Analytical Engine - An Introduction to Computer Science

[capellan]

Hi All,

Does anyone have this HyperCard book in his/her bookshelf? and
Could you provide us with a fair review of it's content?

Probably you want to know: How did I found about this book?
Today I was looking for some out of print Books in AbeBooks and
for curiosity, searched the word "HyperCard" and just found it.
A book that I have not seen before:

Analytical Engine: An Introduction to Computer Science Using HyperCard 2.1
(Computer Science Series) Paperback – September 27, 1993
by Rick Decker (Author), Stuart Hirshfield (Author)

THE ANALYTICAL ENGINE is unique in its true survey course approach combined with the learn by doing method of incorporated laboratories.

While most introductions to computer science teach only programming, THE ANALYTICAL ENGINE covers the spectrum of computer science topics from history and systems design, to programming, hardware and the effect of computing on society and, each topic has a corresponding lab.

Unlike any other book on the market, Decker and Hirshfield put the powerful tool of HyperCard into the hands of beginning computer science students, resulting in interesting and creative programs.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDet ... 2845759283
Amazon have this book too:
http://www.amazon.com/Analytical-Engine ... 0534936962

If we believe this book's introduction then this is exactly the kind of content that should be updated for this platform.

How many interesting and really useful books about HyperCard published between 1987 and 1998
are just waiting to be rediscovered and updated?

Alejandro

[andrewferguson]

Hi,

Just seen your post. I have this book, bought it recently of Amazon, but has not started reading it yet.

Unfortunately the one major issue I have with the book is the fact that it comes with a floppy disk with the accompanying stacks. For this you'll need an old Mac to read the disk in. That was OK for me, (I have around 30-40 old Macs, not to mention the Amigas, Amstrads, ect...), but the book I ordered did not come with the disk, and I can't find it anywhere online. This unfortunately significantly reduces the value of the book, as it often makes reference to stacks on the disk.

As for how many HyperCard books have been published, "Cooking with HyperTalk 2.0" (a great book by the way, filled full with interesting ideas and scripts from the creator of HyperTalk - and my copy INCLUDED the disk) states in the introduction that "there are already 12,623,442 different books on HyperCard" - and this was only in 1990!

[FourthWorld]

Unfortunately the one major issue I have with the book is the fact that it comes with a floppy disk with the accompanying stacks. For this you'll need an old Mac to read the disk in. That was OK for me, (I have around 30-40 old Macs, not to mention the Amigas, Amstrads, ect...), but the book I ordered did not come with the disk, and I can't find it anywhere online. This unfortunately significantly reduces the value of the book, as it often makes reference to stacks on the disk.

In terms of relevance for LiveCode I wouldn't worry too much about that disk - you're probably not missing much, for the reasons I outlined on the use-livecode list in December when this thread was raised there:
http://lists.runrev.com/pipermail/use-l ... 22061.html

[capellan]

Hi Andrew,

but the book I ordered did not come with the disk, and I can't find it anywhere online.
This unfortunately significantly reduces the value of the book, as it often makes reference to stacks on the disk.

Actually, I wrote to author, Stuart Hirshfield asking about disk content. He replied:
"Given that the text and associated materials are long since out of print, you have our permission
to request them in whatever form you wish. You probably should check with Cengage Publishing,
as they are the official publishers of the last version of the text."

I will start writing to Libraries and CS Teachers.
Do you want to help in this search?

[Lagi Pittas]

Hi Richard

I have the book, and from memory I think the disk pocket is not even opened.

I will see if I can find it tonight and let you know.
If you could tell me where to send it to then I will mail it to You asap.

I wanted to try a few of their programs - interesting book but very idiosyncratic

Lagi

Update:
DARN!! it was applied hypercard by jerry Daniels --
Anybody got the files for TAE then? pretty please

[andrewferguson]

Hi Lagi and capellan,

So sorry for not replying to this sooner - I have been very busy with work for the last few months.

Have you had any luck in finding someone with a disk? The website worldcat.org is a good resource for finding libraries that have certain books. A quick search tells me that the closest library for me is the University of Sussex. If you haven't had any success then I'll try writing to them.

On macintosh garden, someone had offered to upload the disk when I asked them about it, but I haven't heard from them in several months. (http://macintoshgarden.org/forum/reques ... cal-engine)

However, just to complicate matters, there are two different versions of the book: one for HyperCard 2.1 and the other for HyperCard 1.x. I'm not sure how much the contents of the disks for these two editions will vary, if at all.

[Lagi Pittas]

Hi Andrew

No Luck at all

Most of the code is simple stuff but there are actually a couple that i'd like to take a look at.

If you can find the disc that would be great

Lagi

[Lagi Pittas]

Hi

I found the disk that came with the analytical engine book. It's the old Macintosh formatted system.
Don't have my MAC any more and my apple ][ chokes on 3-1/2 inch floppies.

If anybody can read it I will send in the post and we can share.

Thanks

Lagi

[jacque]

I use SheepShaver to open OS 9 files:

http://sheepshaver.cebix.net/

An easier version of SheepShaver is Chubby Bunny:

https://happymacs.wordpress.com/2015/05 ... -on-intel/

[capellan]

Hi Lagi,

Do you have Two 800k disks or a single 1.4 Mb floppy disk?

First version of this book included Two 800k floppy disks
and second version included only a single 1.4 mb
High Density floppy disk.

[Lagi Pittas]

Hi,

I looked at the disk and it says second edition and there was only 1 - So I looked for my external USB Floppy which works on my PC (Parallels on Mac) but I presume it is HFS but el capitan no longer acknowledges USB floppies.
MY MacBook Pro is El Capitan as well so I have to dig out the old macbook and see if that works on Yosemite I think.

If there is no Joy I will send by Post.

Thanks for the Suggestion - I just assumed it was the old original apple drives that used different controllers to the Pc.

Regards Lagi

[capellan]

Hi Lagi,

That is the floppy disk that we are looking for!
Many Thanks for posting this image.

In the Macintosh Garden forum, there are many experts
who could give you exact instructions to handle and
ship this floppy disk safely across borders.

A single pass for an x-ray machine or metal detector
is all that is needed to damage the magnetic media.

Do you want that I ask for handling and shipping directions
in that forum?

http://macintoshgarden.org/forum/reques ... ment-49554

Alejandro

[Lagi Pittas]

Hi Alejandro

I Plugged the disk into my old Mac Book and it didn't show on the desktop although the system information showed that the mac knew about it.


I then tried to copy the raw bits/bytes using winimage on my PC, but that said there was no disk in the drive. I'm assuming that the drives on the Mac at that time were using the same read/write hardware as the PC as opposed to the original Macs.
so that should have worked. If you want to PM me I will still send it but I think it's blank.

What I did find was this last night

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDet ... 9011529914

The postage is much less for you so if you want to go halves I will Paypal you $15 if that's ok ( I assume you are in the US)

KIndest Regards Lagi

[richmond62]

Personally the fuss about this book just serves to show how silly copyright
of more than 20 years is for any kind of stuff related to computers.

There are all sorts of variants of this book where Hypercard has been
replaced by Toolbook and the Internet.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Th ... sc=y&hl=en

I just saw a copy on eBay (US) at $3.50; whether than contains the software or not I just don't know.

[Lagi Pittas]

I saw the version that they have with @the internet@ that uses javascript and comes with a CD.

I just was curious to see how their logic simulator worked in Hypercard.

Hypercard is LIvecode with all your extremities like the black night without arrays.
I know we can code anything including Windows with just a Turing machine but who has the time?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4

Lagi