+1 to Input. I learned programming from the Brazilian version of Input, a straight translation from the original AFAIK, which you could bind in a branded Input hard cover (for a fee) and create a mini programming encyclopedia.
I've actually been collecting the Usbourne books for the past couple years! For my research on providing typing exercises to CS students, I like to use the books as a physical prop to point out how "this was how they used to do it" [1]. This is actually one of the issues in modern CS learning resources - it's too easy for novices to simply copy and paste the code, so they never really refine the mistakes made from simple syntax errors. By forcing students to retype code, you are making them more comfortable with the keyboard and they don't have to worry about juggling technical literacy with problem-solving skills.
I agree with you completely. I am self taught. I started as a child from books like this and also the help files in qbasic.
Ever since those days any time I'm learning a new framework or language I turn auto complete off. If I find good code snippets, I retype them and usually refactor them completely.
Although it takes me a bit longer to ramp up, i feel this has lead to me being a very good engineer and has given me a deeper understanding of many techniques and has helped me commit many things to memory. At this point adapting to new languages and being productive in them only takes me a few months.
And just look at how much simpler it is compared to modern kids programming materials. The code is denser but there's less of it, and far far less bootstrapping.
I think that is the killer right now, the amount of barriers to moving pixels on the screen is very high relative to how it was for us on the 8bits.
I sure would have loved this as a kid! It's even more fun and colorful than Creative Computing (although it's not a monthly publication). I really used to look forward to every issue of CC each month.
I also loved these books as a kid. A while ago I started making a game - BASIC Instincts - that was going to be about type-in listings and modifying your world with code (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwBiJR_rj_w)
I got the interpreter working and started creating the world... then the game Else Heart.Break() came out and took the wind out of my sails - it did what I was planning to do, only much better. Though it might be time to revisit it now!
One of my favourite programming books for its anyone-can-get-into-programming optimism and for including the timeless advice "Remember, when you are trying to work out a game, not to include anything which your computer won't be able to do" (p38).
It's also amazing that this short volume supports (at least) 8 dialects of BASIC. Much respect to the authors for writing mostly-portable code and then tweaking and testing it 8 times.
I had an Oric-1 in those days and cut my teeth porting the games in this book to the Oric. The cassette tape with my work is long since perished, but I do still have the drawings from those books burned in my brain, like a searing brand. ;)
If I recall, the same artist also illustrated a kids "Spy" book, which was also another favourite .. although in hindsight, a bit spookier now than it should be.
I really wish they would release as free PDFs the Usborne Book of the Future series. I'd also love to get my hands on PDFs of the Neil Ardley 'World of Tomorrow' series as well!
I remember the commodore blue book christmas. I went through that book in a weekend. I could never get the sprite/gaming stuff working as they were laid out in the book, though. Very frustrating as an 11 year old.
There was a book on computers I found in my childhood that inspired me to get into programming, and I'm really interested in finding it again. I'm convinced it was either an Usborne book or was somehow related to the Usborne books, and there's a lot of fans of those books around here, so I figure this thread is probably a good place to ask around to see if anyone recognizes it.
The book had qualities in common with the books "The Usborne Young Scientist: Computers (1992)"/"Usborne Guide to Computers (1981)" (near-identical span and even order of topics, but this book was much less cartoony and was more technically in-depth) and "The Usborne Book of the Future" (it contained some pages like https://miro.medium.com/max/1920/1*M9yzYC6k154ODT0k0SiYMg.jp... with same style of illustration and lots of descriptions about the items in the illustration) but the book was none of those. The book wasn't dedicated to showing off program code, but it did have a bit of BASIC on one page, it contained descriptions of logic gates, and it even had a half-adder circuit, which I remember copying each of into my notebook and simulating on paper. I think the book was either based on or was a precursor to "Usborne Guide to Computers (1981)", but I haven't been able to get any further than that. I've written a lot more of a description from what I remember at https://tildes.net/~talk/is4/whats_one_thing_you_havent_been....
[+] [-] avmich|6 years ago|reply
00.ИПА 01.ПА 02.ИП7 03.- 04.Fx<0 05.12 06.ИПВ 07./-/ 08.÷ 09.П2 10.БП 11.36 12.ИП4 13.ИПА 14.÷ 15.F√ 16.ИП7 17.× 18.XY 19.С/П 20.П9 21.П8 22.П2 23.÷ 24.ИПД 25.ИП8 26.- 27.Fx≥0 28.00 29.ПД 30.ИП5 31.+ 32.÷ 33.ИП6 34.× 35.П8 36.ИП0 37.ИП8 38.ИП9 39.Fsin 40.× 41.ИПВ 42./-/ 43.ПП 44.89 45.+ 46.П0 47.ПП 48.93 49.9 50.0 51.× 52.Fπ 53.÷ 54.ИПА 55.÷ 56.ИПС 57.+ 58.ПС 59.Fcos 60.Fx<0 61.61 62.Fx≥0 63.63 64.С/П 65.ИПВ 66.ИП8 67.ИП9 68.Fcos 69.× 70.ИП7 71.ИПА 72.÷ 73.Fx2 74.ИП4 75.× 76.- 77.ИП0 78.ПП 79.89 80.+ 81.ПВ 82.ПП 83.93 84.2 85.÷ 86.ИПА 87.+ 88.В/О 89.ИП0 90.× 91.ИПА 92.÷ 93.+ 94.ИП2 95.× 96.В/О
And a story which tells what it's about:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/silicon-revolution/ho...
[+] [-] app4soft|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] themodelplumber|6 years ago|reply
https://archive.org/details/Computer_Space_Games
https://archive.org/details/folkscanomy_computer?and%5B%5D=l...
If using a smaller screen, be sure to try out the full screen, single page, and zoom controls.
[+] [-] schoenobates|6 years ago|reply
https://archive.org/details/inputmagazine
[+] [-] danielrpa|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] codeulike|6 years ago|reply
https://usborne.com/browse-books/features/computer-and-codin...
e.g. Introduction co Computer Programming
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxv0SsvibDMTUXdYTnRaTy1LLVE...
[+] [-] tsumnia|6 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338659877_Typing_Ex...
[+] [-] musicale|6 years ago|reply
BBC BASIC runs on most modern computers, notably the Raspberry Pi running RISC OS (which includes BBC BASIC)
or Linux/BSD/Windows running Brandy BASIC and derivatives
or Linux/Windows/macOS/Android running the free BBC BASIC for SDL 2.0: http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcsdl/
or in a web browser: https://bbc.godbolt.org
[+] [-] ococococ|6 years ago|reply
Ever since those days any time I'm learning a new framework or language I turn auto complete off. If I find good code snippets, I retype them and usually refactor them completely.
Although it takes me a bit longer to ramp up, i feel this has lead to me being a very good engineer and has given me a deeper understanding of many techniques and has helped me commit many things to memory. At this point adapting to new languages and being productive in them only takes me a few months.
[+] [-] adhoc32|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kar1181|6 years ago|reply
I think that is the killer right now, the amount of barriers to moving pixels on the screen is very high relative to how it was for us on the 8bits.
[+] [-] DonHopkins|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrspeaker|6 years ago|reply
I got the interpreter working and started creating the world... then the game Else Heart.Break() came out and took the wind out of my sails - it did what I was planning to do, only much better. Though it might be time to revisit it now!
[+] [-] wzdd|6 years ago|reply
It's also amazing that this short volume supports (at least) 8 dialects of BASIC. Much respect to the authors for writing mostly-portable code and then tweaking and testing it 8 times.
[+] [-] fit2rule|6 years ago|reply
If I recall, the same artist also illustrated a kids "Spy" book, which was also another favourite .. although in hindsight, a bit spookier now than it should be.
[+] [-] jimmcslim|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aswanson|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CocoaGeek|6 years ago|reply
Thanks for sharing, brings back lots of good memories!
[+] [-] zeepzeep|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AgentME|6 years ago|reply
The book had qualities in common with the books "The Usborne Young Scientist: Computers (1992)"/"Usborne Guide to Computers (1981)" (near-identical span and even order of topics, but this book was much less cartoony and was more technically in-depth) and "The Usborne Book of the Future" (it contained some pages like https://miro.medium.com/max/1920/1*M9yzYC6k154ODT0k0SiYMg.jp... with same style of illustration and lots of descriptions about the items in the illustration) but the book was none of those. The book wasn't dedicated to showing off program code, but it did have a bit of BASIC on one page, it contained descriptions of logic gates, and it even had a half-adder circuit, which I remember copying each of into my notebook and simulating on paper. I think the book was either based on or was a precursor to "Usborne Guide to Computers (1981)", but I haven't been able to get any further than that. I've written a lot more of a description from what I remember at https://tildes.net/~talk/is4/whats_one_thing_you_havent_been....
[+] [-] mysterydip|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] NovemberWhiskey|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] teddyh|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elvyscruz|6 years ago|reply