> Of particular interest is Henderson’s paper “Purely Functional Operating Systems” which was difficult to find the last I checked.
Find it here: https://eighty-twenty.org/2022/06/23/henderson-functional-op...
Quirky computing books
81–90 of 121 posts
Re: Quirky computing books
#82If you are into quirky books, take a look at http://t3x.org
For example: Scheme 9 from Empty Space (http://t3x.org/s9book/), LISP from Nothing (http://t3x.org/lfn/), but also Write Your Own Compiler (http://t3x.org/t3x/book.html).
Re: Quirky computing books
#83My list: - The Plenitude - Rich Gold Not a computing book with code but it taught me a lot about what can be done with computers, and that they are marvelous machines. - Architecture of Symbolic Computers - Kogge An ode to what could have been if RISC and x86 hadn't steamrolled the landscape. - Thinking Forth - Leo Brodie Forth is wild, this book is wild, it's really a different world. After multiple attempts over 25…
> All Mathematica Guidebooks - Michael Trott > Mathematica is wild, these books are wild, they are old but still oh so inspiring. Great recommendation. Are these so old? I skimmed through [1] and they seem still on print and relevant? What is other inspiring Mathematica literature? I have been considering Mathematica to cover some of the gaps Julia (and R or Python have). Particularly in the symbolics camp [2]. It's…
I love this book, reading it right now:
Power Programming Mathematica: The Kernel.
It's (legally) free, you can find PDFs.
Bonus: I love weird books covers. This one is charming. Am I the only one that notices that the barbell is bending upwards?
Re: Quirky computing books
#84No _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.
_why's writing isn't uniquely quirky so much as it's an average day in Portland.
Re: Quirky computing books
#85I would think "The Unix-Haters Handbook" certainly qualifies: https://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf
And if you don't read the entire book (that's fine, lots of its criticism was valid but now dated so it's of historical value)
at least read the excellent anti-preface by Ritchie. It's hilarious.
Re: Quirky computing books
#86I’m genuinely surprised no one has mentioned Programming Perl by Larry Wall et al. (AKA The Camel Book)!
It’s such a fun and quirky book on so many levels and I really believe it was a major factor in setting the tone of the entire Perl community.
Re: Quirky computing books
#87Microsoft Access manuals from the very first version.
There were 5 books in the box, a complete guide to RDBMS and SQL and so on. There I learned about normalization.
Re: Quirky computing books
#88The 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 produ…
Lovely book, thanks for sharing. I may use it as an example to follow in the future if I write a beginner’s book
Re: Quirky computing books
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
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.
Re: Quirky computing books
#90Could add The Systems Bible (aka Systemantics ) by John Gall. It certainly qualifies as quirky - I think I saw it described somewhere as the book that system designers read under a sheet with a torch at night to avoid being seen with it.
There's also a Twitter bot quoting that book: https://twitter.com/SysQuotes
Which I hope someone will restart eventually :D