[Shameless Plug] A New Book

All true. But I had to live up to the subject line...

As I find things they'll go into the errata. Most of the issues I have found so far are things that I want to add should the book ever go to a second edition, but I have no illusions about the book being error-free.

He needs the artwork to copy too.

Jerry

...

You young whippersnappers! I used to write production instruction manuals in NROFF and make them look good on a nine-pin printer. :-)

Jerry

...

How about Real Alternative?

Jerry, it looks like these are all windows packages. Blicch!

But did you back them up to paper tape first?

You had a nine pin printer? All we had was a worn out Kleinschmidt 60 ma teletype for a printer.

Creative recycling is the art of making what you want from things you can get. ;-)

A Kleinschmidt? We would have dreamed of hav'n a Kleinschmidt. Would have been like a laser printer to us. We used to take polaroid pictures of the VT05 screen for hardcopy. And glad to have them we were...

I wrote an NROFF for the Diablo 1610 (or was it the 1620?) and it supported graphics via just the period. The fine steps horizontally and vertically, rolling the paper up and down, was fun to watch. It also did typesetting with both inter-word and inter-character space adjustments and supported some modest kerning, as well. And that was years after writing one for an early Centronix dot matrix.

Whatever happened to the old chisel and stone tablet, anyway? It's not as though stone has become harder to come by...

Jon

. Frankly, being able to see the equations and figures in the

Tell that to the kids today and they won't believe you. They won't!

-Andrew M

You youngster! You had chisels? ...

The chisels got dull, and the availible stones got smaller. :(

Get off my lawn you dang kids!!

You had ones *and* zeros?? You had it so easy.

Are you trying to look like a young whippersnapper? Like me, you must remember writing manuals with a pen, and getting a secretary to type them up. I doubt even you did much documentation before the first Xerox copiers appeared in the 1950s, so at least once the secretary was finished life was easier. :-)

Steve

Seconded.

Based on Tim's pedigree as a contributor to this group, and the quality of his discreetly mentioned website, I have already ordered his book (=A334.99 direct from Elsevier vs =A337.95 from Amazon and =A339.95 from most other sources). I'll comment on the content and vfm when I have read it, and not before.

--=20 Andy McC

You can download that in the net, i.e.

I did my first two-pass assemblies that way, but by the time I used NROFF, I had 360K mini-floppies. You know, 5-1/4 inch.

That reminds me of a story I need to pass on.

When mini-floppies were still quite new on the scene, a family -- father, mother, and eager son -- arrived at the Trenton Computer Fair with a truckload of them (180K, 3" high) and set up shop on the tailgate. They all wore tee shirts with "MINI FLOPPIES" printed across the front. They did a fairly brisk business all morning (I bought two). After lunch, Mother minded the store while father and son went to see the other stalls and inside exhibits. I happened to pass that way again in the afternoon and saw Mother alone. I just stared at the lettering on her tee for the better part of a minute -- she was aware of the scrutiny

-- and finally said, "I don't think that's entirely appropriate." She flushed, then laughed, saying "It never occurred to me. I have to tell my husband when he comes back." I passed that way again as they were packing to go. She gave me a big grin and her husband flashed me a thumbs up.

Jerry

When I went to RCA institutes in the second and third floors of a building near the corner of W 10th and W 4th Streets. (check it out!), a startup company called Xerox was downstairs. I could have bought a few shares, but I didn't. Some people think I know everything. I know better.

At RCA Labs, where I worked years later, we had a home-built copier with a zinc-oxide based photosensitive roller. It was a demo model that worked quite well. It was the only copier in the building, and there were sometimes lines to use it. RCA decided not to go into that business. They didn't know much either.

Jerry

Sure, but do you know the original name, before they changed it to Xerox? (Without looking it up?)