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I have 1785 favorited submissions over the 5 years since I found the feature; I really need to capture all of them and their links, would be a shame to lose all of that information if HN goes away.
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...
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.
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.
I'm interested to know more here. I don't think of the book as a reference, but it was certainly fun to read and helped spark my interest in common lisp.
To be fair, I had similar experiences with 4-5 other lisp books I read. For the kinds of uses I have, I think Python is just more convenient. If I actually needed to write some compiler or grammar processing app or something like that, I'd bet Lisp could win, but I don't have those needs at present. It was a great learning experience though.
The book is good if you realize what it is -- it's a book by somebody relatively new to LISP who is excited by it and wants to share his enthusiasm with others. People who are more experienced LISP programmers may dislike it because the author has a rather idiosyncratic coding style that doesn't conform to accepted best practices in the LISP community.
It's been awhile since I've read it, but I seem to recall that Barski had been coding in Lisp for many years before publishing the book. Also keep in mind that many in the community seem to like the book and the exposure it gave to the language. I think the lisp alien is even the logo of the lisp subreddit.
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 :)
Following the numbered citation, I think this is the table of contents from a different book, originally published in Finnish by Jaak Henno, which would have an English title something like “It is simple with Prolog!”. He also seems to have published some of the content separately under the title “Prolog and Olympic Gods”.
That looks like a nice book, but definitely not it (I may read the datalog bits though—thanks!).
The one in the library was ~200 pages, solely on prolog, Alice in Wonderland not only on the cover art, but constantly used throughout the writing itself.
How long ago did you check it out? If it was recent enough, then the library you checked it out from would have record of it. I'd love to know what the book was!
I've searched and searched and can't find any Prolog book that matches this description. Hopefully you're able to find or remember it.
Unfortunately it’s been about a decade and the library is in another state from where I now live. I did another round of searching myself and couldn’t turn anything up either :/
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.
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...
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…”
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.
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."
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.
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.
I came here to ask if anyone could remember this weird handlettered book on BASIC which illustrated all kinds of concepts including linked lists using arrays of boxes and arrows. I believe this must have been it unless there’s another book that was like this. I vividly remember as a kid reading all these different books about computers and programming. I found that I had to read a bunch of books in order to find the right mix of explanations that gelled in my mind. Instead of reading one or two books on BASIC and getting frustrated, I probably read a dozen. This one really appealed to my visual brain.
The other commenter said that it's a joy to read and that's certainly true. If you're interested in software folk tales and such, it's worth getting.
I still see it recommended as a practical book however and indeed the book bills itself as "the second book you need on C", the book that will cover topics that other C books don't explain or explain poorly. But it's much too outdated to serve that purpose. In practice it means chapters discussing differences between K&R C and ANSI C and deep-dives into details of SunOS and MS-DOS compilers.
Some of the material has become misleading because the C language has evolved. For example, there's a lot of discussion about pointers and arrays, as can be expected. But there's no mention of strict aliasing and pointer provenance (these rules existed in C89, but compilers at the time didn't exploit them yet for optimization). And of course no variable-length arrays (introduced in C99). So you're not going to learn what you need to know in today's world.
The book also has almost no discussion about safety. The Morris worm is mentioned, but just as a piece of historical trivia. Browsing it now, I don't even find any discussion about buffer overflows.
After going to college for journalism and graphic design in the early 90s, I decided to become a programmer, despite not having done it since I was in grade school (though, I was pretty hot shit on my TRS-80). My first book on the topic was, in retrospect, pretty crazy, but I've been a tech professional for 25+ years now, so it must have been useful. I'm speaking of The Cartoon Guide to Computers [1][2]. If there's a more quirky (but useful!) computing book than that, I'd be pretty surprised.
I remember specifically learning about flip-flops from the book, and wondering what sort of crazy magical physics made it work. It took me 20 years to finally learn it simply has to do with the timing of the electrical signal as it propagates around the gates [3].
Re-reading it again now, it's actually a surprisingly thorough overview of the history and fundamentals of computer science. I had forgotten.
While it is written in an adolescent confrontational style that doesn’t help the author’s cause, it is otherwise a very thorough introduction to Lisp macro programming. The last chapter is about writing a Forth compiler in Lisp. Great stuff.
While at the library a while ago, I ran into a book on VRML (the Virtual Reality Modeling Language from the ‘90s). That was a doozy.
It looked like they hadn’t bought any new programming books in a while either; there didn’t seem to be any newer than about 2010. They also had a book on programming with Python on Symbian (Nokia’s pre-iPhone/Android smartphone OS)!
Certainly a different kind of quirky, but Knuth's The TeXbook is a very fun read. I regret I don't have more experience with manuals, thanks to this one.
I see a few mentions of beginner-level books that have struck a chord with people here and I empathise, as by far the computer book with the most formative impact on me was the Macintosh Bible 4th ed.
Certainly quirky, it was also one of the best attempts to capture why the Mac was different, why UX mattered, and codified for a young me a certain way of thinking about apps just as much as the Hacker Dictionary did for an earlier era.
120 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 231 ms ] threadI love random books about obscure or niche technical subjects, but I usually only find them accidentally.
I have 1785 favorited submissions over the 5 years since I found the feature; I really need to capture all of them and their links, would be a shame to lose all of that information if HN goes away.
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.
Great language, toxic community.
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?
[0]http://libgen.is/search.php?&req=Prolog&phrase=1&view=simple...
But I did come across this gem which I'm browsing now lol: "Prolog Versus You: An Introduction to Logic Programming"
The book revolves around teaching prolog by showing you how to make text adventure games. It is pretty neat.
Computers in Education: Prolog as a Cognitive Tool
page 368 has a few stuff around "Alice in Wonderland"
It is not the one I used though: the entire book was Alice in Wonderland themed.
http://staff.ttu.ee/~jaak.henno/publicat.htm
http://webdam.inria.fr/Alice/
The one in the library was ~200 pages, solely on prolog, Alice in Wonderland not only on the cover art, but constantly used throughout the writing itself.
I've searched and searched and can't find any Prolog book that matches this description. Hopefully you're able to find or remember it.
Let's Talk Lisp, by Laurent Siklóssy
Robots On Your Doorstep, by Nels Winkless and Iben Browning
But if the idea is both quirky and rare/obscure, I can understand why¬_why.
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…”
"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.)
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."
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...
"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
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.
https://archive.org/details/cambridge-university-press-illus...
Entertaining and informative. Highly recommended.
Just because there is more unnecessary cruft and complexity in today's systems and tools does not mean the fundamentals/techniques are invalidated.
I still see it recommended as a practical book however and indeed the book bills itself as "the second book you need on C", the book that will cover topics that other C books don't explain or explain poorly. But it's much too outdated to serve that purpose. In practice it means chapters discussing differences between K&R C and ANSI C and deep-dives into details of SunOS and MS-DOS compilers.
Some of the material has become misleading because the C language has evolved. For example, there's a lot of discussion about pointers and arrays, as can be expected. But there's no mention of strict aliasing and pointer provenance (these rules existed in C89, but compilers at the time didn't exploit them yet for optimization). And of course no variable-length arrays (introduced in C99). So you're not going to learn what you need to know in today's world.
The book also has almost no discussion about safety. The Morris worm is mentioned, but just as a piece of historical trivia. Browsing it now, I don't even find any discussion about buffer overflows.
I've been feeling nostalgic lately and playing around with Turbo C in DOSBox, so I'll definitely check it out.
[0] https://archive.org/details/1.-expert-c-programming-deep-c-s...
This was one of the required books in Leslie Kaelbling's intro AI or robotics courses.
The preview on Amazon might cut a little too early before (IIRC) some seemingly complex behavior emerging from very simple mechanics really clicks.
https://natureofcode.com/book/
I remember specifically learning about flip-flops from the book, and wondering what sort of crazy magical physics made it work. It took me 20 years to finally learn it simply has to do with the timing of the electrical signal as it propagates around the gates [3].
Re-reading it again now, it's actually a surprisingly thorough overview of the history and fundamentals of computer science. I had forgotten.
1. http://www.larrygonick.com/titles/science/the-cartoon-guide-...
2. https://archive.org/details/TheCartoonGuideToComputerScience
3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip-flop_(electronics)
I'll add that really ALL of his 'Cartoon' books are worth a read.
Definitely, or at least every one of them I've seen.
The Little Schemer series
Land of Lisp
Why’s Poignant Guide to Ruby
While it is written in an adolescent confrontational style that doesn’t help the author’s cause, it is otherwise a very thorough introduction to Lisp macro programming. The last chapter is about writing a Forth compiler in Lisp. Great stuff.
It looked like they hadn’t bought any new programming books in a while either; there didn’t seem to be any newer than about 2010. They also had a book on programming with Python on Symbian (Nokia’s pre-iPhone/Android smartphone OS)!
I don't know if Carlton Egremont III is a real person, but this book, at the time, tweaked all the noses.
Certainly quirky, it was also one of the best attempts to capture why the Mac was different, why UX mattered, and codified for a young me a certain way of thinking about apps just as much as the Hacker Dictionary did for an earlier era.
The personality of its editor, Arthur Naiman, also shone through. I was sad to see when looking him up that he died in 2019. Short obituary here: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sfgate/name/arthur-naim...
https://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf
at least read the excellent anti-preface by Ritchie. It's hilarious.