|
| https://archive.org/details/elementarybasica00ledg/mode/2up
|
| https://archive.org/details/elementarybasica0000unse/mode/2u...
|
| (They're amongst the archive.org books that need to be
| "borrowed", unfortunately. First few pages including the index
| can be browsed freely though.)
| bastawhiz wrote:
| The book which taught me to "really" program is certainly the
| quirkiest that I've ever read. "Learn to Program with Visual
| Basic 6" [0]
|
| My dad purchased it for me when I was nine. He didn't know how to
| program, but he took a stab in the dark. I diligently read
| through the whole book and worked through all of the lessons.
| It's written in a conversational, narrative style about a college
| course where the students produce a piece of software for a china
| shop.
|
| I think you'd be hard-pressed to actually derive much value from
| this book unless you're keen to learn an antiquated version of
| Visual Basic and have the patience for a book targeted at
| absolute beginners, but it's definitely quirky. And for me, holds
| a lot of sentimental value.
|
| [0] https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Program-Visual-
| Basic-6/dp/19027...
| zzzbra wrote:
| we love a good Fogus post, don't we folks?
| tuukkah wrote:
| "Computer Lib / Dream Machines" self-published by Ted Nelson in
| 1974
|
| _" the epic of the computer revolution, the bible of the hacker
| dream. [Nelson] was stubborn enough to publish it when no one
| else seemed to think it was a good idea."_
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Lib/Dream_Machines
| keepquestioning wrote:
| I wonder what happened to _why
| teddyh wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22291550
| westoncb wrote:
| My favorite quirky computing book was something I found in the
| library by chance at my university when I should've been
| attending a Principles of Programming Languages course.
|
| We'd been learning Prolog in class for the past two weeks but I'm
| terrible at learning from lectures, so eventually I decided it'd
| be a better use of my time to locate a book I could teach myself
| from rather than doodling in class.
|
| IIRC it hadn't been checked out since the 80's: it was a slim
| volume on Prolog with an Alice in Wonderland theme. I can't
| remember the title or anything, but it was an enjoyable read, and
| effective: I still hadn't written any Prolog at the time of the
| exam--which I remember was 4 days out at the time I picked up the
| book-- but I understood it well enough by then to solve all the
| problems without flaw including some extra credit challenge
| problem :)
|
| Has anyone else come across this book?
| lhoff wrote:
| Have you checked Libgen sorted by year[0]. There are several
| Prolog books from the 80s. Maybe the one you looking for is
| there.
|
| [0]http://libgen.is/search.php?&req=Prolog&phrase=1&view=simple
| ...
| westoncb wrote:
| I couldn't find any title that stood out as a likely
| candidate.
|
| But I did come across this gem which I'm browsing now lol:
| "Prolog Versus You: An Introduction to Logic Programming"
| 7thaccount wrote:
| There is an "adventures in prolog" book with a squirrel on the
| cover iirc.
|
| The book revolves around teaching prolog by showing you how to
| make text adventure games. It is pretty neat.
| homarp wrote:
| would it be this one ?
| https://books.google.es/books?id=tpaeeqefEG4C&pg=PA363&lpg=P...
|
| Computers in Education: Prolog as a Cognitive Tool
|
| page 368 has a few stuff around "Alice in Wonderland"
| westoncb wrote:
| That looks like a pretty cool book.
|
| It is not the one I used though: the entire book was Alice in
| Wonderland themed.
| kabdib wrote:
| One of my early favorites was Donald Alcock's _Illustrating
| BASIC_
|
| https://books.google.com/books/about/Illustrating_BASIC.html...
|
| It's entirely hand-lettered. The author's afterword remarks that
| an attentive reader will notice the shakier lettering toward the
| end of the book.
|
| He wrote a couple other books on programming (I think he did
| Illustrating Pascal). It's a quirky approach, but very friendly
| and unintimidating compared to vanilla textbooks.
| Turing_Machine wrote:
| Why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby (and pretty much anything else by
| _why)
|
| Let's Talk Lisp, by Laurent Siklossy
|
| Robots On Your Doorstep, by Nels Winkless and Iben Browning
| the_only_law wrote:
| Very cool, first HN post in a while that I think I'll favorite.
|
| I love random books about obscure or niche technical subjects,
| but I usually only find them accidentally.
| bitwize wrote:
| No __why 's Poignant Guide to Ruby_? That's like, maximum quirk.
| Zooey Deschanel can pose with that book in her hands and not look
| out of character.
| fogus wrote:
| This is an ongoing project so there are many in my personal
| library that need coverage. That said, _why's guide is probably
| too well known for this list.
| benjaminpv wrote:
| It's not as high-minded as the examples in the link, but as a kid
| I really enjoyed Woody Leonhard's "Mother of All..." books about
| Windows (the 3.1 and 95 ones, specifically).
|
| Woody introduced a series of characters, each with their own
| personality & level of familiarity with Windows itself, then used
| them in asides to explain things. The great thing about those
| books (and something I seldom see anymore) is that they were
| really great about riding the line between 'the power button is
| the button you press to turn the computer on' and 'the A20 gate
| defines when low memory etc. etc. etc.'
|
| Having the characters gave a great way to get super-deep into
| minutiae but let the reader know they could skip if it didn't
| interest them, plus their interactions with each other were
| really fun.
|
| Also, and I'm sure most people know him already, I always really
| loved how David Pogue would put weird little stories or dialog in
| the examples he'd give when demonstrating a program. Like I think
| Macs for Dummies had a bit where his Word examples had a really
| flowery story about a guy riding a rollercoaster or something.
| Really influenced me, whenever I create a demo UI or example page
| I try not to use boring "This is example text" or "Lorem ipsum."
| chris_wot wrote:
| I'm surprised he hadn't added "Land of Lisp".
| 7thaccount wrote:
| Yeah, LoL was an interesting experience. I could write shorter
| Python versions of most of the lisp code in the book, but it
| was an enjoyable introduction.
| epolanski wrote:
| If I recall correctly, the common lisp community doesn't like
| nor recommend the book at all.
|
| I remember going through the first 6 chapters and often going
| on the CommonLisp channel on free node to ask questions and
| eventually found out it was either wrong or misleading in
| many of the fundamentals. I tried to keep going through it
| but eventually gave up and picked the much better practical
| common lisp.
| ephaeton wrote:
| Personally, I associate LoL with "Let Over Lambda", but
| that's definitely not quirky :)
| jhbadger wrote:
| I think (based on the books he lists), he's not talking about
| books with a quirky _presentation_ (like "Land of Lisp" or
| "Learn You a Haskell For Great Good") but rather a quirky
| _topic_. Expert systems are already a bit of a niche topic
| these days (not the trendy part of AI) but writing expert
| systems in FORTH of all things...
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