Dec 22 2006

The Ruby Way

admin @ 2:00 pm

I’ve started reading the 2nd edition of “The Ruby Way” by Hal Fulton.

So far it’s been good. I’ve been popping it open somewhat randomly so far, but plan to take a more structured look at it shortly. I enjoyed the overview of OO as applied to Ruby as well as the section on Rubyisms and idioms.

This is a big book, and looks very comprehensive. I’m looking forward to working through it.

One thing I have noticed… and I don’t know Hal so I’m not sure… is that there are comments regarding programming language issues that seem to indicate a lack of familiarity/awareness of Rubys grand-daddies: LISP & Smalltalk. Comments like “in more recent languages such as Java, memory is reclaimed…”   Both LISP and Smalltalk had garbage collection. In fact that’s where the majority of GC research was done. This however is a minor quibble. This is a book about Ruby, and a good one at that.
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Dec 21 2006

iWoz

admin @ 9:56 pm

This was an excellent read.

It was a nice, not-quite-so-well-known tale of Apple’s early days. The writing/style seemed genuine and authentic. Granted, Woz did a LOT of the inovative, groundbreaking work in the personal computer industry, but he sounds almost braggy at times in the book. Sure.. he created the first breakout game, wrote the first videogame (breakout on the Apple 1), and almost singlehandedly designed what is arguably THE earthshattering invention of the 20th century (at least as far as computing is concerned)… the Apple ][.

Highly recomended, this is a great read.
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Dec 10 2006

TextMate book

admin @ 10:48 pm
textmate_medium.jpg TextMate

Power Editing for the Mac

James Edward Gray II

I’ve read a couple of the beta versions of this book from the Pragmatic Press. It’s good. If you are using TextMate, you should have this book. The current documentation for TextMate is pretty lame. This book does an admirable job of filling that void.

The writing style is easy to read, and is quite information dense. Content goes from basic cursor movement all the way to custom language support. It’s a good read, and packed with valuable and useful information.

That said, while I’m impressed with the book, I’ve become less and less impressed with TextMate itself. It’s a wonderful text editor and a sweet Mac app, and will long have a place on my dock. But for serious programming, it doesn’t cut it. I’ve gone back to “old faithful”… my constant companion from from way back.. GNU Emacs. If you’re doing serious programming, there’s nothing like Emacs.

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Jun 18 2006

Screw it, Let’s Do It.

admin @ 12:48 am

I just read this fabulous little book: Screw It, Let’s Do It: Lessons in Life by Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Music, Virgin Airlines, etc.

The book is low price, short, easy to read, and packing with good advice. More encouraging than enlightening, but that’s never a bad thing.

From the Amazon page: Global entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has built a business empire and made billions, yet is renowned for his approachability, ability to challenge and succeed against the odds. Screw It, Let’s Do It reveals the lessons from life that have helped him through his business and personal life such as, believe it can be done and that, if others disagree with you, try and try again until you achieve your goal; or that you must love what you do. These and other lessons, with examples of how he learned them and how he’s used them, are included in this stirring and candid look at his lessons from an exceptional life, which will inspire you to make a difference in your own life.
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Jul 08 2005

Fit for Developing Software

admin @ 1:53 am

Fit for Developing Software: Framework for Integrated Tests by Rick Mugridge and Ward Cunningham

My copy of the new book by Ward Cunningham and Rick Mugridge arrived today. It looks fabulous. If you are using FIT or planning to.. GET THIS BOOK. I had the pleasure of reviewing an early version of the manuscript.. it was awesome.. but the final version looks even better.

I’m looking forward to reading it.. and i’ll be promoting it to anyone interested in using FIT.
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Mar 31 2005

Revolution in the Valley

admin @ 12:18 pm

Review of Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How The Mac Was Made by Andy Hertzfeld

2005 O’Reilly, ISBN 0-596-00719-1

“It’s chilling to recall how this cast of young and inexperienced people who cared more than anything about doing great things created what is perhaps the key technology of our lives.” — Steve Wozniak

So reads the back cover of this new book from O’Reilly, authored by Andy Hertzfeld.

Andy was one of the main authors of the system software of the original Macintosh, including the User Interface Toolbox. After three years at Apple, Anmdy went on to co-found Radius, General Magic, and Eazel.

This book was different than any I’ve read before. It was different than any other history of Apple, Mac or other technical thing (e.g “Soul of a New Machine”, “Fire in the Valley”, “The Journey is the Reward”, etc.). One of the biggest differences was how it was organized: as a series of short (2-3 pages) stories or anecdotes. This made the book highly entertaining, enjoyable, and easy to read.

There were loads of photos, including a chronological photo tour of the evolution of the Lisa’s windowing system. Lots of pics of the mac team, prototype boards, screen shots, even an appearance by Bill Gates. One really cool thing was various scans of Andy’s notes. In all it was an incredible look into what went on in those magical few years.

I have been a fan of Apple since about 1980 when I learned basic on an Apple ][. I fell in love with Macintosh when the earliest information on it was made public. After being introduced to Smalltalk by the Aug ‘81 issue of Byte.. here was a computer that made it all real. I had a couple Macs over the years, and used an early model Newton for several years at one point. I’ve finally (Feb 14, 2005) “switched”.. making a well loaded iBook my core machine. Even so, this book is loaded with details that I hadn’t read before.

It’s interesting to think about.. I’m writing a review of a book about the original Mac… 21 years after the Mac’s introduction, on one of it’s recent descendants… one with several orders of magnitude more power (10240 times as much memory, for example). Woz was right, though… the original Mac changed how people view/use computers.

If you are a Mac fan, or a computer history junkie (I’m both BTW) then get this book. It’s full of trivia, and it’s a fun read. Well done, Andy.

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