This is file: TBOOKS.LST, ver 1.2, dated No. 2, 1985 BOOKS on PASCAL and/or TURBO PASCAL: (ver 2: Nov 2, 1985). BOOKS on Pascal, TURBO Pascal, and general programming techniques mentioned/reviewed/recommended by SIG users and other sources. New version includes 8 books specifically for Turbo Pascal. Adds about 20 more books since previous listing. Listing now divided into categories: Turbo,Apple,UCSD, Other Pascal, Articles and General Programming. Compiled by: Scott Daniels, CIS ppn [72477,2472] NOTE: If you can't find a book locally, try this source (recommended by the Whole Earth Software Catalog): Computer Literacy Bookshop Phone: 408/730-9957 for VISA & MC orders call between 9:30-11:30 am; 2-8 pm PST Shipping/Handling charges run $2.50 for first 2 books, then $0.25- 0.50 per book. DISCLAIMER Neither the editor, Scott Daniels, nor Borland International, nor the SysOps are specifically recommending any of these books. If you have any doubts or questions, contact those who provided the comments. NOTE: In a recent (approx Aug 1985) message on the Borland SIG, Dennis E. Hamilton [70100,271] recommends the following stack of books for those who want to learn Turbo Pascal: 1) Borland's manual for Turbo Pascal 2) "a good primer" (see list below) 3) "a good reference", eg Jensen & Wirth report 4) some intermediate material with lots of worked programs and problems 5) "Software Tools in Pascal" by K&P (below) 6) "How to Solve it by Computer" by Dromey (below) 7) TPTOOL.LBR in DL1, which gives source code to Pascal Tools --------------------------------------------------------------------- The following resources are specifically for Turbo Pascal --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. TURBO PASCAL DOCU-MATE KEYBOARD TEMPLATE Publisher: Systems Management Associates Price: $14.95 (discounted at $12 + s/h from PC Connection) This fits around the ridges on the keyboard and provides 2 sides of notes and info on Turbo - compiler directives, reserved words list, procedures/functions list, pointer procedures etc. 2. INTRODUCTION TO TURBO PASCAL Author: Douglas S. Stivison Pub: Sybex Books Price: $14.95 Comment: 1) Warehouse RBBS (513/258-0020) provided the following review: This is a "REALLY GREAT BOOK ON TURBO". I have read and re-read it from cover to cover. Doug brings everything within the reach and understanding of the novice but keeps it at a level that will not bore the professional programmer. He starts at the beginning and carriers the reader in a lively way into all the advanced functions and once your are into writing your own programs, it makes a nice reference manual. He explains many of the really great functions of Turbo while scolding Borland for "hiding an extremely powerful feature in a footnote" in their Turbo Reference manual. He is very sensitive to the use of "computerese" and uses a style and language that even beginners will learn to program in Turbo. The author has given many examples that the reader can key in. If you want to learn to program in Turbo Pascal, BUY THIS BOOK!!! 2) Burt Bralliar [70357,717] comments that "it is the best introduction to Turbo Pascal I have seen, including Borland's own Turbo Tutor." One thing to be aware of is that Stivison's focus is definitely on Turbo Pascal, with its powerful extensions and exceptions, and not on standard Pascal. If you're trying to learn the language as well as the implementation of it in Turbo, you might do well to get a Pascal book to read in tandem with Stivison's book. The author, Doug Stivison, announced the availability on the Tech- Mail RBBS, a registered-user only BBS. He has offered to upload the routines from the book. "I wrote the book as a labor of love because I am a Tubo junkie. I welcome any comments." 3. PROGRAMMING WITH TURBO PASCAL Author: David Carroll (by the way, Dave is a user here). Publisher: McGraw-Hill Available: October 1985 Price: $34.95 (book + disk) Description: This combined book and disk provides a tutorial introduction to Pascal with extensive sample programs both in the book and on the disk. Also on the disk, under license from Borland, is a partially disabled version of Turbo Pascal supporting all features except compilation of more than 200 lines of code or the creation of .COM files, allowing the buyer to use Turbo before committing to buy it from Borland. Microcomputer programmers, users, and hobbyinsts will find this an invaluable aid in mastering Borland's Turbo Pascal. 4. USING TURBO PASCAL (covers version 3.0) Author: Steve Wood Publisher: McGraw-Hill Available: now at all "good" bookstores! Price: $19.95 (Review by Warehouse RBBS) This seems to be a good book also but I have not actually read it yet. The author has geared the book for the beginner as well as the professional programmer. He has included many routines that you can add to your library of procedures/functions that you can use in every program that you create. Part I takes the reader through the use of the Turbo compiler and the language. Part II gets into the more advanced functions and includes a very complex program that is keyed in by the reader in parts as you go through the book until you have a complete program. He has also included many tables of the differences in Turbo Pascal versus Standard Pascal. The author will send you a diskette with all the routines in the book, if you do not care to key in the code provided. As the reader goes through the book, many examples are provided that can be keyed in to test your knowledge and learning progress. 5. TUNING YOUR TURBO PASCAL Author: Steve Wood Publisher: Osborne-McGraw Hill, 1985. Price: ? Description: a number of ready-to-use sub-programs which the user can type in. A disk is available from: Precision Logic Systems @ 918/742-0979. 6. THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO TURBO PASCAL Author: Jeff Duntemann Pub: Scott, Foresman (1985) Price: $ ? Duntemann is technical editor for PC Tech Journal magazine, and Sysop of their Bulletin Board. He has been writing programs in Pascal since he learned it in 1979. Duntemann describes this book as "the first book written specifically for Turbo Pascal." 7. TURBO PASCAL TIPS & TRICKS Author: ? Pub: Abacus Software Available: Nov 19, 1985 Price: $19.95 Description: This book is a collection of programming techniques to be used with Turbo Pascal. It contains a large selection of commonly-used routines such as: sorts, binary trees, B-trees, screen output procedures, "easy input" function, time and date functions (MSDOS), program lister, cross-reference utility, tracer utility. Abacus Software may be contacted at: (616) 241-5510 (MI). 8. MASTERING TURBO PASCAL Author: Tom Swan Pub: Hayden Book Co. Price: ?? Description: Includes source code on disk. Reference: Programmer's Journal, Jul/Aug 1985. Contact the author direct at: PO Box 206, Lititz, PA 17543 --------------------------------------------------------------------- A number of articles have been published about Pascal(Turbo & others) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. TURBO PASCAL & 8087 by Henry C. Thacker, Jr. in ACCESS, Jul/Aug 1985 (pub: LEDS publishing). Discusses advantages of the 8087 coprocessor chip, compares the quality of arithmetic produced with and without the 8087, shows weaknesses of floating point operations if the chip is not used. 2. PASCAL'S DESIGN FLAWS/MODULA-2 SOLUTIONS AND PASCAL PATCHES by Mark C. Johnson, Allen Munro. in BYTE, Mar 1984, pp 371-388 Describes "seven subtle problems with Pascal"., and discusses how M-2 fixes them. The problems: short-circuited Boolean expression, no explicit way to access machine addresses, can't operate on an array without knowing its size explicitly, constants cannot be expressions, restricted order of declarations, no "else" for CASE statement, lack of pseudo-global local variables that retain their value between invocations of the procedure. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Books about UCSD Pascal --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. PASCAL PROGRAMS FOR BUSINESS Author: Tom Swan Publisher: Hayden Price: $ 15.95 Comments: 1) Ken Sherrets [75746,2200] recommends this book for newcomers to Pascal, and says it "gives a lot of code and insight." Covers UCSD Pascal, not Turbo. However, Tom Holaday [70407,534] has mentioned that Turbo is very close to UCSD Pascal, so "books on UCSD will have about a 90% carryover". 2) BYTE (Dec 83) review noted it covers word processing and business subjects as well as Pascal. "There are a lot of interesting, well structured, well-designed programs...some are so interesting that I intend to key them in Real Soon Now." 2. THE PASCAL HANDBOOK Author: ? Publisher: Sybex Price: $ 19.95 Comments: 1) Tom Holaday [70407,534] mentions that this book is "an encyclopedic treatment of each (UCSD) Pascal word with examples. I found it really helpful." Tom has been trying to teach his co- workers Turbo, on various IBM-compatible machines. 2) Ken Sherrets [75746,2200] recommends this as a good reference book. 3. PROBLEM SOLVING USING UCSD PASCAL, 2nd ed. Author: K. Bowles, S.Franklin, D.Volper Publisher: Springer-Verlag 1984 340 pp paper; ISBN 0-387-90822-6 Price: $ 17.95 Description: Includes latest devlopments in UCSD. For "the serious micro user." Intro-duces algorithm development & problem-solving; illustrates Pascal language features and programming concepts; features graphics and text processing. 4. INTRODUCTION TO PASCAL (INCLUDING UCSD PASCAL) Author: Rodnay Zaks Pub: Sybex (1981) Comment: 1) BYTE (Dec 83) comments that "the book isn't all that bad, and it does go into some detail... you could live with Zaks, and if there's nothing better conveniently at hand, you could learn the language from it... (but) there are better introductory texts." Zaks' "introduction is not as good as Keller's [First Course...] and isn't as complete on complex issues as Grogono's [Programming in Pascal]." 5. DOING BUSINESS WITH PASCAL Author: Richard & Douglas Hergert Publisher: Sybex (1983) Comments: 1) Ken Sherrets [75746,2200] recommends this book as "a good book for persons that know" Pascal. 2) BYTE (Dec 83) says this "is not a beginner's book... offers a great number of practical business programs.... [recommended] for any small business owner [trying] to write or read programs written for the business." UCSD-oriented, and written for micro computer users. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Books about Pascal for the APPLE --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. APPLE PASCAL GAMES Author: Douglas Hergert and Joseph T.Kalash. Publisher: Sybex (Berkeley CA: 1981). ISBN 0-89588-074-1 pbk. Comments: 1) Dennis E. Hamilton [70100,271] mentions that this book uses Apple Pascal, but it should be reasonably easy to convert, and the programs all do understandable things (a bonus of game software). 2. ADVANCED PASCAL PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES Author: Paul A. Sand Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 1984 Price: $19.95 (370 pp, paper) Description: What a good program should be; toolkit of functions and procedures for interactive i/o, string/number conversions, output formatting. Build a sample program, GasLog, to calculate car gas mileage. Covers command parsers (design a pocket calculator), text file tools (oriented toward Apple and 6502 machine code), game theory (Reversi), simulation and animation (bouncing balls, gravity), spreadsheet (PasCalc). Comment: 1) Review in PC Tech Journal (July 1985, pg 189) by J. Duntemann: Merits a serious look by serious Pascal programmers on any IBM product. Presents many topics in great detail, but without enough of an overview to enable user to apply to an actual project. Relies heavily on assembler for speed. A gold mine of Pascal code, superb discussions on game theory, interactive input, simulation, data structures. "One of the finest books on Pascal I've ever read." 3. PROGRAMMING THE APPLE II (title uncertain) Author: Randy Hyde Pub: ? Description: A book on 6502 Assembly language. Comments: 1) Terran Van Wagner [72157,3260] is "unsure of the title but I think this was my first introduction to parameter passing on the stack, a pain w/ 6502's but a great tool for modular design." 4. PASCAL-A PROBLEM SOLVING APPROACH Author: Elliot B. Koffman Pub: Addison-Wesley Microbooks Popular Series (1982) Description: This book is intended as a colleg-level text, and includes some relatively complicated programs. Covers UCSD Pascal on the Apple. Examples, problems, answers. Comment: 1) BYTE (Dec 83) review said this book was "not as general as the Keller/Grogono combination [FirstCourse]/[Programming in Pascal], but is adequate for learning UCSD Pascal." The programming examples are all in uppercase, which the reviewer felt "encourages bad programming style." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The following books are about other versions of Pascal ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. PASCAL FROM BASIC Author: Peter Brown Publisher: Addison-Wesley, 1982, 182 pp Price: $12.95 According to a review in Whole Earth Software Catalog, ver 1.0 -the book is "for all BASIC hackers that want to learn Pascal". Explains Pascal concepts - structure, string/file handling, memory management, data types. The book is NOT aimed at translating from BASIC to Pascal. And from the review, it is not clear whether the book gives Pascal implementations of BASIC functions (eg Locate(x,y)). Comment: 1) Ken Sherrets [75746,2200] mentions "a book for BASIC programmers that is about Pascal, (which) I have used to teach others in the past." Could this be the book? 2) Gary Miller [70127,3674] also mentions a "good book out there (about) Pascal for BASIC programmers", but didn't know author or publisher. 2. FROM BASIC TO PASCAL Author: Ronald W. Anderson Pub: TAB Books (1982) Price: $ ?? Comments: 1) A review in BYTE (Dec 1983) noted the listings in this book were hard to read (dot-matrix printing), and that "I'd hate to have to rely on [this book] as my guide [in converting to Pascal]." Also see other commnets (negative) re TAB books in the review of "Pascal" by Heiserman. 3. FUNDAMENTALS OF DATA STRUCTURES IN PASCAL Author: Horowitz and Sahni Publisher: Computer Science Press Price: $ ? User comments: 1) Neil J. Rubenking [72267,1531] recommends this as an advanced text. "It's dense", and he notes it does not specifically address Turbo. 4. PROGRAMMING AND PROBLEM SOLVING IN PASCAL Author: G. Michael Schneider, Steven W. Weingart, David M. Perlman Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Price: $27 approx User comments: 1) Allen Tufts [74746,1346] found this very useful and informative. Not Turbo specific, but deals with Pascal in general. 5. ADVANCED PROGRAMMING AND PROBLEM SOLVING IN PASCAL Author: G. M. Schneider, S. C. Bruell Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Price: $27 approx User comments: 1) Allen Tufts [74746,1346] and Irwin Wainhause [71046,602] both found this book very useful. Not Turbo specific. 6. OH! PASCAL Author: Doug Cooper, Michaelk Clancy Publisher: Norton Price: ? User comments: 1) Jim Hall [74225,1064] recommends this, "much easier to follow than (Turbo) Tutor." 2) Lee Thompson [75076,245] mentions that he's heard that the book is due for an update in late July '85. The old (current) version of the book is "very good." 3) Miles Kehoe [76264,12] notes that this is a "really neat work, I've found (it) useful/fun/challanging and worth the investment." 7. PASCAL FOR THE IBM-PC Author: Bowyer and Tamboulian Publisher: Brady Books Price: $19.95 The current edition is *out*of*print*. Brady expects to publish a revised edition in late 85/early 86, which specifically addresses Turbo Pascal. 8. SOFTWARE TOOLS IN PASCAL Author: Brian Kernighan and Plaugher Publisher: Addison-Wesley (1981) Price: $ 20? This book lists routines developed on a UNIX system, for performing various utility functions, eg count words, search for a pattern, etc. The book is a translation of the author's classic work in FORTRAN Comments: 1) Highly recommended by Whole Earth Software Catalog. 2) Mike Hughes [75766,1455] says "don't miss it - it might be right down your alley. Practical and sophisticated at the same time." He was recommending it to a BASIC programmer who was trying to learn Turbo. 3) check the file TPTOOL.LBR in DL1 here which has these Tools already converted for Turbo. It is not something to wade into without the book though. 4) Terran Van Wagner [72157,3260] feels it has "made me a better programmer." 5) BYTE (Dec 83): "presents an amazing variety of programs, many of which [can be used together]... the value of the books and programs is in teaching, by example, just what structured programming is all about." Cautions that it will take a lot of translation to get these "tools" running on your micro. See Pournelle's "Primer on Pascal" for a version that runs on a micro. 8. PROBLEM-SOLVING PRINCIPLES FOR PASCAL PROGRAMMERS Author: ? Publisher: Hayden Price: $10 No information on this? Anyone know anything? 9. STRUCTURED PROGRAMMING AND PROBLEM-SOLVING IN PASCAL Author: ? Publisher: Prentice-Hall Price: $15.95 10. PROBLEM-SOLVING AND STRUCTURED PROGRAMMING IN PASCAL Author: Elliot B. Koffman Publisher: Addison-Wesley Price: ? Comment: 1) Gary Miller [70127,3674], author of TURMEN.PAS, recommends this book as a "good ... reasonable book for Pascal". He used it in college. 11. PASCAL PROGRAMS FOR SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS Author: ? Publisher: Sybex Price: $16.95 12. ELEMENTARY PASCAL Author: H. Ledgard and A. Singer Publisher: Vintage Books ISBN 0-394-70800-8 Price: ? User Comments: 1) Dennis E. Hamilton [70100,271] recommends to newcomers to Pascal, and comments :"expect to work on your mathematics as you go along." Hamilton says "there aren't enough programs to try soon enough, but this is a book by people who are very good, so they generally don't teach the bad habits that are often urged in introductory books." 13. PASCAL APPLICATIONS FOR THE SCIENCES Author: Richard E. Crandall Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 1984 Price: $ 16.95 Review: BYTE, July 1985, pg 71. Their comments: book's goal is to teach scientific programming. Organized as 5 chapters on the basic tools for writing such programs in Pascal; 4 chapters on advanced applications (math, chemistry, physics and biology); 5 appendices containing libraries of functions and procedures. Covers numerical methods for derivatives and integration, differential equations, matrices, probability, statistical analysis of data, graphics; Fourier transform and arbitrary precision math (in the math chapter); chemical reactions and graphical modeling of chemical structure (chem chapter); effect of a moon on Saturn's rings (physics); biological signal processing (biology). The reviewer noted that the many people might find the appendices worth the price of the book. The author does a "generally good job". 14. PERSONAL PASCAL Author: David E. Cortesi & George W. Cherry Publisher: Prentice-Hall/Reston, 1984 Review: 1) recommended by Jeff Duntemann (PC MAgazione, Jul 84) as "a good companion to MS Pascal". 2) recommended (again) by J.Duntemann in PC Tech Journal (July 1985, pg 189) as "one of the finest books on Pascal I've ever read." 15. PRACTICAL PASCAL PROGRAMS Author: Greg Davidson Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill (1982) Description: a translation of the "Praqctical BASIC Programs" book 1) Ken Sherrets [75746,2200] mentions this book as a good source of examples. 2) BYTE (Dec 83) notes that you need to know something about Pascal to use these programs, because your machine's implementation no doubt will differ from that assumed by the book. This is not really a cookbook. Offers "some really practical programs...that can save you a lot of time if you rally know what your're doing." Examples: matrix inversion, decision-analysis. 16. DATA STRUCTURES USING PASCAL Author: Tenenbaum & Augenstein Publisher: Prentice-Hall ISBN 0-13-196501-8 Price: ? Comment: 1) Gary Miller [70127,3674] suggests reading this book after reading "Problem Solving and Structured Programming in Pascal". 17. PROGRAMMING IN PASCAL" Author: Peter Grongono Publisher: Addison-Wesley Price: $23.95 Comments: 1) Eldor Gemst [74166,2714], a (former?) BASIC/dBASE programmer now studying Turbo Pascal, has picked up this book. 2) Dennis E. Hamilton [70100,271] mentions that "others have recommended (it)" 3) Burt Bralliar [70357,717] calls this a "good" book. 18. FIFTY PASCAL PROGRAMS Author: Bruce H. Hunter Publisher: ? Price: ? Comments: 1) Eldor Gemst [74166,2714], a (former?) BASIC/dBASE programmer now studying Turbo Pascal, has picked up this book. 19. THE AMERICAN PASCAL STANDARD Author: Henry Ledgard, ed. Publisher: Springer-Verlag 1984 97 pp paper; ISBN 0-398-91248-7 Price: $ 16.95 Description: The complete ANSI/IEEE Pascal standard, annotated by Ledgard, plus appendices on: syntax, identifiers listing, error statements, index. 20. MICROCOMPUTER PROBLEM SOLVING USING PASCAL Author: K.L. Bowles Publisher: Springer-Verlag 1977 Comment: 1) BYTE (Dec. 83) noted that the book "is impossibly opaque. It's also done in typewriter script, making it physically as well as intellectually difficult to read." 21. INTRODUCTION TO NUMERICAL COMPUTATION IN PASCAL Author: P.M.Dew, K.R.James Publisher: Springer-Verlag 1983 291 pp paper; ISBN 0-387-91216-9 Price: $ 19.00 Description: "Now you can manipulate Pascal to perform functions it wasn't necessarily designed to do." 22. A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION TO PASCAL, 2nd ed Author: I.R.Wilson, A.M.Addyman Publisher: Springer-Verlag 1982 236 pp paper; ISBN 0-3387-91210-X Price: $ 14.95 Description: Teaches proper programming style. Over 60 programs and problems. Describes "the BSI 6192/ISO international standard". 23. PASCAL FOR PROGRAMMERS Author: Susan Eisenbach, Christopher Sadler Publisher: Springer-Verlag 1981 201 pp paper; ISBN 0-387-10473-9 Price: $ 16.00 Description: "A light but thorough introduction to Pascal" for those who already have some experience with programming. 24. PROGRAMMING PROVERBS: PASCAL WITH STYLE Author: Publisher: Price: $ Comments: 1) Terran Van Wagner [72157,3260] notes that "I never have a copy of these because I'm always lending them out." 25. PASCAL: A CONSIDERATE APPROACH Author: David Price Pub: about $12 Comment: 1) Burt Bralliar [70357,717] comments that this is a "good book". 26. AN INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING AND PROBLEM SOLVING WITH PASCAL Author: G.Michael Schneider, et al. Pub: ? Comment: Burt Bralliar [70357,717] comments that this "is an excellent college-level textbook, with good discussions on algorithms, the flow of control and program design methods." 27. PROGRAMMING IN PASCAL Author: Vladimir Zwass Pub: Barnes & Noble Outline Series Price: $8.95 Comment: Burt Bralliar [70357,717] comments that this is "a surprising value ... a very nice little book that packs a lot of bang for the buck." 28. PROGRAMMING IN PASCAL, revised ed. Author: Peter Grogono Pub: Addison-Wesley (1980) Comment: 1) BYTE (Dec 83) gives this book high marks for teaching about generic Pascal. The reviewer complemented the author's "Pascal style and program layout, and his discussion of records and event rings is the best I've seen in any book". Not really for beginners- good for programmers to learn about a new language. 29. PASCAL Author: David Heiserman Pub: TAB Books (1980) Comment: 1) BYTE (Dec 83) said "not recommended" except for users with TRS80 casette system and Supersoft Tiny Pascal. Complained about problems "that are generic with TAB books: sloppy editing, tiny margins, unaesthetic print and layout, all-around carelessness." 30. HOW TO SOLVE IT BY COMPUTER Author: R. G. Dromey Pub: ? Comment: Dennis E. Hamilton [70100,271] mentions that this is "another book on programming techniques and style of some value ... This uses Pascal throughout and is rather comprehensive." 31. PASCAL PROGRAMS FOR DATA BASE MANAGEMENT Author: Tom Swan Pub: Hayden Book Co. Price: ?? (due early 1986) Reference: Programmer's Journal, Jul/Aug 1985. Contact the author direct at: PO Box 206, Lititz, PA 17543 32. AN INTRODUCTION TO NUMERICAL METHODS WITH PASCAL Author: L.V. Atkinson, P.J.Harley Pub: Addison-Wesley (1983) Price: $13.95 Description: An introductory treatment of numerical methods. Contains over 60 Pascal routines. Covers theory, methods of solution, brief introduction to the Pascal langauge, round-off error, non-linear equations, linear equations, eigenvalues, function approximation, differentiation, initial values. Comments: 1) A review in ACCESS (Jul/Aug 1985) stated that "readers who have Pascal available will find this a very useful book with applica- tions more in line with their interests than most books on Pascal ,...considered very good." 33. PASCAL PRIMER FOR THE IBM PC (a Plume/Waite book) Author: Michael Pardee Pub: New American Library (1984). ISBN 0-452-25496-5 Price: $17.95 Comments: 1) Jim Hunter [70147,3353] remarks that this "is a pretty good book with lots of commented examples of programs that run, even if they don't do much. It's been very useful to me when the TP manual and Tutor have been opaque." This book is oriented to IBM Pascal. 34. PASCAL FOR THE IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER Author: Ted G. Lewis Pub: Addison-Wesley (1983). ISBN 0-201-05464-7 Price: $15.95 Comments: 1) Jim Hunter [70147,3353] comments that this "is another acceptable primer." Numerous examples. Very useful. 35. A PRIMER ON PASCAL, 3rd ed. Author: Richard Conway, David Gries, E. Carl Zimmerman Pub: Winthrop Publishers (1976) Comment: 1) BYTE (Dec 83) preferred Zaks' Introduction to Pascal over this book, and Zaks' book wasn't much better. 36. A FIRST COURSE IN COMPUTER PROGRAMMING USING PASCAL Author: Andrew M. Keller Pub: McGraw-Hill (1983) Comment: 1) BYTE (Dec 83) notes that the book does not discuss records and pointers adequately, but "combined with Grogono's [Programming in Pascal] can teach you to write practical programs without too many tears." The introduction was better than Zaks' [Intro. to Pascal] 37. SOME COMMON PASCAL PROGRAMS Author: Lon Poole, Mary Bothers, Greg Davidson Pub: Osborne/McGraw-Hill (1982) Description: a translatioin of "Some Common BASIC Programs" Comment: 1) BYTE (Dec 83) mentions this book, cautions that you will have to know some Pascal to make it run on your system. (see comments for "Practical Pascal Programs"). 38. A PRIMER ON PASCAL FOR CP/M SYSTEMS Author: Alexander Pournelle Pub: ?? Description: Pournelle took Kernighan & Plaugher's "Software Tools in Pascal" and converted them to run on a micro running CP/M. Also includes considerable documentation and a thorough explanation of what Pascal error messages mean and what is likely to have cause the error. This book was mentioned in the Dec 1983 issue of BYTE, in reviews of books on Pascal. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The following books are about programming techniques --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. GODEL, ESCHER, BACH. Publisher: Price: $ Comments: 1) Terran Van Wagner [72157,3260] comments that "I'd never read a book that casually expected me to learn several formal systems (programming languages?) just to understand the author's point. Hofstadter deserved the Pulitzer." 2) Steve Plegge [75225,1331] remarks that "You're right... GEB is a *fantastic* work." 2. ETUDES FOR PROGRAMMERS Author: Chas Wetherell Publisher: Prentice Hall Price: $ Comments: 1) Miles Kehoe [76264,12] notes that this is a "really neat work I've found useful/fun/challanging and worth the price. Mine is a 1978 copy, but cherished. Good stuff on algorithms, etc." 3. THE PETER NORTON PROGRAMMER'S GUIDE TO THE IBM PC Author: Peter Norton Publisher: Microsoft Press (1985) Price: $19.95 Description: This is a reference guiide to the entire IBM-PC family: PC-XT-JR- AT. Covers, DOS, ROM-BIOS interrupts and services, video, disk, keyboard, and sound basics; 8088 data formats; EGA. Shows differences between each system. Comments: 1) Miles Kehoe [76264,12] notes that this book, on "the family of PCs is really useful. I don't think I could code on the system without it. Well. . .maybe not *that* bad - but WELL worth the money." 4. METAMAGICAL THEMAS Comments: 1) Bela Lubkin/AltSysop [76703,3015] comments that this book "is a fantastic work". 5. STRUCTURED PROGRAMMING Authors: O. J. Dahl, E. W. Dijkstra, and C. A. R. Hoare Publisher: Academic Press Three essays on program design. A true classic. Recommended by Mike Quinlan [74736,375] 6. THE MYTHICAL MAN-MONTH Author: F. P. Brooks Pub: Addison-Wesley Describes lessons learned by the author as he supervised the design and implemention of IBM's massive operating system, OS. Another classic. (Recommended by Mike Quinlan [74736,375] ). 7. THE ELEMENTS OF PROGRAMMING STYLE Authors: B. W. Kernigham and J. Plaugher Pub: McGraw-Hill Truly outstanding. ((Recommended by Mike Quinlan [74736,375] ). 8. STRUCTURED ANALYSIS AND SYSTEM SPECIFICATION Author: Tom DeMarco Pub: Yourdon Press Comment: Mike Quinlan [74736,375] uses this as a reference, but notes it is "not ... intended for beginners". 9. PRINCIPLES OF PROGRAM DESIGN Author: M. A. Jackson Pub: Academic Press Comment: Mike Quinlan [74736,375] uses this as a reference, but notes it is "not ... intended for beginners". 10. THE PRACTICAL GUIDE TO STRUCTURED SYSTEMS DESIGN Author: Meilir Page-Jones Pub: Yourdon Press Comment: Mike Quinlan [74736,375] uses this as a reference, but notes it is "not ... intended for beginners". 11. DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS Author: Aho, Hopcroft and Ullman Pub: Addison-Wesley. Comment: 1) Kim Kokkonen [72457,2131] comments that "the book is excellent for understanding of algorithm design, and (I) prefer it to Wirth." It's not really a "how to program" book, but it forces "good" thinking and presents a number of useful algorithms in Pascal. 12. THE ART OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMING Author: Knuth Pub: ? Comment: Dennis E. Hamilton [70100,271] mentions that this is a series of volumes under the above blanket title. 13. SYSTEMATIC PROGRAMMING Author: Wirth Pub: ? Comment: Dennis E. Hamilton [70100,271] mentions that this is "a better book by Wirth ... a predecessor of the A + D = P effort." 14. HOW TO SOLVE IT BY COMPUTER Author: R.G. Dromey Publisher: Prentice-Hall International (London: 1982).ISBN 0-13- 434001-9 Price: ? Comments: 1) Dennis E. Hamilton [70100,271] mentions that this "rather interesting book" is designed to be used as a companion to your main Pascal manual or primer. It uses a "kindly mathematical approach" to teach you how to create successful programs. The book really is lovely, although many will find some parts to be pretty opaque because the author presumes less mathematical anxiety than is normal on this continent. On the other hand, if you start by reading sections on matters such as the use of mathematics,and what a weapon it is in getting good results from Pascal, it will become less of an obstacle. The other nice thing, is this book should help people in their struggle with Computer Science books on Algorithms and Parsing and whatnot that they find impenetrable without some intermediate preparation. 15. ALGORITHMS + DATA STRUCTURES = PROGRAMS Author: N. Wirth Publisher: Prentice-Hall Price: ? User comments: 1) Ray Dmytrow [72267,414] comments that "it is a bit much"; he is trying to learn Turbo since learning BASIC about a year ago. 2) some call this the "bible of the industry" 3) Dennis E. Hamilton [70100,271] mentions this book as a source of programming information ========================================================================== sources: TBOOK2.NFO INFO on TURBO BOOKS from Borland SIG 9/17/85 TBOOK3.MSG - comment by Doug Stivison on his new book, Intro to TP TBOOK4.NFO - Borland SIG msgs 10/22 TURBOBKS.LST from Kahn's Bolard, 10/17/85: reviews of TP books & sw