[Coco] My new book (not about computers)

Tormod Volden lists.tormod at gmail.com
Mon May 16 14:47:37 EDT 2016


On Mon, May 16, 2016 at 7:31 PM, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz:
> Hi all,
>
> A moment for your list admin. My new book is out today.
>
> <http://www.amazon.com/Whaaaaaaaaat-Classical-Music-Self-Help-Desperation/dp/1530729521>
>
> Dennis
>


For those who followed the link (recommended), I will bring this right
back on-topic. What I read there:

“Whaaaaaaaaat!? I Don’t Get OS-9: A Self-Help Desperation Guide” is a
tonic for the perplexed, and a companion guide for those who feel OS-9
is forbidding, complex and grandiose. It is a concise and helpful book
with humor and insight written by a programmer and user with a
lifetime of experience. Beginning with bits, bytes and modules, author
Dennis Bathory-Kitsz covers topics from drivers to shrieking
descriptors to the mysterious bitmap codes, from os9gen (“the great
hulk of a program”) through kernel space, boot files, pragmatism, and
even programmers insulting each other. Written in response to a
student’s plea for help (“I’m desperate! I don’t get OS-9!”), the book
is not stuck in the distant past. Instead, “Whaaaaaaaaat!?” includes
classical drivers—which the programmer prefers to call
“nonfudged”—from ancient times right up to the present day, from 6809
disassembly through electrons and interrupts to rbf fused with sdc.
Writes one of his students, “it accomplishes what a textbook does
without being a textbook.” Another says, “It gets right into the dirty
details of NitrOS-9 and does so in a way that makes even the most
novice user feel like a professional.” Explored and critiqued by more
than two dozen readers from complete amateurs to working
professionals, “Whaaaaaaaaat!?” is insightful, exuberant, funny and,
according to one CS professor, “terrifically valuable as a corrective
to bad thinking and its offspring, bad teaching.” In a short, readable
100 pages, Bathory-Kitsz shares the madness and mystery of OS-9.


Congratulations with your new book, Dennis!
Tormod


More information about the Coco mailing list