4 ms·

He had a real gift for making theoretical topics interesting. I read his book The New Turing Omnibus (https://archive.org/details/newturingomnibus0000dewd_q3p6

He had a real gift for making theoretical topics interesting. I read his book The New Turing Omnibus (https://archive.org/details/newturingomnibus0000dewd_q3p6 https://archive.org/details/newturingomnibus0000dewd_q3p6) as a teenager, and credit it with a decent part of getting me into computer science. Rest easy.

tekacs 3y ago
Another thankful note from me for The New Turing Omnibus. It’s recommended to students entering Cambridge University in the UK, and I read it as a young teenager. I was already familiar with a lot of the concepts contained, but it was a really good stitching together of a variety of disciplines. It gives just enough of a peek into each of them to spur curiosity about the things you might want to study more — and at least makes you aware of the things that you might be less interested in.
isomorph 3y ago
Loved New Turing Omnibus too. It felt very exciting to program some basic genetic algorithms and even the Newton-Raphson method as a teenager
linuxlizard 3y ago
I also read _The New Turing Omnibus_ as a young CS student. I really enjoyed reading about all those different areas of Computer Science.
mordechai9000 3y ago
I spent an excessive amount of time playing with an animated version of Dewdney's wallpaper algorithm from The Turing Omnibus, first with 286 fixed point arithmetic and later with 486 FPU code.
- pvg 3y ago
  Hah, I went through a similar cycle with Mandelbrot stuff - first with custom fixed point on a 6502, then I somehow got my hands on a prototype Apple ][ FPU card of some sort, then there was the 386/387 (sweet sweet 80 bit floats!), etc.
  - sitkack 3y ago
    A Weitek math coprocessor board that snapped on to a 6502 would be a fun project.
    - pvg 3y ago
      I googled it up, it was a Bulgarian variant of this Am9511-based (the first FPU, according to AMD!) bad boy: http://www.apple-iigs.info/doc/fichiers/CCS%207781B%20Arithmetic%20Processor%20-%20Owner%20s%20Manual.pdf http://www.apple-iigs.info/doc/fichiers/CCS%207781B%20Arithm... https://www.applefritter.com/content/arithmetic-processor https://www.applefritter.com/content/arithmetic-processor
      - sitkack 3y ago
        Nice find! > "Apple APU. The Model 7811 B Arithmetic Processor Unit is intended to increase the execution speed of Applesoft II programs and the number of math functions available. The system employs an AMD9511 APU and plugs into one of the Apple expansion slots. The CCSoft interpreter is loaded from the diskette provided, and the system is ready to, go. The CCSoft interpreter is identical to Applesoft, except that CCSoft sends arithmetic functions to the APU for fast execution. Additional functions include AsiN(x), ACOS(X), LOGIO(X), SINIH(x), COSH(x), TANH(X), INVERSE(x) and PI. "

tekacs 3y ago

Another thankful note from me for The New Turing Omnibus. It’s recommended to students entering Cambridge University in the UK, and I read it as a young teenager. I was already familiar with a lot of the concepts contained, but it was a really good stitching together of a variety of disciplines. It gives just enough of a peek into each of them to spur curiosity about the things you might want to study more — and at least makes you aware of the things that you might be less interested in.

isomorph 3y ago

Loved New Turing Omnibus too. It felt very exciting to program some basic genetic algorithms and even the Newton-Raphson method as a teenager

linuxlizard 3y ago

I also read _The New Turing Omnibus_ as a young CS student. I really enjoyed reading about all those different areas of Computer Science.

mordechai9000 3y ago

I spent an excessive amount of time playing with an animated version of Dewdney's wallpaper algorithm from The Turing Omnibus, first with 286 fixed point arithmetic and later with 486 FPU code.

pvg 3y ago
Hah, I went through a similar cycle with Mandelbrot stuff - first with custom fixed point on a 6502, then I somehow got my hands on a prototype Apple ][ FPU card of some sort, then there was the 386/387 (sweet sweet 80 bit floats!), etc.
- sitkack 3y ago
  A Weitek math coprocessor board that snapped on to a 6502 would be a fun project.
  - pvg 3y ago
    I googled it up, it was a Bulgarian variant of this Am9511-based (the first FPU, according to AMD!) bad boy: http://www.apple-iigs.info/doc/fichiers/CCS%207781B%20Arithmetic%20Processor%20-%20Owner%20s%20Manual.pdf http://www.apple-iigs.info/doc/fichiers/CCS%207781B%20Arithm... https://www.applefritter.com/content/arithmetic-processor https://www.applefritter.com/content/arithmetic-processor
    - sitkack 3y ago
      Nice find! > "Apple APU. The Model 7811 B Arithmetic Processor Unit is intended to increase the execution speed of Applesoft II programs and the number of math functions available. The system employs an AMD9511 APU and plugs into one of the Apple expansion slots. The CCSoft interpreter is loaded from the diskette provided, and the system is ready to, go. The CCSoft interpreter is identical to Applesoft, except that CCSoft sends arithmetic functions to the APU for fast execution. Additional functions include AsiN(x), ACOS(X), LOGIO(X), SINIH(x), COSH(x), TANH(X), INVERSE(x) and PI. "