AFC Reading List

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Just a note to say that I have not forgotten or abandoned the AFC
reading list (not a book list since it also has papers and rags). Just
got busy with contract work and otherwise trying to avoid starvation.

Hopefully this coming weekend I'll get some time to start moving the
information into a database.

I have a lot of other ideas built for the future, but right now I just
want to get at least the titles and authors in place in a database.

I might use a server, and then just have that spit out delimited, refer,
bibtex, and other formats.

I've enjoyed looking through the lists and searching for references of
the books, picking up copies when I can.

I'm still open for new list items.

Anyway, here is the list. It's still raw and unformatted, and note that
a lot of books lack much more than the title.


AFC Reading List

The Machine Stops, EM Forster, 1909?
A Commentary on the UNIX Operating System, John Lions, UNSW, 1977.
A Few Good Men from UNIVAC, D.E.Lundstrom, MIT, 1986.
A Few Good Men From UNIVAC, Lundstrom
A Quarter Century of UNIX, P.H.Salus, AW, 1993.
Age Of The Pussyfoot, Frederick Pohl
Alan M. Turing Archive @ King's, Cambridge
Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges
An Introduction To Microcomputers, Adam Osborne
anything from Al Kossow
Arrive At Easternwine, RA Lafferty
Automatic Digital Computers, Booth and Booth
BCPL-the Language and its Compiler, M.Richards C.Whitby-Stevens, CUP,1979.
Before the Internet: Building the ARPAnet, BB&N, Peer-to-Peer, 1997.
Before the Internet: Packet Communication, Bob Metcalfe, Peer-to-Peer,
Before the Internet: Planning the ARPAnet, P.H.Salus ed.,
Brainfix, Chris Boyce
Casting the Net, P.H.Salus, AW, 1994.
Common Lisp: The Language, Guy Steele
Computer Architecture and Parallel Processing by Hwang and Briggs
Computer Architecture: Concepts and Evolution by Blaauw and Brooks
Computer Engineering: A DEC view of Hardware Systems Design by Bell,
Mudge and Macnamara
Computer Lib / Dream Machines, Ted Nelson
Computer Structures: Principles and Examples by Siewiorek, Bell and Newell
Computer, M.Campbell-Kelly W.Aspray, Basic, 1996.
Computing Perspectives, M.V.Wilkes, Morgan Kaufmann, 1995.
"Cortada"
Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System, McKusick Leffler Karels Quartermann
Digital At Work, Pearson, 1992
Early British Computers, Simon Lavington
Edgser W. Dijkstra Archive @ Austin
Enigma: Biography of Alan Turing by Robert Harris
Epiktistes (short stories), ???
Faster Than Thought, BV Bowden, 1953
Fire In The Valley
Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics, J.D.Foley A.vanDam, AW,1982.
IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems, Pugh Johnson Palmer, 1991
IBM's Early Computers, Bashe et al, MIT, 1986.
IBM-Colossus in Transition, Robert Sobel, Times, 1981.
Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition with Source Code, John Lions,
Management and the Computer of the Future, M.Greenberger ed., MIT,1962.
Memoirs of a Computer Pioneer, M.V.Wilkes, MIT, 1985.
Packet Communication by Bob Metcalfe
Pascal User's Manual and Report, K.Jensen N.Wirth, Springer, 1974.
Peer-to-Peer
Peer-to-Peer, 1996.
Peer-to-Peer, 1997.
Proceedings of HOPL and HOPL-II
Reduced Instruction Set Computers, Stallings
Rekursiv: Object-Oriented Computer Architecture, Harland Linn
Rockerick stuff?, John Sladek
Simulacron-3
Software Tools, B.W.Kernighan P.J.Plauger, AW, 1976.
Structured Programming, O.-J.Dahl E.W.Dijkstra C.A.R.Hoare, AP, 1972.
Technical Aspects of Data Communications, J.E.McNamara, Digital, 1977.
The Adolescence of P1, Thomas J Ryan
The Art Of Computer Programming, Donald Knuth
The Big Idea, Anchor Books, 1999
The Compatible Time-Sharing System: A User's Guide, F.J.Corbato, MIT,1963.
The Computer Contradictionary, 2nd ed., Stan Kelly-Bootle, MIT, 1995.
The Computer-My Life, Konrad Zuse, Springer, 1993.
The Computer: My Life's Work, Conrad Zuse
The Cuckoo's Egg, Cliff Stoll, 1989
The Cyberiad, Stanslaw Lem
The Dartmouth Time-sharing System
The Devil's DP Dictionary, Stan Kelly-Bootle, McG-H, 1981.
The Elements of Friendly Software Design, Paul Heckel, Warner, 1982.
The Elements of Programming Style, B.W.Kernighan P.J.Plauger, AW,1974.
The Machine Stops, EM Forster, 1909?
The Matrix, John Quarterman, Digital, 1990.
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Heinlein, 1965
The Multics System, Organick
The Multics System: An Examination of its Structure, E.I.Organick,MIT, 1972.
The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks
The Mythical Man-Month, F.P.Brooks,Jr., AW, 1975 2000.
The non-ESR versions of the Jargon File
The Origins Of Digital Computers, Brian Randell
The Psychology of Computer Programming, Gerry Weinberg, VNR, 1971.
The SAGE Air Defence System, John Jacobs, 1986
The Shockwave Rider, John Brunner
The Soul Of A New Machine, Tracy Kidder
The Source Code Control System, M.Rochkind, IEEE Trans.Soft.Eng.,1975.
The Universal Elixir and Other Computing Projects Which Failed by Robert L. Glass
Turing And The Computer, Paul Strathern, 1997
When Harlie Was One, David Gerrold
Where Wizards Stay Up Late, Katie Hafner Matthew Lyon


Hackers handbook, Cornwall,
Software Age, magazine
The C Programming Language (1978, 1988), Kernighan and Ritchie.
"From Dits to Bits ... A Personal History of the Electronic Computer."
by Herman Lukoff. Robotics Press, 1979.
Introduction by J. Presper Eckert and Dr. John W. Mauchly.

"Description of a Relay Calculator."
by The Staff of the Computation Laboratory.
Harvard University Press, 1949

"The Annals of the Computation Laboratory of Harvard University."
I seem to remember there were 21 or 22 volumes in the set.
This one is Volume XVI, 1948; the one over there is Volume I, 1946.

"Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs", Wirth.
. comment to The Mythical Man Month : re-issue / 20th anniversary
isbn 0-201-83595-9 is highly recommended

Sedgewick : Algorithms, 1984, isbn 0-201-06672-6 Press,Flannery et al
Numerical Receipes in C, 1988, isbn 0-521-35465-X
Jean Meeus : Astronomical Algorithms, 2nd ed, 1998, isbn 0-943396-61-1

Andrew S Tanenbaum : Computer Networks . I have the 2nd ed,
isbn 0-13-166836-6, but there may be better editions.
Holt, Reinhart & Winston : Unix Programmers manual, Bell labs, vol 1-2, 1983
isbn 0-03-061742-1 and ..-061743-X

The isbn of "Organic : the multics system , 1972" is 0-262-15012-3
whatever Comer&Stevens has written on Unix and networking
Marshall T Rose : The Simple Book, 1991, 0-13-812611-9.
Stan Kelly-bootle : The devil's DP dictionary, 1981, isbn 0-07-034022-6
David Alcock, Illustrating basic, 1977, isbn 0-521-21703-0
Friedman & Felleisen : the little lisperm, 1987, isbn 0-262-56038-0
Radia Perlman : interconnections, 1992, isbn 0-201-56332-0
Adam Osborne ; 4&8-bit microprocessor handbook, 1981, isbn 0-031988-42-x
Ralph E,Gorin : Introduction to the decsystem-20 assembly language
programming, 1981, isbn 0-932376-12-6
gilman & rose ; APL, an interactive approach, 1976, isbn 0-471-30022-5
Try Winsto&Horn : LISP and
Keny Dybvig : The Scheme Programming Language to recover.
Horowitz (ed) : Programming Languages, a grand tour, 1983-87, isbn 0-88175-142-1
Fisher&LeBlanc : Crafting a compiler, 1988, 0-8053-3201-4
Jurgen Wieckmann and the CCC : Das Chaos Computer Buch, 1988,
isbn 3-8052-0474-4 (In German. It may not be wise to translate this
to English).

Abelson and Sussman. The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
(http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/)

Minsky. Computation: Finite and Infinite Machines.
Minsky. The Society of Mind
Papert: Mindstorms.
the HAKMEM.
There are both Henry Ledgard, _Elementary Basic_, New York, Random
House, 1982 (ISBN 0-394-52423-3) and Henry Ledgard and Andrew
Singer, _Elementary Pascal_, New York, Random House, 1983
(ISBN 0-394-52424-1). Both list Watson as author, with an "as told
to"; the Pascal book (and I assume also the BASIC book, which I do not
have) is based on the (anachronistic) premise that Holmes was
using the Analytical Engine to process his clues.

[Arthur T. Murray]

Post by Charles Shannon Hendrix
Age Of The Pussyfoot, Frederick Pohl

AI4U: Mind-1.1 Programmer's Manual, AT Murray

Post by Charles Shannon Hendrix
Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges

ATM

[Joachim Pense]

Post by Charles Shannon Hendrix
I'm still open for new list items.

Jean Sammet, Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals (1969)
Rationale for the Design of the Ada® Programming Language (1983)
Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language Algol 60 (1962)

Joachim

[Peter Ibbotson]

Not quite sure if it should be on there (and I haven't read it yet)

In search of stupidity by Rick Chapman

[Bill Leary]

Post by Peter Ibbotson
Not quite sure if it should be on there (and I haven't read it yet)
In search of stupidity by Rick Chapman

I know you haven't read it, but do you know, in general, what's this one
about?

Clever title. It seems as though one need never look for stupidity. It
seems as though it's always snapping at your heels and lurking around the
next corner.

- Bill

[Pete Fenelon]

Post by Bill Leary

Post by Peter Ibbotson
Not quite sure if it should be on there (and I haven't read it yet)
In search of stupidity by Rick Chapman

I know you haven't read it, but do you know, in general, what's this one
about?
Clever title. It seems as though one need never look for stupidity.

Very true - Arthur T. Murray is always on hand to provide it, as he's
already demonstrated in this thread.

pete

[Arthur T. Murray]

Post by Pete Fenelon

Post by Bill Leary

Post by Peter Ibbotson
In search of stupidity by Rick Chapman

I know you haven't read it, but do you know, in general,
what's this one about?

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=825184 paints ATM stupid.
http://www.generation5.org/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=370 not stupid.

Post by Pete Fenelon

Post by Bill Leary
Clever title. It seems as though one need never look for stupidity.

Very true - Arthur T. Murray is always on hand to provide it,
as he's already demonstrated in this thread.

If VTY ATM/Mentifex is so "stupid" why will the U.S. government
http://osgaming.net/Downloads/Documentation/OSReferenceBook.pdf ?

http://www.sl4.org/archive/0205/3829.html -- why such admiration?

http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/307824.307853 -- is the ACM also stupid?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595654371/ -- is AI4U stupid?

http://dev.null.org/psychoceramics/archives/1998.05/msg00018.html ??

http://www.lucifer.com/virus/virus.96/1998.html -- are memes stupid?

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&th=d9098e459276596f&rnum=1 ??

http://www.advogato.org/person/mentifex/ -- diary of a stupid person?

http://www.nanomagazine.com/i.php?id=01_10_24 -- a stupid interview?

http://registry.dfki.de/show.php3?f_system=126 -- is the DFKI stupid?

http://pub.ufasta.edu.ar/ohcop/curso2003/27-Actividad12.ppt comprende?

It is time for an intellectually honest reappraisal of Very Truly Yours
ATM/Mentifex

Post by Pete Fenelon
pete
--

[Christopher C. Stacy]

Post by Bill Leary
Clever title. It seems as though one need never look for stupidity.

Pete> Very true - Arthur T. Murray is always on hand to provide it, as he's
Pete> already demonstrated in this thread.
Arthur> If VTY ATM/Mentifex is so "stupid" why will the U.S. government
Arthur> http://osgaming.net/Downloads/Documentation/OSReferenceBook.pdf ?

Could you please provide a U.S. Government point of contact
with whom I could consult for their opinions on "Mentifex"?

[Kent Paul Dolan]

Post by Arthur T. Murray
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=825184 paints ATM stupid.

Which, of course, misses the point, it doesn't
really matter whether you are smart or whether you
are stupid if you are an obsessed kook. Even
someone as smart as Issac Newton, one of the handful
of smartest humans ever to live, wasted much of his
life obsessed to the kook level with spirituality.

That you ARE an obsessed kook, is well documented here:

http://www.nothingisreal.com/mentifex

and your posting of your endlessly repeated URLs
flogging your drivel to talk.bizarre, was a rock
solid guarantee that you'd receive this followup.

Do you just love pain, or are you so deperately
obsessed with receiving attention that even derision
is worth persuing?

I was amused beyond description, though not so much
that I'd waste my time bothering to read it, to find
that you've posted a counter-FAQ to muddy the waters
about your self-evident kook-ness:

http://www.advogato.org/article/769.html

Thirty, or is it thirty-five now, years of you
claiming to have "solved" AI, with no useful product
to show for your claims, doesn't seem to have
discouraged you in the least.

How extremely sad for you, but neither I nor anyone
else can give you back your wasted life, so you
might as well soldier on until death relieves you
of your obsession. Obviously nothing less will.

xanthian.

[Peter Ibbotson]

Post by Bill Leary

Post by Peter Ibbotson
Not quite sure if it should be on there (and I haven't read it yet)
In search of stupidity by Rick Chapman

I know you haven't read it, but do you know, in general, what's this one
about?
Clever title. It seems as though one need never look for stupidity. It
seems as though it's always snapping at your heels and lurking around the
next corner.

Sorry the website at http://www.insearchofstupidity.com does give more
detail, he examines the marketing and silliness of many of the companies in
the early micro era (although he does visit the dotBomb madness too)

<BookJacket>
1982, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman kicked off the modern business book era
with In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies. The
book was a runaway best seller and soon authors from all corners of business
life were exhorting companies and the people who worked in those companies
to get out there and be excellent, control chaos, worship wow and grasp
greatness.

Unfortunately, as time went by it became painfully obvious that many of the
companies Peters and Waterman had profiled, particularly the high-tech ones,
were something less than excellent. Firms such as Atari, Data General, DEC,
IBM, Lanier, NCR, Wang, Xerox and others either crashed and burned or
underwent painful and wrenching traumas you would have expected excellent
companies to avoid. What went wrong?

Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman thinks he has an answer. He believes that
high-tech companies periodically meltdown because they fail to learn from
the lessons of the past and thus continue to make the same completely
avoidable mistakes again and again and again. In Search of Stupidity: Over
20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters chronicles high-tech stupidity
from past to the present so that we can all move on to create new and unique
catastrophes of our very own in the future.
</BookJacket>

It appeals to me because I was around the micro industry at the time and
remember some of these decisions he's talking about. I *think* it's on topic
for an afc booklist but since I haven't read it (I am however planning to
get a copy for my holiday reading) I'm genuinely unsure.

[Bill Leary]

Post by Peter Ibbotson

Post by Bill Leary

Post by Peter Ibbotson
Not quite sure if it should be on there (and I haven't read it yet)
In search of stupidity by Rick Chapman

I know you haven't read it, but do you know, in general, what's this one
about?
Clever title. It seems as though one need never look for stupidity. It
seems as though it's always snapping at your heels and lurking around the
next corner.

Sorry the website at http://www.insearchofstupidity.com does give more
detail, he examines the marketing and silliness of many of the companies in
the early micro era (although he does visit the dotBomb madness too)

Actually, that helps a lot.

Post by Peter Ibbotson
((...bookjacket omitted..))

As does this.

Post by Peter Ibbotson
It appeals to me because I was around the micro industry at the time and
remember some of these decisions he's talking about.

Me too. You've piqued my interest considerably, if from nothing more than a
nostalgic stance.

Post by Peter Ibbotson
I *think* it's on topic
for an afc booklist but since I haven't read it (I am however planning to
get a copy for my holiday reading) I'm genuinely unsure.

I think you're probably right about it being on topic. I'll be looking for
it myself.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

- Bill

[Dr. Richard E. Hawkins]

Post by Peter Ibbotson
<BookJacket>

...

Post by Peter Ibbotson
Unfortunately, as time went by it became painfully obvious that many of the
companies Peters and Waterman had profiled, particularly the high-tech ones,
were something less than excellent. Firms such as Atari, Data General, DEC,
IBM, Lanier, NCR, Wang, Xerox and others either crashed and burned or
underwent painful and wrenching traumas you would have expected excellent
companies to avoid. What went wrong?

Nothing at all--yet more money was thrown at Peteres to profile another
set of companies. Tossing the money was understandable, as it sold
zillions of copies (but that's the incomprehensible part!).

hawk