K & R First Edition

[gareth evans]

40 years ago, out of interest, I borrowed a copy
of K & R to read about C, but accidentally dropped
it in a puddle so was morally obliged to buy a new copy
for he from whom I had borrowed it.

Net result; I got to keep the first edition.

I've also got a copy of the blue Bell Labs journal
in which they reveal Unix and C.

I've a book by Magnus Pyke (Brit readers will remember
him as the mad scientist waving his arms about on TV)
from about 1956 wherein he questions the use of computers.

[Vir Campestris]

Dammit I've lost mine :( It should be over there next to the 1981 book
on Pascal and the DOS programmers reference. Not far from my 1941 copy
of Kermode's "Flight without formulas"...

Andy

[Bob Eager]

I have both editions of K&R, and also the Bell Labs journal copy. I
bought the latter from the USA when it had just been published. I had to
negotiate the exchange control labyrinth to get payment to the USA.

I also have the (rare) documentation set that shipped with Mini-UNIX -
rare in itself, although I have a page on setting it up, including scans
of that document.



--
Using UNIX since v6 (1975)...

Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

[David Lesher]

gareth evans <headst...@yahoo.com> writes:

>40 years ago, out of interest, I borrowed a copy of K & R
>to read about C, but accidentally dropped it in a puddle so
>was morally obliged to buy a new copy for he from whom I had
>borrowed it.

In 1989, I was in Warsaw for a month. When not working, I
wandered around the city. I found some kind of bookstore but
knowing literally 2-3 words of Polish, it was not very fruitful.

Until I found a book, printed on newsprint titled

RSX-11

which I of course bought. Next to it was another skinnier book

jezyk programowania C.

which meant nothing to me until I noticed the bottom of the cover where it
said

Kernighan and Ritchie

and I knew before opening it what it was.

I bought both for a dollar; in those days a US dollar bought
most things including lunch or a concert.

--
A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com
& no one will talk to a host that's close..........................
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

[Bob Eager]

On Mon, 29 Mar 2021 21:26:11 +0000, David Lesher wrote:

> gareth evans <headst...@yahoo.com> writes:
>
>>40 years ago, out of interest, I borrowed a copy of K & R to read about
>>C, but accidentally dropped it in a puddle so was morally obliged to buy
>>a new copy for he from whom I had borrowed it.
>
> In 1989, I was in Warsaw for a month. When not working, I wandered
> around the city. I found some kind of bookstore but knowing literally
> 2-3 words of Polish, it was not very fruitful.
>
> Until I found a book, printed on newsprint titled
>
> RSX-11
>
> which I of course bought. Next to it was another skinnier book
>
> jezyk programowania C.

Have a look for:

Wprowadzenie do Systemow Operacyjnych

[Scott Lurndal]

Bob Eager <news...@eager.cx> writes:
> git.gnome.org/pan2)
>X-Received-Bytes: 2094
>X-Received-Body-CRC: 2522827560

>
>On Mon, 29 Mar 2021 21:42:35 +0100, Vir Campestris wrote:
>
>> On 29/03/2021 17:21, gareth evans wrote:
>>> 40 years ago, out of interest, I borrowed a copy of K & R to read about
>>> C, but accidentally dropped it in a puddle so was morally obliged to
>>> buy a new copy for he from whom I had borrowed it.
>>>
>>> Net result; I got to keep the first edition.
>>>
>>> I've also got a copy of the blue Bell Labs journal in which they reveal
>>> Unix and C.
>>>
>>> I've a book by Magnus Pyke (Brit readers will remember him as the mad
>>> scientist waving his arms about on TV) from about 1956 wherein he
>>> questions the use of computers.
>>
>> Dammit I've lost mine :( It should be over there next to the 1981 book
>> on Pascal and the DOS programmers reference. Not far from my 1941 copy
>> of Kermode's "Flight without formulas"...
>
>I have both editions of K&R, and also the Bell Labs journal copy.

As do I. I also have Don Gregory's Algol books. And a fair
amount of orignal Electrodata 220 documentation.

[Charlie Gibbs]

I stumbled across mine yesterday. I keep it with other treasures like
Fred Brooks' _The Mythical Man-Month_ and a collection of Robert L. Glass
stories (written under the pseudonym Miles Benson) titled _The Universal
Elixir (and Other Projects Which Went Wrong)_.

--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | They don't understand Microsoft
\ / <cgi...@kltpzyxm.invalid> | has stolen their car and parked
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | a taxi in their driveway.
/ \ if you read it the right way. | -- Mayayana

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Mon, 29 Mar 2021 21:42:35 +0100

Vir Campestris <vir.cam...@invalid.invalid> wrote:

> Dammit I've lost mine :(

I loaned mine out sometime in the mid-late 80s never to be seen
again.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith | Directable Mirror Arrays
C:\>WIN | A better way to focus the sun
The computer obeys and wins. | licences available see
You lose and Bill collects. | http://www.sohara.org/

[songbird]

Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
> On Mon, 29 Mar 2021 21:42:35 +0100
> Vir Campestris <vir.cam...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>> Dammit I've lost mine :(
>
> I loaned mine out sometime in the mid-late 80s never to be seen
> again.

a few years earlier for me and i don't know what
edition it was as mine was a paperback version sold
through the campus book store.

somewhere out there went my K&R C book and my
Pascal book. same guy borrowed them and never
returned them. i had my name in them too but
that obviously did no good to me. i don't think
they did any good for him either as i don't recall
ever seeing him around again.


songbird

[Peter Flass]

Charlie Gibbs <cgi...@kltpzyxm.invalid> wrote:
> On 2021-03-29, Vir Campestris <vir.cam...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>> On 29/03/2021 17:21, gareth evans wrote:
>>
>>> 40 years ago, out of interest, I borrowed a copy
>>> of K & R to read about C, but accidentally dropped
>>> it in a puddle so was morally obliged to buy a new copy
>>> for he from whom I had borrowed it.
>>>
>>> Net result; I got to keep the first edition.
>>>
>>> I've also got a copy of the blue Bell Labs journal
>>> in which they reveal Unix and C.
>>>
>>> I've a book by Magnus Pyke (Brit readers will remember
>>> him as the mad scientist waving his arms about on TV)
>>> from about 1956 wherein he questions the use of computers.
>>
>> Dammit I've lost mine :( It should be over there next to the 1981 book
>> on Pascal and the DOS programmers reference. Not far from my 1941 copy
>> of Kermode's "Flight without formulas"...
>
> I stumbled across mine yesterday. I keep it with other treasures like
> Fred Brooks' _The Mythical Man-Month_ and a collection of Robert L. Glass
> stories (written under the pseudonym Miles Benson) titled _The Universal
> Elixir (and Other Projects Which Went Wrong)_.
>

I looked around for the Robert Glass books - apparently they’re not
available for any reasonable price.

--
Pete

[gareth evans]

Also from 1981 I've a Pascal book by Grogono, which was a handout
when I attended an Intel Pascal course in Swindon in July of that
year. The only thing I remember from that course was the
fantastic luncheons!

But Intel's Pascal for the 8x86 at that time seemed to be
nobbut a 3rd year project for a computer science undergrad
for there was no optimisation at all and the compiled code
gobbled up memory space like there was no tomorrow, so
we (Pye TMC, Malmesbury) changed to PLM86 for the
Pentara / KBX100 PABX [roject.

[lawrence]

David Lesher <wb8...@panix.com> writes:

> In 1989, I was in Warsaw for a month. When not working, I
> wandered around the city. I found some kind of bookstore but
> knowing literally 2-3 words of Polish, it was not very fruitful.
>
> Until I found a book, printed on newsprint titled
>
> RSX-11
>
> which I of course bought. Next to it was another skinnier book
>
> jezyk programowania C.
>
> which meant nothing to me until I noticed the bottom of the cover where it
> said
>
> Kernighan and Ritchie
>
> and I knew before opening it what it was.
>

I have a very similar story. In 1994, I was visiting a Russian
nerd-friend in Saint Petersburg. He had hundreds of books, and I was
just running down the row practicing reading Cyrillic names aloud. [I
spoke maybe ten words of Russian, but at least I could practice
sight-reading the Cyrillic alphabet]

After an interminable chain of Alexykovs and Markovs and Baikovs, I came
to one book, "Kapps ii Stafford" HEY! I know this one! He had a very
well put together (high production values, quality paper)
Russian-language translation of "The Standard" textbook on VAX Assembly
Language.

Three years later, when he came to visit me in the USA, I showed him my
'original' copy.

-- echo lawre...@abaluon.abaom | sed -e 's/aba/c/g'

[Questor]

Is this what we've come to -- posting our personal inventories of classic
computer books?

I've got an K & R somewhere but I don't know what edition it is. I have Ted
Nelson's "Computer Lib / Dream Machines;" it came from DEC's Corporate Library
(they were paring down their collection and literally giving it away) so it may
well be first edition. And I have the DEC WARS comic book -- somewhere in a
box. It's been so long since I've seen that I can't remember many details about
it.

[bert]

On Wednesday, 31 March 2021 at 07:40:59 UTC+1, Questor wrote:
> Is this what we've come to -- posting our personal inventories of classic
> computer books?
>

Well, why ever not? Two or three decades ago, at a local collectors' fair,
I picked up a copy of B.V. Bowden's 1953 classic "Faster than Thought"
for an entirely nominal £1 or £2.

[Charlie Gibbs]

On 2021-03-31, Questor <use...@only.tnx> wrote:

> Is this what we've come to -- posting our personal inventories of classic
> computer books?

Why not - this is a.f.c after all.

> I've got an K & R somewhere but I don't know what edition it is.

<brag>
Mine is the first edition.
</brag>

> I have Ted Nelson's "Computer Lib / Dream Machines;" it came from DEC's
> Corporate Library (they were paring down their collection and literally
> giving it away) so it may well be first edition.

I have both the first edition and the reprint. The reprint doesn't
properly reproduce the upside-down back cover, but it does fit more
easily on most shelves.

> And I have the DEC WARS comic book -- somewhere in a box. It's been
> so long since I've seen that I can't remember many details about it.

Comic book? I got my hands on several DEC Wars text files and blended
them into a single Star Wars parody, but I never saw a comic book.
Tell me more.

[Niklas Karlsson]

On 2021-03-31, Charlie Gibbs <cgi...@kltpzyxm.invalid> wrote:
> On 2021-03-31, Questor <use...@only.tnx> wrote:
>
>> And I have the DEC WARS comic book -- somewhere in a box. It's been
>> so long since I've seen that I can't remember many details about it.
>
> Comic book? I got my hands on several DEC Wars text files and blended
> them into a single Star Wars parody, but I never saw a comic book.
> Tell me more.

Perhaps he was thinking of CPU Wars, still available Machine here (but
who knows for how much longer):

https://web.archive.org/web/20110727111512/http://www.e-pix.com/CPUWARS/cpuwars.html

Niklas
--
The company keeps a helpdesk to allow staff to vent certain excess
pressures by ranting, just as other excess pressures are vented thanks
to the company installing toilets. Generally the toilets last longer.
-- Anthony de Boer

[Niklas Karlsson]

On 2021-03-31, Niklas Karlsson <nikke.k...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Perhaps he was thinking of CPU Wars, still available Machine here (but
> who knows for how much longer):
>
> https://web.archive.org/web/20110727111512/http://www.e-pix.com/CPUWARS/cpuwars.html

Flubbed my editing a bit, and this might be a better spot to start in:

https://web.archive.org/web/20110710161748/http://e-pix.com/CPUWARS/Comic/Panels/001.html

Niklas
--
"... I've seen Sun monitors on fire off the side of the multimedia lab.
I've seen NTU lights glitter in the dark near the Mail Gate.
All these things will be lost in time, like the root partition last week.
Time to die...". - Peter Gutmann in alt.sysadmin.recovery

[Questor]

On Tue, 30 Mar 2021 12:18:15 -0700, Peter Flass <peter...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>I looked around for the Robert Glass books - apparently they're not
>available for any reasonable price.

I suppose that depends on your definition of reasonable. Consider that some of
his titles are over forty years old and were undoubtedly limited print runs.
You may find the prices on his later works more to your liking. I found plenty
of options on the usual sites like Amazon, Abebooks, and Alibris.

[Questor]

On 31 Mar 2021 16:29:19 GMT, Charlie Gibbs <cgi...@kltpzyxm.invalid> wrote:
>On 2021-03-31, Questor <use...@only.tnx> wrote:
>> Is this what we've come to -- posting our personal inventories of classic
>> computer books?
>

>> And I have the DEC WARS comic book -- somewhere in a box. It's been
>> so long since I've seen that I can't remember many details about it.
>
>Comic book? I got my hands on several DEC Wars text files and blended
>them into a single Star Wars parody, but I never saw a comic book.
>Tell me more.

Details are sketchy. I purchased it in a Maynard bookstore, early to mid-1980s.
It's an oversize format with a stiff cardboard cover. I think it's about DEC
programmers, but I don't recall any plot details. I'm starting to dig into my
storage boxes and will post when I encounter it, but there's no telling when
that will be.

[Questor]

On 31 Mar 2021 19:03:00 GMT, Niklas Karlsson <nikke.k...@gmail.com> wrote:
>On 2021-03-31, Niklas Karlsson <nikke.k...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Perhaps he was thinking of CPU Wars, still available Machine here (but
>> who knows for how much longer):
>>

>Flubbed my editing a bit, and this might be a better spot to start in:
>
>https://web.archive.org/web/20110710161748/http://e-pix.com/CPUWARS/Comic/Panels/001.html

Yes -- that's it! Thanks for remembering it correctly for me.

Of course, I have the original, 11x17 inch version, not the reprint.