10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10 (also known as #10print )
The line of BASIC code that appears as the subject for this post is the title for a book I just finished reading — And enjoyed thoroughly. The book is available online for download under a CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0 License, so you can take a good look at it before (or instead of) buying it. Although it’s among the books I will enjoy having on my shelf; the printing is of a very enjoyable good quality.
And what is this book about? Well, of course, it analizes that very simple line of code, as it ran on the Commodore 64 thirty years ago.
And the analysis is made from every possible angle: What do mazes mean in culture? What have they meant in cultures through history? What about regularity in art (mainly 20th century art)? How would this code look (or how it would be adapted) on contemporary non-C64 computers? And in other languages more popular today? What does randomness mean? And what does random() mean? What is BASIC, and how it came to the C64? What is the C64, and where did it come from? And several other beautiful chapters.
The book was collaboratively written by ten different authors, in a Wiki-like fashion. And… Well, what else is there to say? I enjoyed so much reading through long chapters of my childhood, of what attracted me to computers, of my cultural traits and values… I really hope that, in due time, I can be a part of such a beautiful project!
Attachments
c64-1.png (125 KB)
c64-2.png (301 KB)
Comments
Elijah Bostock 2014-11-25 20:43:45
Well, i only heard of C64
Well, i only heard of C64 computers in the syllabus books.This post reminds me of childhood.
gwolf 2014-11-25 05:39:35
Try back later? Or use a different mirror?
Yesterday trope-tank was down also for me when I wanted to grab the images. I downloaded the book from the <a href=”http://libgen.org>Library Generator</a>.
mirabilos 2014-11-25 04:46:23
$ wget
$ wget http://trope-tank.mit.edu/10_PRINT_121114.pdf –2014-11-25 13:34:26– http://trope-tank.mit.edu/10_PRINT_121114.pdf Resolving trope-tank.mit.edu (trope-tank.mit.edu)… 18.51.3.149 Connecting to trope-tank.mit.edu (trope-tank.mit.edu)|18.51.3.149|:80… failed: Connection timed out.
Nick Montfort 2014-11-26 14:34:33
The PDF
Thanks for this kind note, and sorry about my server at MIT being offline. It has happened a few times now. My next chance to bring this machine back online is probably going to be Monday, so I am glad there are other options for getting the Creative Commons PDF.