I found I’d got quite a few books lying around and not at all shelved - some recent purchases, some pulled out to look something up - so I did a bit of shuffling and found a shelf I could populate, in relatively random order.
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My PDP-11 stack (not including DEC manuals). The Minicomputer in the Laboratory is particularly interesting, as it’s about helping scientists use those new-fangled computer things to do work.
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I was kind of hoping someone would post a legacy photo of the “Wall of Orange” that was a VMS documentation set back in the day.
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I don’t have that, but I have the RT11 wall of orange!
Don’t be shy, son! That’ll do in a pinch.
Most of the non-spine manuals are for my pocket computers (TRS-80 PC-2, 3 and 4) and TRS-80 Model 100/102/200.
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The pocket computers are a fascinating species!
This book stood out as different from your others:
- Endless Loop: The History of the BASIC Programming Language by Mark Jones Lorenzo
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Yes, there are a couple new books. The history of the BASIC language is interesting.
I’ve always liked the pocket computers. I had a PC-4 through college. With only 1.5K, you could do alot.
When I got a PC-2 in my lot from the Radio Shack auction, I started exploring that. Not many people know that the PC-2 was as powerful as the desktop PCs of the time.
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Obviously I haven’t read the book, but from the description, and then someone else’s review, it’s a shame that it seems to be incomplete.
From the review:
I think that has to do mostly with documentation. Kemeny and Kurtz’s story is well documented. Many of us were around when BASIC took off on PCs. But BASIC on minicomputers is sort of part of the misty old time computer scene.
The oldest minicomputer that I programmed for was an HP Series 1 RTE-A and we used FORTRAN. I wasn’t even aware if there was a BASIC compiler for it. Even at the Vintage Computing Festival, looking at the old minis that they had, BASIC wasn’t part of their displays.
I’m going to throw in another shelfie - my shelves are rather disorganised so it’s not very thematically consistent but at least it’s quite diverse:
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Do I spy a first edition Horowitz and Hill?
Let me check… yes it is, first edition but third reprint, and of course in paperback. Might have been one of the first technical books I bought - although my Zaks book on 6502 must be earlier - I was studying Maths and someone else was studying Physics, and they were enthusiastic enough about the book that I bought it. I read it too, which doesn’t always happen…
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I’m slowly preparing for retirement at the end of the year and sort out the paper bunch that has accumulated over the decades. I’m excited to see what’s in this shelf!
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Aho and Ullman! Nice.
Wow! Nice find. Some classics there.
There were a lot more there, too. I was tempted to make an offer on the entire shelf, but I was already spending too much.
If I see a book I like, can you show the insides 
Nice to see books with real content.
Little late than never, but I must say. “Good 'ol TAB Books” They used to have a book on everything. I think I joined some electronics book club or something of that ilk. I had a bunch of their titles.
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