4 ms·

I'll donate when it all gets setup. I really like Pascal. Jeff Duntemann is writing new intro books and releasing then under a Creative Commons license iirc. It

I'll donate when it all gets setup. I really like Pascal. Jeff Duntemann is writing new intro books and releasing then under a Creative Commons license iirc. It's a great language and a killer environment.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
vram22 10y ago
>Jeff Duntemann is writing new intro books and releasing then under a Creative Commons license iirc. I remember his name as a computer book author from older PC days and mags/books, but have forgotten what he used to write about. Did he write about C or Pascal, say Turbo Pascal, earlier too? Just saw his site (http://www.duntemann.com/ http://www.duntemann.com/) and it seems to show only assembly language books (on a quick look). Not that it matters, of course he could write books on Pascal now, but just wondering whethere he wrote any Pascal books before. >It's a great language and a killer environment. Agreed. Was a Turbo Pascal user for some years, great language and lightning fast dev env. Done smaller amounts of Delphi work too, and loved it. Too bad about the corp. issues that have happened, and about no current low-cost edition. They discontinued Turbo Delphi Explorer, or rather the Turbo Explorer series (existed in around 2006) which included Turbo C++ Explorer too, IIRC. And the TD Explorer at the time was available in two versions, for Win 32 and .NET.
- teraflop 10y ago
  Yep, Duntemann is the author of Complete Turbo Pascal from the 80's. It's a bit of a door-stopper, but it was one of the first programming books I ever read as a kid, and I have vague memories of it being a great introduction to software design in general.
  - vram22 10y ago
    Ha, I remember those big books. The Waite Group's "Microsoft C Bible" (by Nabajyoti Barkakati - my uncle brought it for me as a present on one of his visits), and many others ... In those days many of those topics were new - being the early-ish days of the PC revolution - and Internet (and hence online docs) was less prevalent, so those books served a real need, despite the size. I remember reading the Turbo Pascal manual cover to cover, the DOS Tech Ref manual and many others too. Calling the DOS equivalent of Unix system calls (i.e. interrupt 21H calls) and so on, from TP, TC and sometimes assembly - using just DEBUG.EXE's A (Assemble) command. Good fun and learning ...
- dwc 10y ago
  Jeff wrote about Pascal quite a bit in his columns, as well as some books. He wrote about anything he found interesting, but Pascal was his weapon of choice for most things so he covered it pretty well over the years.
  - vram22 10y ago
    Good to know.
- erbo 10y ago
  I posted a link to the Foundation's Web site to Jeff's Facebook page. (He's been busy getting his house in Colorado Springs ready to sell, as he and his wife are moving to Phoenix for health reasons. Facebook is about all he has time to check these days.) I'll also link this HN comment thread to him. Jeff's blog is at http://www.contrapositivediary.com/ http://www.contrapositivediary.com/ , and he updates that more frequently than his main Web site. (Which is to say, pretty infrequently at the moment, though I expect that to change once his big move is over.)
  - vram22 10y ago
    Thanks, will check his blog.
avhon1 10y ago
I hadn't heard of this book before, so I found it: "FreePascal from Square One". http://www.copperwood.com/pub/FreePascalSquareOne--08-06-2014.pdf http://www.copperwood.com/pub/FreePascalSquareOne--08-06-201...
- vram22 10y ago
  Cool, just downloaded it - thanks. Had a quick look at the book. He says: "Yessir, the book you’re reading has been around the block a few times since I began writing it in November of 1983—which I boggle to think was over thirty years ago. It’s been through four print editions and on paper sold over 125,000 copies. It’s been translated into five languages." I had said recently, here (in another HN thread): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11889412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11889412 that I heard from a McGraw-Hill editor, that Scott Meyers' book Effective C++ had sold in the region of 50,000 copies. And the editor, Simon Yates, said that was a fairly high number of sales for a computer book. And now I read (above) that Duntemann's books sold 125,000 copies. Phew. I do remember reading that Turbo Pascal was hugely popular in those days, being the first under $100-dollar language compiler (it was $50, IIRC, others were probably closer to $500 at the time). My guess is that it was a combination of factors that led to such good sales of the book - Duntemann's own programming and writing expertise, for sure, but also the huge popularity of Turbo Pascal, and the fact that it was a boom time for desktop software apps and companies. Let's hope that his new books also become hits. Edit: spelling.
  - erbo 10y ago
    He'd probably appreciate it more if you made his science fiction books hits, as he's been trying to get back into SF writing recently, and has joined the indie publishing revolution (after getting talked into it by Sarah Hoyt). Available on Kindle Unlimited: his novel The Cunning Blood [0], a newer novel, Ten Gentle Opportunities [1], and his collection Souls in Silicon: Tales of AI Confronting The Infinite. [2] More to come, too, stay tuned! (Disclaimer: I've designated myself as Jeff's "#1 fanboy.") [0] https://www.amazon.com/Cunning-Blood-Jeff-Duntemann-ebook/dp/B0131OHVIA/ https://www.amazon.com/Cunning-Blood-Jeff-Duntemann-ebook/dp... [1] https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Gentle-Opportunities-Jeff-Duntemann-ebook/dp/B01AQ1549E/ https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Gentle-Opportunities-Jeff-Duntema... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Souls-Silicon-Tales-Confronting-Infinite-ebook/dp/B01BB4SLKY/ https://www.amazon.com/Souls-Silicon-Tales-Confronting-Infin...

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

vram22 10y ago

>Jeff Duntemann is writing new intro books and releasing then under a Creative Commons license iirc. I remember his name as a computer book author from older PC days and mags/books, but have forgotten what he used to write about. Did he write about C or Pascal, say Turbo Pascal, earlier too? Just saw his site (http://www.duntemann.com/ http://www.duntemann.com/) and it seems to show only assembly language books (on a quick look). Not that it matters, of course he could write books on Pascal now, but just wondering whethere he wrote any Pascal books before. >It's a great language and a killer environment. Agreed. Was a Turbo Pascal user for some years, great language and lightning fast dev env. Done smaller amounts of Delphi work too, and loved it. Too bad about the corp. issues that have happened, and about no current low-cost edition. They discontinued Turbo Delphi Explorer, or rather the Turbo Explorer series (existed in around 2006) which included Turbo C++ Explorer too, IIRC. And the TD Explorer at the time was available in two versions, for Win 32 and .NET.

teraflop 10y ago
Yep, Duntemann is the author of Complete Turbo Pascal from the 80's. It's a bit of a door-stopper, but it was one of the first programming books I ever read as a kid, and I have vague memories of it being a great introduction to software design in general.
- vram22 10y ago
  Ha, I remember those big books. The Waite Group's "Microsoft C Bible" (by Nabajyoti Barkakati - my uncle brought it for me as a present on one of his visits), and many others ... In those days many of those topics were new - being the early-ish days of the PC revolution - and Internet (and hence online docs) was less prevalent, so those books served a real need, despite the size. I remember reading the Turbo Pascal manual cover to cover, the DOS Tech Ref manual and many others too. Calling the DOS equivalent of Unix system calls (i.e. interrupt 21H calls) and so on, from TP, TC and sometimes assembly - using just DEBUG.EXE's A (Assemble) command. Good fun and learning ...
dwc 10y ago
Jeff wrote about Pascal quite a bit in his columns, as well as some books. He wrote about anything he found interesting, but Pascal was his weapon of choice for most things so he covered it pretty well over the years.
- vram22 10y ago
  Good to know.
erbo 10y ago
I posted a link to the Foundation's Web site to Jeff's Facebook page. (He's been busy getting his house in Colorado Springs ready to sell, as he and his wife are moving to Phoenix for health reasons. Facebook is about all he has time to check these days.) I'll also link this HN comment thread to him. Jeff's blog is at http://www.contrapositivediary.com/ http://www.contrapositivediary.com/ , and he updates that more frequently than his main Web site. (Which is to say, pretty infrequently at the moment, though I expect that to change once his big move is over.)
- vram22 10y ago
  Thanks, will check his blog.

avhon1 10y ago

I hadn't heard of this book before, so I found it: "FreePascal from Square One". http://www.copperwood.com/pub/FreePascalSquareOne--08-06-2014.pdf http://www.copperwood.com/pub/FreePascalSquareOne--08-06-201...

vram22 10y ago
Cool, just downloaded it - thanks. Had a quick look at the book. He says: "Yessir, the book you’re reading has been around the block a few times since I began writing it in November of 1983—which I boggle to think was over thirty years ago. It’s been through four print editions and on paper sold over 125,000 copies. It’s been translated into five languages." I had said recently, here (in another HN thread): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11889412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11889412 that I heard from a McGraw-Hill editor, that Scott Meyers' book Effective C++ had sold in the region of 50,000 copies. And the editor, Simon Yates, said that was a fairly high number of sales for a computer book. And now I read (above) that Duntemann's books sold 125,000 copies. Phew. I do remember reading that Turbo Pascal was hugely popular in those days, being the first under $100-dollar language compiler (it was $50, IIRC, others were probably closer to $500 at the time). My guess is that it was a combination of factors that led to such good sales of the book - Duntemann's own programming and writing expertise, for sure, but also the huge popularity of Turbo Pascal, and the fact that it was a boom time for desktop software apps and companies. Let's hope that his new books also become hits. Edit: spelling.
- erbo 10y ago
  He'd probably appreciate it more if you made his science fiction books hits, as he's been trying to get back into SF writing recently, and has joined the indie publishing revolution (after getting talked into it by Sarah Hoyt). Available on Kindle Unlimited: his novel The Cunning Blood [0], a newer novel, Ten Gentle Opportunities [1], and his collection Souls in Silicon: Tales of AI Confronting The Infinite. [2] More to come, too, stay tuned! (Disclaimer: I've designated myself as Jeff's "#1 fanboy.") [0] https://www.amazon.com/Cunning-Blood-Jeff-Duntemann-ebook/dp/B0131OHVIA/ https://www.amazon.com/Cunning-Blood-Jeff-Duntemann-ebook/dp... [1] https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Gentle-Opportunities-Jeff-Duntemann-ebook/dp/B01AQ1549E/ https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Gentle-Opportunities-Jeff-Duntema... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Souls-Silicon-Tales-Confronting-Infinite-ebook/dp/B01BB4SLKY/ https://www.amazon.com/Souls-Silicon-Tales-Confronting-Infin...