Retro Programming Books
Users reminisce about learning to program from vintage physical books and manuals for early computers like Apple II, Commodore 64, TRS-80, and others in the 1970s-1990s, often their primary resource before the internet.
Activity Over Time
Top Contributors
Keywords
Sample Comments
I had the DEC edition (which pre-dated the Microcomputer edition featured here) and have been trying to buy one used, but copies seem to be extremely hard to come by.I remember learning to program from books like this (and magazines like Creative Computing and Kilobaud that included program listings) by emulating the machine with paper and pencil.I've often wondered if folks who have grown up with easy access to computing power still read code in the same way; if so, I'd recommend Knuth's
The Beagle Bros "Big Tip Book for the Apple II Series" was the only programming text I had in 1989, and no internet yet nor did I know anyone who knew about programming as I was 10 years old. That was my favorite book as I thought it was hilarious and I learned Basic from it and a bit of assembly. Changed the direction of my life for sure.
Nice!For me it was Microsoft BASIC on the early Macintosh and this magical book from 1985: https://smile.amazon.com/Macintosh-Midnight-Madness-Utilitie... (Wow, I can't find the actual cover art anywhere! It was much cooler than what's shown there.)
Back in the 90s the only book on programming my school library offered was Dr Dobb's Toolbook of 80286/80386 programming which was a compilation of articles from the journal. Even though most of it was way over my head it was the only thing I had at the time so I studied it religiously. Purely out of scarcity of knowledge this led to learning basic assembly because the only thing I had access to was this book's code snippets and Microsoft Assembler on the school computers.
ah, nostalgia! i learnt to program with that manual in hand.
My parents also got me that book as a teenager. I learned C from that book: I knew Pascal which we were taught at school and once I realised that you just substituted BEGIN and END with { and } it was easy to learn the other aspect.I really regret that I don't have it any more for the sentimental value it held.I see archive.org has it in their library [0], though it is is marked as "not for borrow"[0] <a href="https://archive.org/details/teachyourselfg
The "Commodore 64 Programmers Reference Guide" got me hooked on computers. Without that book I my life surely would be very different.
I remember buying lots of Abacus "C Programming" books, the Commodore ROM Kernel Manuals, etc.
This exact book is how I learned to program, back in the late ‘70’s. Lots of good memories.
Computer Fun was the first progamming book I ever got. It made me into a coder. I got it when I was six at the same time my father and uncle gave me and my siblings my Uncle's old Apple II for Christmas.I still got a physical copy of it on my home office shelf. Not the same one I had as a kid mind you, because that one took a serious beating over the years. I looked for that book for years with only the memory of the general illustration style to guide me. One day about a decade ago