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Which is your favorite 70-80s computer book?

6 points by carlos ↗ HN
or should I say 8 bit book?. While reading the "Programmers don't read books" thread just come to my mind those really nice days where computer books where an extremely useful source of information. One of my favourites mentioned in the thread was: BASIC Computer games by David Ahl

Which book was your favourite?

29 comments

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bkovitz
I spent an unbelievable number of hours with William Barden's books on the Z-80. One of them completely fell apart. I loved that CPU. It was the first CPU I ever met.
michael_dorfman
The Ahl was a classic-- I had the DEC edition-- but I also have fond memories of Adam Osborne's "Introduction to Microcomputers".
vilaca
i had one that taught 4 (??) basic games on the c64 and spectrum. loved it. thinking about it, that's how i learnt to program. unfortunately i think i might have lent it to someone that didn't use it and didn't return it... :(
smoody
Two books if that's permitted:

1. "Smalltalk-80 The Languange and its Implementation" - They eventually dropped the implementation chapters from the book, but you can still get the original edition used on Amazon if you're curious as to how Smalltalk was implemented (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0201113716/ref=dp_olp...). I'm surprised at how cheap they are, as the book is considered a collector's item.

2. "Computer Lib" by Ted Nelson (http://www.digibarn.com/collections/books/computer-lib/)

And, as a bonus, the TRS-80 Model I Users Manual. I still remember the first "program" the book taught me:

10 PRINT "HEY MA, IT WORKS!"

20 END

dpapathanasiou
"Machine language for the Commodore 64" by Jim Butterfield
xenoterracide
I'm too young to play... :(
donal
I fall into some grey area...

All I can remember is waiting for my dad to bring home the latest "3-2-1 Contact" so that I could look at the basic program that was in it. Then my dad broke the computer and it wasn't until 10+ years later that I was in a C programming class in college.

I kinda skipped all the good stuff, so even with an early start I'm playing catchup.

jkush
It doesn't mean you had to be alive or capable of reading in the 70's or 70's; have you read anything you liked that was published then?
DanHulton
Well books maybe not, but I just LOVED reading old ANTIC magazines.
comatose_kid
Amiga hardware reference manual (Addison Wesley), BYTE magazines, Norton's guide to 8086 assembly language
brlewis
SICP, of course. Is this a trick question?

Oh, 8-bit. The 6809E reference manual. Motorola sent it to me for free when I wrote asking where I could buy it.

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jgrahamc
BBC Micro Advanced Users Guide

Programming the Z80, Rodnay Zacks

jbum
"Programming Pearls" by Jon Bentley.
mechanical_fish
"Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" by Steven Levy.

It's not technical, but it is very much about computers.

mironathetin
Kernighan Ritchie: The C Programming Language.

I had a copy lying near my unix lab computer. It must have been around 85 and I hated it back then (it was a very bad german translation).

4 weeks ago I grabbed an old copy from our library (this time the american 2nd edition) and now I appreciate how well this book is written.

If you have some time, read it. Its a real pleasure!

dougfort
Leo Brodie's 'Starting Forth'. Just a great book on how to think about factoring a program.
jksmith
Damn straight. His "Thinking Forth" also. Abrash's "Zen of Assembly" was also another memorable book.
renshaw
"The Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder.
dmb
I would have to agree; I was surprised how entertaining this book was when read it a few weeks ago after it was mentioned on DadHacker.
softbuilder
It's kind of an out-lier but Engines of Creation. Not strictly about computers, but it had the first description of hypertext that I had seen.

If we really have to go 8-bit then the TI-BASIC manual I had for my 99/4A. I had no secondary storage, so I'd type in 100 lines of code and run it. Then retype it all and make some changes and run it again. And then have to turn the damned thing off (losing everything) because my parents wanted to use the TV. Bastards.

jfoutz
I still use SICP. K&R is a great too. I didn't get them till the 90's though.

The book I used the most in the 80's was Chaos by James Gleick. I spent months coding up his mathematical models in basic on my 286. Good times.

fogus
"Programmer's Guide to the 1802". My initial answer was "Godel, Escher, Bach", but I suppose that is only tangentially a computer book. -m
landondyer
Dang, choices, choices. K&R, of course. Followed closely by _Software Tools_, and Lion's Notes on V6 Unix.
neilk
There's SICP, and MMM, but for me those are circa 90s-00s books.

In the 80s I was into Beagle Brothers one-liners.