Digital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

Yes, it is.
https://archive.org/details/BuildingAWebSiteForDummies4thEdition/mode/2up

Goin thru
https://archive.org/details/folkscanomy_computer?and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22collection%22

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

I love Indian tech books. Fancy art? Whitespace? Those are expensive waste of paper. NO, dense tech diagrams and running code. No page intentionally left blank.

https://archive.org/details/c-in-depth-2nd-ed.-srivastava.pdf/mode/2up

Contrast with this shit. "Why use functions?"
https://archive.org/details/beginners-step-by-step-coding-course-learn-computer-programming-the-easy-way-uk-edition/page/n49/mode/2up

Oh, you say picking on a Scratch book for kids is unfair? BUT when I was a kid we learned from Ahl's books. Your kids are weak.
#programming

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18
The Bastard Operator From Hell: The Complete Edition
by Simon Travaglia
https://archive.org/details/twatson52_me_Bofh/page/n7/mode/2up
#sysadmin
The Bastard Operator From Hell: The Complete Edition : Simon Travaglia : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

This PDF contains every Bastard Operator From Hell (BOFH) story written by Simon Travaglia before its reintroduction at The Register.

Internet Archive
Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

Design of the UNIX Operating System
by Maurice J. Bach
https://archive.org/details/DesignUNIXOperatingSystem/

Hardware
Kernel
sh who a.out date wc grep ed vi ld as comp cpp nroff

WTF is comp? It's not in the index, nor any man page I know.

#unix #ed

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄

Chaos & Cyber Culture by Timothy Leary
With guest appearances by:
👉 William Gibson
👉 Winona Ryder
👉 William S. Burroughs
👉 David Byrne

https://archive.org/details/ChaosAndCyberCulture/mode/2up

Ah, the four horsemen of the cyber apocalypse! … not.

I'm guessing from the pop star list, and a quick flip-thru, it's pretty commercial trash, reheated '60s shit. I never saw it in 1994, and I was the most technical boy in town, as the has-been said.

#cyber #cyberpunk #drugs

Jun 18 at 4:30amWeb
Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

The only Bible I believe in.
https://archive.org/details/mac_MacWorld_Mac_OS_X_Leopard_Bible_2008_native/mode/2up

(the Tiger volume is No Borrow, fuckhead publishers)
#macos

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

Structured Programming
by O.-J. Dahl, E. W. Dijkstra, C. A. R. Hoare
https://archive.org/details/Structured_Programming__Dahl_Dijkstra_Hoare/page/n1/mode/2up
#programming

I've read EWD's Discipline of Programming, which I assume contains a lot of this but refined? I don't always agree with EWD but he was worth "arguing" with.

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18
1. Doorstop
2. Throw it in the trash
3-1001… I'm stumped?
#commodore
Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

The best of the best computer magazine of all time:
https://archive.org/search?query=%22best+of+creative+computing%22&sort=title
#programming #retrocomputing #basic

If you're gonna read anything I link to, *read these*. Type in some programs with a BASIC like
http://www.nicholson.com/rhn/basic/

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

Oh, this is super useful. I had this book, but samizdat photocopies in a binder. Getting any non-German docs for GFA was a nightmare back then.

Also gives me a real Traveller vibe.

https://archive.org/details/GFA_BASIC_Book/mode/2up
#retrocomputing #atari #basic

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18
Or for old-timey BASIC, you can still have style:
https://archive.org/details/The_Little_Book_Of_BASIC_Style_by_John_Nevison/
#retrocomputing #basic
Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

Just as old:
Smalltalk-80: Bits of History
https://archive.org/details/Bits_Of_History_Glenn_Krasner/mode/2up
#retrocomputing #smalltalk

Slightly less shitty scan of the cover below.

The cover is really just awful. Like, I think less of Smalltalk (which I have professionally programmed in) because of this cover. The more I look the worse it gets.

GFA, made basically solo by Frank, went with all black & text, and it still looks awesome. This, made by a $1B+ corporation, tried to do graphics but couldn't hire a skilled chimp.

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18
I despise the "OS" & company, but respect the man.
https://archive.org/details/The_Peter_Norton_Programmers_Guide_IBM-PC/mode/2up
#retrocomputing #hahaIBMisRetroNow #ohshit #ibmpc
Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

And Richard Bartle's Designing Virtual Worlds!
https://archive.org/details/designing-virtual-worlds/

Fantastic textbook on MUDs, early VR, social management of MMOs.
#mud #lambdamoo #mmo #vr

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18
Programming Tricks & Skills
Professional tips and hints for better program writing
https://archive.org/details/programming-tricks-and-skills/mode/1up
#retrocomputing #basic
Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java was a really good book… in the web site and 1st ed. It became a giant bloated corpo enterprise shit thing by even 2nd ed, later ones were split up into two+ fat volumes and had CDROMs and ruined everything good in it.

https://archive.org/details/Eckel_B._-_Thinking_in_Java_r.1.0a/page/n15/mode/2up

#java #programming

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

Ugh now a glut of "funny" Mac books. All "how to set your wallpaper", "run this RADICAL WOW CRAZY init mod!", buncha shit. No programming. I hated then that Mac didn't ship with any dev tools. Apple got better about that, with Hypercard, then much worse, but it's still a giant cliff face learning curve from the few scripting interpreters still installed, to fucking Xcode fuck Swift.

https://archive.org/details/mac_VooDoo_Mac_1994_7.5/

https://archive.org/details/mac_Totally_Rad_Mac_Programs_2nd_Edition_1994/

https://archive.org/details/mac_This_Mac_is_MINE_1992/mode/2up

#retrocomputing #mac

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

I was gonna skip all the old Mac books, but: Berkeley Breathed illustrated this.

Also like the last one, this guy gonna fuck his computer, and dog wants not to be there.

https://archive.org/details/mac_The_Macintosh_Companion_1991/
#retrocomputing #mac

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

Apple ][ Redbook
https://archive.org/details/redbook/mode/2up

Beagle Bros Big Tip Book
https://archive.org/details/Beagle_Bros-The_Big_Tip_Book_OCR/
#retrocomputing #appleii

In case you need to get elbow-deep in the guts of Apple ][ programming.

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

The cover here is great, but giving false advertising. No Apple ][ game looked that good, were not in cabinets (that's Atari.), and pretty women in flimsy dresses were not going to be enthralled by your space videogame.

https://archive.org/details/Apple_Graphics_Arcade_Game_Design

Also storybooks with type-ins that don't do much.
https://archive.org/details/The_Science_Fiction_Computer_Storybook
https://archive.org/details/The_Mystery_and_Adventure_Computer_Storybook

#retrocomputing #appleii #basic

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

The best industrial metal album of 1985, PRIMO FÜZETEK's HARDVER.

https://archive.org/details/Primo_Fuzetek_Hardver_1985_COSY_Microkey_HU/mode/2up

#retrocomputing

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

You should understand, the stories about Atari's sex & drugs culture were, if anything, understated. And that carried over to the users.

https://archive.org/details/ataribooks-how-to-program-your-atari-in-6502-language

https://archive.org/details/ataribooks-designs-from-your-mind-with-atari-graphics

https://archive.org/details/ataribooks-forth-on-the-atari-learning-by-using

https://archive.org/details/ataribooks-dr-wackos-guide-to-creating-arcade-games

#retrocomputing #atari

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

Or other unfortunate covers, maybe don't put "Surfin" coming out of a guy's butt.

https://archive.org/details/first-steps-amiga-surfin-jeacle-karl
#retrocomputing #amiga

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

Tales of the Marvelous Machine
https://archive.org/details/Tales_of_The_Marvelous_Machine/mode/2up
#retrocomputing #scienceFiction

Looks like most of the Creative Computing SF stories. Tended towards slightly existential horror.

I love that it has an index by length in words.

Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18
I'm fine with computers coming to life through networking, having emotions, or doing a Demon Seed to impregnate Humans. But I will never believe for one fucking second that someone wrote a program for a new computer, that ran the first time. Why not have a goddamned Jinn pop out and offer wishes?
#scienceFiction
Show threadDigital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄Jun 18

Almost done with the stack, found this:

Seems like a thorough book on doing web canvas games. I've made a lot of games & front-end applications like this, and it's fine up to a point. Lots of JS is kind of awful, but it's the most portable thing there is.

https://archive.org/details/GameDesign/advaned-game-design-with-html5-n-javascript/mode/2up
#gamedev #javascript

Show threadPatJun 18

@mdhughes I love all these crazy covers. They really tickle the ol' imagination

Also reminds me of one of my favourite (and most ridiculous) sci-fi inventions, from Ghost In The Shell

Show threadPaul GorackeJun 18
@mdhughes Pretty accurate depiction of Forth, though.
Show threadRobey ☠️Jun 18
@mdhughes that beagle brothers book was like some kind of religious text to me in my early teens... i had no idea how most of it worked or what it meant but i really WANTED to
Show threadCharlieGJun 20
@mdhughes Worth noting Sharon Zardetto Aker died recently — https://tidbits.com/2025/05/05/a-farewell-to-sharon-zardetto-aker-doyenne-of-mac-writers/
 A Farewell to Sharon Zardetto Aker, Doyenne of Mac Writers - TidBITS

Sharon Zardetto Aker, one of the earliest and most prolific writers in the Macintosh world, has died. Her work at MacUser and Macworld and in books like The Macintosh Bible, The Mac Almanac, and The PowerBook Companion—plus in TidBITS and Take Control—educated and entertained an untold number of Mac users.

TidBITS
Show threadNeufenaJun 18
@mdhughes These Usbourne books were so important to me as a child. I rented them from the library over and over. I still own a few of them and go back for a nostalgic browse quite regularly.
Show thread1awawawa2awawawaJun 19
@mdhughes I recently had the luxury of playing BitCraft, from the creators of SpacetimeDB.
It should be to the left of the diagonal.
I spent a lot of time waiting in that game; it is closer to an idle game.
Show threadSimonoidJun 18
@mdhughes I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw the tree of life ....
Show threadMurdoc Addams 🧛🏻 🇨🇦Jun 18
@mdhughes
Traveller and Atari 
Show threadmichaelborthwickJun 18
@mdhughes 80s programmers whom I’ve interviewed have told me that Creative Computing was the magazine that they most anticipated reading each month.
Show threadTake Off, Eh? 🇨🇦Jun 20
@mdhughes The best. I had a subscription for a few years in the 80s. I think I have an April edition still with all the joke ads etc.
Show threadGeorg Tuparev5d ago

@mdhughes

Nostalgia…

This was one of the first "serious” books that I read on the subject. Thanks for reminding me how old I am 🤣