Books

Feb 3 2012

VirtualGS Book Now Available in iTunes Book Store

T. C. Lim has been working on a book about Pascal programming for the Apple II gs for the past several weeks, releasing preliminary versions along the way.  The book includes a number of programs his kids have developed for the Apple IIgs in Pascal, Orca Pascal, and GSoft BASIC.

The book was produced with iBooks Author and is the first Apple ][ series related book to be produced specifically for iBooks 2.0.  T.C. has announced the immediate availability of the VirtualGS book in the Apple iTunes Book Store.

VirtualGS for iBooks 2.0 is a free download.  To get your copy, go to:

http://itunes.apple.com/book/virtual-gs/id498416459?mt=11

By admin • Apple IIgs, BASIC, Books, Documentation, Pascal, Programming, Vintage • 0 • Tags: , , , , , ,

Apr 21 2011

Free (legal) E-books from Project Gutenberg

I’ll admit this isn’t strictly a Mac oriented post. None the less it is still useful for the Apple//, Mac, and other communities.

When people see something like the title of the post the reaction is pretty much the same as when a politician says “Trust me”. In this case the people operating this organisation have been at it for years. I remember getting books from then in the 80′s or 90′s. They have since updated their technology to support newer formats which can be found on most mobile devices. At the same time they still support simple text files for those of us with cheap piece of @##$% MP3 players which can only read text files. I remember writing a program in Applesoft to read these books on my GS.

These people have been searching for books where the copyright has expired (there are variations of public domain literature which are acceptible as well). As they find them they add the books to their list to be scanned. From there they run the books through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. From there it is proof-read by volunteers. Then the books are made available to the public.

Last time I checked the titles I was quite impressed at what they had. For example, they were working on the entire Wizard of Oz series (I think they had five or six of the 40+ books). Their web site claims they have over 33,000 books with links to various organisations resulting in over 100,000 more. Obviously going through the entire list sequentially will take some time.

To check out their web site go to http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page.

By BlankMike • Books • 0 • Tags:

Mar 21 2011

Free Programming e-book

Finding interesting stuff for the Mac is difficult given the relative numbers of users and programmers out there. I think I may have found something though.

In the *NIX world (including OS X) the Python language seems to be the up and coming thing for programming. Python is an interpreted object oriented language. Python comes free with OS X, Linux, and BSD. It has to be downloaded and installed if it is to run on a Windows machine. I have tried simple GUI programming under Linux and will try it for the Mac as I get to that point.

The book itself contains a number of exercises as well as instructions on how to write programs in Python. I have only reached the second set of exercises but have already found a number of useful items. Those starting out may want to take a look at my recent articles on shells and shell programming. Although it is possible to program exclusively in a GUI environment, it is still a very good idea to start out using the shell then transition to the GUI.

The title of the book is “Learning Python The Hard Way“. The link to the authors web site is http://sheddingbikes.com/posts/1285754959.html. Please read the information on the page before downloading the book.

By BlankMike • Books, Cross Platform, Documentation, Manuals, Programming, Python, Reference, Technical Notes • 0 • Tags: ,

Mar 7 2011

Apple II Scans Adds Inside the Apple //c

The Apple II Scans website, managed by Mike Maginnis, has announced that they have added the follow on book to Gary B. Little’s Inside the Apple //e.  Inside the Apple //c was based on the initial Apple //c and covers the machine in its entirety.  Unfortunately, it is lacking in information about the second generation Apple //c as well as the Apple //c Plus which came out later.  Still the book is a wealth of information for the user who wants to learn what is really inside that little white Apple //c box.

The book is available for download from the Apple II Scans website at:

http://apple2scans.net/apple-ii/inside-the-apple-2c

By billm • Apple //c, Books, Documentation • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , ,

Feb 27 2011

Inside the Apple //e now Available online

Mike Maginnis has brought another great piece of Apple history to the world through his new Apple ][ Scans site.  Inside the Apple //e by Gary B. Little is now in PDF format on his site and freely downloadable.

You can download the PDF by going to the Inside the Apple //e page at:

http://apple2scans.net/apple-ii/inside-the-apple-2e

By billm • Apple ][, Books, Documentation • 0 • Tags: , , , , , ,

Feb 18 2011

The Computist Project is Dead

Mike Maginnis posted a note today on CSA2 about the COmputist Project being dead.  In reality, the project has been combined with a number of other projects run by Mike Maginnis to create a new website.  Mike’s note is contained below:

First, the Computist Project is dead…  It’s been static since 2006
and the website had been slowly falling into disrepair, so to speak.
So now it’s been re-christened the Computist Archive, and has a new
home at:

http://apple2scans.net/computistarchive

Second, “What’s Where in the Apple” has been scanned and posted.  Get
it here:

http://apple2scans.net/apple-ii/whats-where-in-the-apple

And finally, the Apple Business BASIC Reference Manuals have been
scanned.  Find them here:

http://apple2scans.net/apple-iii/apple-business-basic-reference-manuals

- Mike
http://apple2scans.net

By billm • Apple ][, Books, Documentation, Magazines, Manuals • 0