22 May
2024
22 May
'24
10:06 a.m.
22 May
22 May
11:10 a.m.
Control-G
In one of the comments I found this interesting tidbit:
Working at DEC for many years, I learned a lot from Mr. Bell. One of my favorite sayings
was he calling himself "the industry standard dummy." Which simply meant that
he approached all new products without pre-conceived notions of "how" it should
work. He found so many bugs and interface errors that way, and taught everyone to do the
same. On old computer keyboards one used to be able to make a bell ring by typeing
CTRL-G. That industry standard was set for G. Bell.
Sent from someone's iPhone
On May 22, 2024, at 7:07 AM, Christian Liendo via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/gordon-bell-an-architect-of-our-dig…
New York Times Obit
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/21/technology/c-gordon-bell-dead.html?unloc…
2:40 p.m.
On May 22, 2024, at 11:10 AM, Don R via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Control-G
In one of the comments I found this interesting tidbit:
Working at DEC for many years, I learned a lot from Mr. Bell. One of my favorite sayings
was he calling himself "the industry standard dummy." Which simply meant that
he approached all new products without pre-conceived notions of "how" it should
work. He found so many bugs and interface errors that way, and taught everyone to do the
same. On old computer keyboards one used to be able to make a bell ring by typeing
CTRL-G. That industry standard was set for G. Bell.
That's a nice story but it doesn't seem all that likely. A "bell" code
long predates ASCII where indeed it was Control-G; it showed up decades earlier in the
5-bit Teletype machines "Baudot" (a.k.a., "Murray") code.
paul
11:36 a.m.
Gordon Bell was a real delightful man, and most unassuming. He was always
warm and friendly to everyone, and it was a pleasure and honor to have
known him.
Sellam
On Wed, May 22, 2024 at 7:07 AM Christian Liendo via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
1:19 p.m.
It's a slog, but if you can make it through Gordon Bell's book, "Computer
Structures Readings and Examples" you realize Gordon is a "father of
vintage computing", in addition to his involvement with the first computer
museum in Boston. He knew better than anyone the historical significance
of computing well before the term "vintage computer" existed.
And there is that stuff he did at DEC....
Bill
On Wed, May 22, 2024 at 12:14 PM Sellam Abraham via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Gordon Bell was a real delightful man, and most
unassuming. He was always
warm and friendly to everyone, and it was a pleasure and honor to have
known him.
Sellam
On Wed, May 22, 2024 at 7:07 AM Christian Liendo via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/gordon-bell-an-architect-of-our-dig…
New York Times Obit
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/21/technology/c-gordon-bell-dead.html?unloc…
2:32 p.m.
On Wed, May 22, 2024 at 10:19 AM Bill Degnan via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
It's a slog, but if you can make it through Gordon
Bell's book, "Computer
Structures Readings and Examples" you realize Gordon is a "father of
vintage computing", in addition to his involvement with the first computer
museum in Boston. He knew better than anyone the historical significance
of computing well before the term "vintage computer" existed.
And there is that stuff he did at DEC....
Bill
He really is. Perhaps "Grandfather" is more appropriate. His and his wife
Gwen's (god rest her soul as well) personal collecting and the museum at
DEC was the basis for the Boston Computer Museum, which effectively went
west and became the Computer History Museum.
Sellam
2:50 p.m.
On May 22, 2024, at 1:19 PM, Bill Degnan via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
It's a slog, but if you can make it through Gordon Bell's book, "Computer
Structures Readings and Examples" you realize Gordon is a "father of
vintage computing", in addition to his involvement with the first computer
museum in Boston. He knew better than anyone the historical significance
of computing well before the term "vintage computer" existed.
I still have that book, though it's deep in some box.
Fun trivia item: it's the only book I can remember that is square. Almost all books
are "portrait" layout; a few are "landscape", but while square format
is a known option shown in book design references, it is almost unheard of.
The only other book I can think of that's nearly (but not quite) square is the lovely
"Powers of ten".
paul
2:59 p.m.
On Wed, May 22, 2024 at 1:50 PM Paul Koning via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I still have that book, though it's deep in some
box.
https://gordonbell.azurewebsites.net/cgb%20files/computer%20structures%20re…
3:25 p.m.
On Wed, May 22, 2024, 1:58 PM Paul Koning via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
wrote:
Out of curiosity is the book the size of a floppy disk or some computer
item at the time? (Any significance or just him being unique?).
On May 22, 2024, at 1:19 PM, Bill Degnan via
cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
It's a slog, but if you can make it through Gordon Bell's book, "Computer
Structures Readings and Examples" you realize Gordon is a "father of
vintage computing",
I still have that book, though it's deep in some box.
Fun trivia item: it's the only book I can remember that is square. Almost
all books are "portrait" layout; a few are "landscape", but while
square
format is a known option shown in book design references, it is almost
unheard of.
paul
3:29 p.m.
On Wed, May 22, 2024 at 2:25 PM John Herron via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Out of curiosity is the book the size of a floppy disk
or some computer
item at the time? (Any significance or just him being unique?).
Here's an Amazon listing showing what it looked like. Ordinary book
size if not shape.
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Structures-Readings-Examples-McGraw-Hill/dp…
3:39 p.m.
On May 22, 2024, at 3:29 PM, Gavin Scott via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Wed, May 22, 2024 at 2:25 PM John Herron via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
It's about as high as a typical hardcover textbook, just unusually wide. I don't
know of any other reason other than "it's different".
As I mentioned, it is not unprecedented; I have a book about book design which talks at
some length about choosing the page proportions, and it mentions square pages as one of
the recognized choices. I think it says that it isn't very common, but I don't
remember what else it says, for example any particular reason why one might choose this
format (or reasons to avoid it).
paul
Out of curiosity is the book the size of a floppy
disk or some computer
item at the time? (Any significance or just him being unique?).
Here's an Amazon listing showing what it looked like. Ordinary book
size if not shape.
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Structures-Readings-Examples-McGraw-Hill/dp…
4:01 p.m.
On Wed, May 22, 2024 at 2:39 PM Paul Koning <paulkoning(a)comcast.net> wrote:
As I mentioned, it is not unprecedented; I have a book
about book design which talks at some length about choosing the page proportions, and it
mentions square pages as one of the recognized choices. I think it says that it isn't
very common, but I don't remember what else it says, for example any particular reason
why one might choose this format (or reasons to avoid it).
Here's another example:
https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Illustrated-Double-Helix/dp/1476715491
where there's essentially a normal width book inside but the wider
pages allow for extensive sidebar-style annotations and also provide
more options for graphic layout of illustrations, etc.
4:08 p.m.
One issue in choosing a book size is that the booksellers have put the book on a standard
sized shelf so it should conform to that size. Very tall books, like coffee table books
are hard to display because they don’t fit on a shelf.
Booksellers really don’t like those (unless they become best sellers).
Sent from my iPhone
On May 22, 2024, at 13:01, Gavin Scott via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Wed, May 22, 2024 at 2:39 PM Paul Koning <paulkoning(a)comcast.net> wrote:
As I mentioned, it is not unprecedented; I have a
book about book design which talks at some length about choosing the page proportions, and
it mentions square pages as one of the recognized choices. I think it says that it
isn't very common, but I don't remember what else it says, for example any
particular reason why one might choose this format (or reasons to avoid it).
Here's another example:
https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Illustrated-Double-Helix/dp/1476715491
where there's essentially a normal width book inside but the wider
pages allow for extensive sidebar-style annotations and also provide
more options for graphic layout of illustrations, etc.
44
days inactive
44
days old
12 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
Bill Degnan -
Christian Liendo -
Don R -
Gavin Scott -
John Herron -
Paul Koning -
Sellam Abraham -
Wayne S