Quirky computing books
Earlier in my career I did a lot of work in expert systems and blackboards and this #quirkey book has followed me around ever since. You don’t hear much about blackboard systems these days but for a time I thought that JavaSpaces could be big… alas. The book is chock full of 80s distributed thinking and worth a perusal. I guarantee that some of the problems that you’re encountering in your systems today were pondered over and solved then.
About the quirkiest computing book that you can imagine. It describes the implementation of expert systems in Forth by building a Lisp-like substrate which is then used to build a Prolog that is eventually used to implement the production rules system. It’s a near perfect book for me.
The inimitable @mfikes sent a copy of this astonishing book last week and I’ve been gobsmacked by it ever since. This books presents a boatload of mathematical functions described as series of keystrokes. As a minor calculator dweeb there is much to learn here!
In 1974, electronic calculators were the maker culture focal point even after the release of the MITS Altar 8800. For many electronics hobbyists, the calculator was financially and conceptually in reach. This book may have been an invaluable resource for folks trying to build their own.
