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Usborne 1980s Computer Books

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Re: Usborne 1980s Computer Books

#41

Post by pjbk »

AndrewStephens wrote: post #19

These were some of the most influential books of my youth, teaching a generation of young kids quite advanced topics. I still picture cartoon robots putting numbers in boxes whenever I write code involving pointers. But my favourite[0] was Write Your Own Adventure Programs, which taught data driven programming and text parsing. [0] https://sheep.horse/2017/2/usborne_computer_books.html

I copied the code from the book and then did my own mods. I also ended up rewriting the engine with 6502 assembly macros. That made me realize, and appreciate, high level languages that had first order functions and very different approaches to computing and data structures, in contrast with BASIC arrays, gotos and gosubs. At the same time I was learning to program in Logo, which, without being aware of, introduced me to the world of Lispy languages and what computing really is. That tainted me a bit and left me a bit frustrated when I moved on to C and, much later in the 90s, to C++.

Re: Usborne 1980s Computer Books

#42

Post by egypturnash »

lelanthran wrote: post #40
egypturnash wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[picture of Tips Kitty] Don't forget! Every time you see " ⦙ " in the listing, press the [Tab] key on your keyboard. See page 23 to learn why this is important. And page 23 teaches you about significant whitespace, and how to configure several text editors that a kid's likely to have available to actually show it like that. Heck, I use Panic's Nova for my text editing and it does that out of the box with no configura…

> [picture of Tips Kitty] Don't forget! Every time you see " ⦙ " in the listing, press the [Tab] key on your keyboard. See page 23 to learn why this is important. I don't think you actually used those books :-/ No one linearly writes code, from the start of the file to the end; they edit it. They move blocks around if they missed a page, they navigate around putting in missing if statements and removing incorrectly-a…

I never used the Usborne books because I was a US kid but I sure typed in a lot of stuff from books and magazines for my c64, often while modifying it on the fly. And dealing with accidentally skipped pages. And went on to learn assembly language.

Re: Usborne 1980s Computer Books

#43

Post by sien »

PaulRobinson wrote: post #27

The "Practice your BASIC" book was in my school library, and in the spring of 1989, I was able to take said book to the computer room at lunch breaks and for a donation of 40p to charity (Cafod, it was a Catholic school), I could do what I wanted on the computers. I learned to code. Most of the other kids played games. That book started a remarkable journey. By 1996 I was at University studying Software Engineering,…

Check out 'Coding for Beginners Using Python' by Osborne.

Also have a look at 'Coding Projects in Python' by DK books.

Both these books are excellent and would enable a smart and determined 11 year old to learn to code.

To be honest these books teach coding in a way that is much easier than it was in your day. You can also jump on many, many websites and teach yourself how to code.

You're also an exception. Many, many kids read those old Osborne books and only a very tiny fraction like yourself became coders and an even smaller fraction became as successful as yourself.

Re: Usborne 1980s Computer Books

#44

Post by wazoox »

wazoox wrote: post #30

The page is redirected to https://usborne.com/fr/books/computer-and-coding-books which is 404, and there is no way around it. That's quite maddening when a website does this kind of things.

Apparently people aren't aware that not everybody lives in the US, but some may want to see the US page of the website anyway. Auto-redirecting people to the local version is incredibly stupid, particularly when it ends in a 404.

Re: Usborne 1980s Computer Books

#45

Post by Retr0id »

redwall_hp wrote: post #5

These are actually how I first learned to program, but around 2001-2002, when I was about ten years old. I found a couple of them at the library, and that's when I realized it was something you could just learn...but lacked a BASIC interpreter. I ended up also finding a No Starch Press book on JavaScript, and porting the BASIC listings to ye olde pre-Node JavaScript as my first foray into programming. Then I also got…

It was similar for me, a little later in the '00s. I didn't have access to any computers at the time, BASIC interpreter or otherwise. Some years later I got access to Visual Basic on the family computer which unfortunately had very little in common!

Re: Usborne 1980s Computer Books

#46

Post by antod »

flir wrote: post #6
redwall_hp wrote: post #5

These are actually how I first learned to program, but around 2001-2002, when I was about ten years old. I found a couple of them at the library, and that's when I realized it was something you could just learn...but lacked a BASIC interpreter. I ended up also finding a No Starch Press book on JavaScript, and porting the BASIC listings to ye olde pre-Node JavaScript as my first foray into programming. Then I also got…

If my school's library had had Machine Code for Beginners, my career might have been very different. (I'm actually a bit annoyed; I didn't know that existed). I definitely remember Creepy, Battle and Space.

Same with me. As a 12yr old I failed learning Z80 on my spectrum with the one book I could find. I had a bunch of other Usborne BASIC books, but their machine code book(s) would've been the link I needed to bridge the gap to where I could understand other material.

Re: Usborne 1980s Computer Books

#47

Post by antod »

polpo wrote: post #22

Stumbling on the Usborne "Introduction to Computer Programming - Basic for Beginners" book in the library bookmobile that came to my school was probably the first domino that set off the rest of my life in computing. I owe a lot to that book. When I had the book checked out my family didn't have a computer at home so I had to imagine what it'd be like to do the things in my head until I managed to get some time in th…

I also had one of their intro books before having a computer available. But it had a paper based simulator of the program counter and variables so you could run through without a computer (I was saving up for one though, but that took years).

Re: Usborne 1980s Computer Books

#48

Post by barrkel »

I learned about machine code and two's complement from the Machine Code for Beginners book. It gave me a head start in college 10 years later. With it, I got my Amstrad CPC 464 to run a loop maybe 100 faster than BASIC, and I was enlightened.

The Usborne books were the single strongest teacher I had getting into coding. I never owned any; I relied on the library.

In the earliest days, I didn't have a computer either. I'd read an Usborne book, then hang around computer stores poking at the 4+ years out of date Commodore 64s and CPC 464s and even the Acorn Archimedes (fanciest most capable BASIC), putting what I learned into practice. I'd even practice on VTech devices with two monochrome LCD lines of text, in toy shops, to get my fix.

I don't think I'd be where I am today without those books.

Re: Usborne 1980s Computer Books

#49

Post by stephen_g »

I got handed down some of these from somebody in grade three or four at school (I think they had belonged to one of my teacher's sons and since she knew I was into computers, she gave them to my mum for me to have). This was around 1999-2000 kind of time so they were a bit out of date, but it was a good learning experience trying to port some of the programs into QBasic!

I was fascinated with these and read them many times cover to cover over the years. Practical Things to Do with your Microcomputer was always my favourite, as well as the robotics one. I also found the machine code one interesting but never really grasped it until later.

I think the ideas in them (as well as some other computer books and magazines I had) really helped steer my interests from just being interested in computers and software to being more interested in hardware and embedded systems, which is where I work today. These were very important in hindsight in shaping my interests!

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