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Ask HN: Does anyone have scans of these missing PC Plus issues (1991–1993)?
I'm looking for copies of these issues of PC Plus magazine please.
1991-Nov, 1992-Jan, 1992-Mar, 1992-Apr, 1992-Jun, 1992-Jul, 1992-Oct, 1993-Jan.
This was a popular PC magazine in the UK, and one of its highlights was Wilf’s Programmer Workshop, a regular column full of programming puzzles, challenges and reader submissions.
At one point, he ran a contest around quines (programs that output their own source). I sent in a tongue‑in‑cheek entry, a batch file that used PKZIP to “compile” code into PKZIP.OBJ (instead of .ZIP) and then ZIP2EXE to “link” it into an EXE. The result was an executable that unzipped itself back into a source file. He was amused enough to mention it near the end of his column, though he noted it didn’t quite qualify for the contest since I hadn’t written PKZIP myself.
I found scans of his section on archive.org, including the issue where he announces the contest, but I couldn't find my particular contribution. I've narrowed it down to the eight issues listed above that are in the right time-frame.
If you have any of these issues (paper or PDF), could you please check Wilf’s section near the back and see if my submission is mentioned?
Thanks!
- toomuchtodo 1y agoMight inquire in r/DHExchange as well.
- billpg 1y agoPS. Link to the scans: https://archive.org/details/wpw-1991-1992-1993/WPW-1991-01/ https://archive.org/details/wpw-1991-1992-1993/WPW-1991-01/
- Daneel_ 1y agoUnfortunately those don't contain the specific issues the OP mentioned.
- js2 1y agoYou're replying to OP. :) The link is in reference to "I found scans of his section on archive.org, including the issue where he announces the contest, but I couldn't find my particular contribution".
- eterm 1y agoI've always wondered why HN doesn't have an OP indicator. A blue name ( similar to the green name for new accounts ) or an asterisk, just something subtle, would do. Perhaps they don't want to mark out the OP as "special" to the resulting conversation, but it would help make the situation here clearer.
- rrr_oh_man 1y agoTampermonkey to the rescue!
- jorvi 1y agoQuick slaptogether. I'm decidedly mediocre at web so if anyone has improvements, please post them :) // ==UserScript== // @name HN OP highlight // @version 0.1 // @description Find OP username and change username color to blue // @match https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=* // @grant none // @run-at document-end // ==/UserScript== (function() { 'use strict'; // get OP 'userid' from class 'hnuser' in post subtext const opUsername = document.querySelector('span.subline a.hnuser')?.getAttribute('href'); // Match other instances of same 'userid' in 'hnuser' class elsewhere in page if (opUsername) { const opHighlight = document.createElement('style'); opHighlight.textContent = ` /* Post header username */ span.subline a.hnuser[href="${opUsername}"], /* Comment header username */ span.comhead a.hnuser[href="${opUsername}"] { color: #2749F5 !important; } `; document.head.appendChild(opHighlight); } })();
- gabrielsroka 1y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35076225 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35076225
- maxbond 1y agoA good compromise would be only marking their top-level comments. And/or doing this only for Show/Ask/Tell threads. I'm sending this thread to the admins as a feature request.
- jfil 1y agoI looked around for you - the best I could find is a listing for the magazines at the British Library at https://www.bl.uk/ https://www.bl.uk/. It appears that they have a copy of all the issues and they are available by request for physical viewing.
- trollbridge 1y agoThis can be a pain, but we’ve done the same thing at the Library of Congress. In theory, they have access to every digital book published, too.
- xrisk 1y agoOnly books published by American publishers yeah?
- atrettel 1y agoThe Library of Congress has tons of books from foreign publishers. I have gone there many times for their extensive collection of German and Russian scientific and technical monographs. They also have a ton of obscure foreign publications and periodicals. Unfortunately, their catalog does not list this particular magazine as far as I can tell.
- dandelionv1bes 1y agoIf you’re in the UK this is quite an easy solution. The library is right by two large train stations and you can sign up same day for a card.
- foofoo12 1y ago11h55 from Port Ellen.
- toomuchtodo 1y agoNot in the UK, would someone be interested in working with the library to get them scanned for the Internet Archive? What would the cost and logistics look like?
- n4r9 1y agoYou've probably already looked but it may be possible to purchase physical vintage copies if all else fails, e.g.: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=145752856587&rt=nc&_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l161211&_ssn=villainsoft https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=145752856587&rt=nc&_t...
- krypdoh 1y agoThere's at least one of the issues on eBay.
- jen20 1y agoPC Plus in the days of Paul Stephens (RIP) and Dave Pearman was hands down the best computing managazine around. I believe I have every issue from -1994-2000 with the exception of Feb 97 (long story) but these ones predate me sadly.
- bagnus 1y agoPaul Stephens contributions were incredible. His web design articles in PC Plus and those Lotus Screencam tutorials on the SuperCD were what got me started. They were my first proper lessons in building web pages, and they ended up shaping my whole career in software. I still remember following Huw Collingbourne’s Delphi and C++ Builder tutorials too. I actually learned to write a word processor in C++ from those. PC Plus was such a good magazine. I bought it religiously from around 1996-2002. Miss those days.
- jen20 1y agoSame, largely. As were the tools they somehow managed to negotiate for inclusion on the SuperCD. Sadly paulspages.co.uk appears to be down. It would be great to recover the screen cam videos for YouTube though! I did see a memorial recently [1] - turned out he lived up the street from me for many years. [1]: https://www.brlsi.org/a-sad-farewell-to-paul-stephens/ https://www.brlsi.org/a-sad-farewell-to-paul-stephens/
- afavour 1y agoHaven't heard that name in years! Thanks for a trip down memory lane. I was always more of a PC Format reader than PC Plus but would buy any of these magazines I could get my hands on and devour them. A simpler time...
- dcminter 1y agoI was a devotee of PC Plus back in the early 90s with my first XT compatible. I have exceedingly fond memories of the 5¼" cover disks and discovering a variety of shareware, freeware, nagware, commercial-but-lightly-maimed-ware and so on. I learnt a huge amount about the PC from their pages too. Sadly most of the cover-disk images kicking around at archive.org are from the later 3½" cover disk era, by which time I was at college and more focused on Linux, SLS/Slackware, and so forth.
- stavros 1y ago> he noted it didn’t quite qualify for the contest since I hadn’t written PKZIP myself. Why? Had the other entries written GCC/LD themselves?
- roflchoppa 1y agooh wow! back in August of 2005, I was on a trip to the UK and found a magazine that was talking about Counter-Strike hacks, and I think it was published by PC Plus, I could be wrong but man I want to find that magazine now.
- roflchoppa 1y agoahhhh nah i don't think it was PC Plus, but man I wish I could locate the magazine. :(
- radial_symmetry 1y agoThis post is proof that I truly do not understand what it takes to get to the front page of HN
- dcminter 1y agoIt requires that it offer the opportunity for an interesting discussion in the view of those checking the /new page at the time that it's posted. This ticks several boxes - the desire to archive technical literature, sympathy for an achieveable goal, and nostalgia for the magazines of yesteryear. The element of serendipity is part of the appeal for me; for example if OP had posted at a different hour, it might have sunk without trace.
- NedF 1y ago[dead]
- supportengineer 1y agoAll I have is Family Computing, INFO, and Amiga World
- ta1243 1y agoFor the 120th (10 year) issue, I think in 1996, they had a "what will computers look like in 10 years time" article. I'd love to see that.
- iam-TJ 1y agoHave you checked out the The National Museum of Computing (TNMoC) archive. Last time I was there they had a rather good magazine collection going back to the early 1980s. It may be worth a call. I see they have an (incomplete) online catalogue: https://www.tnmoc.org/library-archive https://www.tnmoc.org/library-archive
- Call_center 1y ago[flagged]
- rasz 1y agommm PC Plus, UK mini version of Computer Shopper, 300 pages of product listings with prices to lust over.