Applescript; first trying to automate mundane work tasks, then later to build simple GUI apps. That led into more robust Applescript Studio work, which led into learning Objective-C through Big Nerd Ranch and the book/class by Aaron Hillegass. That was all pre-iPhone. When the iPhone released, suddenly my Objective-C hobby skills were in hot demand. And that's how I became the mediocre developer iOS engineer I am today.
I tried to read a mix of things, especially "classics I never got around to." I didn't meet my personal target of 30 books (got sidetracked writing my blog), but definitely read things that stuck with me.
Notable and beautiful
- "The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead
- "Blind Sight" by Meg Howrey
- "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. LeGuin
Non-fiction
- "Workflow"
- "Game Engine Black Book: Wolfenstein 3D"
- "Debugging: The 9 Indispensible Rules for Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems"
The rest (all first-time reads)
- "Absolution" by Jeff Vandermeer (I enjoyed it but it was kind of unnecessary)
- "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte (I don't get the fascination with it)
- "Strange Pictures" by Uketsu (odd)
- "Starship Troopers" by Heinlein
- "Rendezvous with Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke
- "Ubik" by Philip K. Dick
- "Mickey 7" by Edward Ashton
- "Fugitive Telemetry" and "System Collapse" by Martha Wells
- "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson (I was surprisingly into it)
- "Glass Houses" by Madeline Ashby
- "Cover Her Face" by P.D.James
- "The Crystal Shard" by R.A.Salvatore (I needed to see what Drizzt is all about)
- "James" by Percival Everett (maybe my biggest disappointment of the year)
No no, I was just blindsided by my own feelings when I read that and thought it was kind of funny. Judging from the inexplicable downvoting that comment received (?!) apparently that wasn't clear. I always enjoyed Mastermind, though there is a line of attack on the solution that can render it a little boring. It still maintains a bit of a Wordle-like pleasure.
I shared this last month, and it seemed to resonate with people, so I'll share again and maybe new eyeballs will see it this time. I'm continuing to build a body of work on my retro productivity software blog, Stone Tools.
Previous articles which resonated with HN were on Deluxe Paint and VisiCalc. The latest post, "HyperCard on the Macintosh," seems to be making the HN rounds currently. Bret Victor himself chimed in on the HyperCard article over on Mastodon, filling in some nice historical footnotes.
https://posts.dynamic.land/@bret/115716576717006637
Unlike many (most?) other retrocomputing explorations, I specifically do not look at games nor do I tie myself to any particular machine, though I'm focused on the 1977 - 1995 period. I spend a minimum of two weeks with each productivity title, trying to learn it, building things with it, and generally trying to understand its approach to solving problems. I'd characterize my writing tone as casual, conversational, and decidedly light-hearted.
Each piece of software (so far, knock on wood) gets me thinking about some other aspect of related computing history, so I explore that as a tangent. With the Superbase article, I talked about "the paperless office." With the VisiCalc article I considered its impact on less obvious industries, notably hog farming.
I hope the passion and effort I put into the articles comes through. If you're interested in computing history beyond just the games I think you'll find something of interest on my blog. "This Week in Retro" did a segment about me and my various projects as well, if you're curious to get an overview of what I'm all about (link is queued up at the start of the segment)
https://youtu.be/UHYscl1Ayqg?si=7JM1sZagjoqvPjk2&t=2137
Author here. Since posting the article so many people have shared their similar stories with me, though not yet with your public speaking angle. I knew HyperCard had influence, but I don't think I was quite prepared for just how much influence it had over this many people. Thank you for sharing!
Author here, I'm glad you enjoyed it. HyperTalk and Pascal are obviously very different beasts, I'm sure it was difficult to context switch between the two! For HyperCard stack developers, that resource fork was kind of a blessing, because we didn't need to wonder, "Where is my data?" It was right there in the stack itself, making it super-portable and easy to share. That comes with all of the downsides you might imagine, as skills and needs increased. But it was also a very welcoming environment for the development-curious.
I never found anything like HyperCard that predated HyperCard; it really did seem to be borne from a special burst of insight. I could be wrong though, because as soon as something is declared "the first" someone invariably finds a earlier protoype from PARC or somewhere.
Presentation software definitely feels similar, especially with its card-and-buttons metaphor. Its intentionality is obviously quite different, but I just did a quick look and it seems like there is VBA scripting available in PowerPoint. Maybe the distance between it and HyperCard isn't the vast gulf I thought. Even if that's the case, then it really only supports your conclusion, "We really haven't progressed that much more." That sense of stagnation gnaws at me, TBH.
