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    Cover of The  (new) turing omnibus

    The (new) turing omnibus

    A.K. Dewdney · 1993

    "No other volume provides as broad, as thorough, or as accessible an introduction to the realm of computers as A. K. Dewdney's The Turing Omnibus.Updated and expanded, The Turing Omnibus offers 66 concise, brilliantly written articles on the major points of interest in computer science theory, technology, and applications. New for this tour: updated information on algorithms, detecting primes, noncomputable functions, and self-replicating computers--plus completely new sections on the Mandelbrot set, genetic algorithms, the Newton-Raphson Method, neural networks that learn, DOS systems for personal computers, and computer viruses." -- Book cover.

    Computer ScienceProgramming
    Open LibraryAmazon
    Stats for nerds
    32recommend
    42mentions
    35people
    2008–2025years
    90% recommend10% neutral

    Mentions per year

    2008201020122014201620182020202220242025

    What Hacker News says

    1. sargstuffMay 2025
      Most of theses have free online versions available:

      The New Turing Omnibus, 66 Excursions in Computer Science[1]

      Code Complete [2]

      Debugging The 9 Indispensable Rules of Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems [3]

      The Pattern on the Stone [4]

      The Tinkertoy Computer and Other Machinations ... [8]

      -----

      #5, #6 & #7 approach from different directions and "meet in middle":

         Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software [5]
      
         Nand2Tetris[6]
      
         The Little Schemer and Understanding Computation [7] 
      
      --------

      ?? Links to 'editor'/ide cheetsheets ??

      --------

      [1] : https://www.amazon.com/New-Turing-Omnibus-Sixty-Six-Excursio...

      [2] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Complete

      [3] : https://www.amazon.com/Debugging-Indispensable-Software-Hard...

      [4] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pattern_on_the_Stone

      [5] : https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Softw...

      [6] : https://www.nand2tetris.org/

      [7] : https://vpb.smallyu.net/%5BType%5D%20books/The%20Little%20Sc...

      [8] : https://www.amazon.com/Tinkertoy-Computer-Other-Machinations...

      ----

      When semester of programming projects isn't enough / couldn't wait for the programming langauge of choice : https://exercism.org/

      thread
    2. sitkackMar 2024
      I really enjoyed Dewdney's "New Turing Omnibus", it is a collection of problems that can be solved computationally. It is a great gift for anyone wanting to solve problems with computers and new to computer science.

      https://archive.org/details/newturingomnibus0000dewd_q3p6

      thread
    3. me_againMar 2024
      He had a real gift for making theoretical topics interesting. I read his book The New Turing Omnibus (https://archive.org/details/newturingomnibus0000dewd_q3p6) as a teenager, and credit it with a decent part of getting me into computer science. Rest easy.
      thread
    4. tekacsMar 2024
      Another thankful note from me for The New Turing Omnibus. It’s recommended to students entering Cambridge University in the UK, and I read it as a young teenager. I was already familiar with a lot of the concepts contained, but it was a really good stitching together of a variety of disciplines. It gives just enough of a peek into each of them to spur curiosity about the things you might want to study more — and at least makes you aware of the things that you might be less interested in.
      thread
    5. sargstuffNov 2023
      What's the story angle/line/tanent/"e"/"pi"/etc.? (linear algegra, Lewis Carol math, Claud, Shannon, etc. ) -- Physical reminder/context for why 'booked ticket to get punched'?

      Target audience? -- is journey a story in which 'instructions/learning' are actions used to get the reader to partake in story? aka humanities novel as wrapper to 70's wall of documentation volumes.

      ----

      > Should I just focus on creating the content and making sure it’s useful/valuable and treat the book as just another method of presentation?

      Is this for a 'Go Forth' TeD book of the month talk?

      Any further clarification on type theory / category background? (cs, art, architecture, fonts, LaTex, ascii, utf, ...)

      "The Power of Making Thinking Visible: Practices to Engage and Empower All Learners" by Ron Ritchhart (Author), Mark Church (Author)

      "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr. (Author), E. B. White (Author)

      "Thinking with Type: Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students Paperback" by Ellen Lupton

      "Unleash the Power of Storytelling: Win Hearts, Change Minds, Get Results" by Rob Biesenbach

      ----

      > ... book just a nice to have thing? Wide variety of catecorical/topi types.

      Physicall book can be less expensive / less hassel than mangaging drmo on elecronic tablet/format only to have reference auto-erased. Dont have to worry about battery leaking/exploding. Thankfully, electronic formats allow for circumventing the imaginary wierd mechanics of trying to carry around wall's worth of pearls within multiple physical book encylopedia volumes without spending one's life working out at gym to be able to effortlessly carry/handle the encylopedia volume(s).

      Categorical/Topi 'sea' type stuff:

      "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carol;

      "Alice in Puzzle-Land: A Carrollian Tale for Children Under Eighty" by Raymond M. Smullyan

      "To Mock a Mockingbird" by Raymond Smullyan;

      "The New Turing Omnibus: Sixty-Six Excursions in Computer Science" by A.K. Dewdney

      "Once Upon an Algorithm: How Stories Explain Computing" by Martin Erwig

      "The Annotated Gödel: A Reader's Guide to his Classic Paper on Logic and Incompleteness Paperback" by Hal Prince (Author)

      "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas R Hofstadter

      "Information Theory: A Tutorial Introduction (2nd Edition)" by James V Stone

      "An Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signals and Noise" Subsequent Edition by John R. Pierce

      "Coding the Matrix: Linear Algebra through Applications to Computer Science" by Philip N. Klein

      "Land of Lisp: Learn to Program in Lisp, One Game at a Time!" by Conrad Barski M.D.

      "Build Your Own Lisp" by Mr Daniel Holden

      "LISP IS MY FAVORITE LANGUAGE IN LIFE FOUR MONTHS TO LEARN: Funny beginner's noteook to Learn LISP Programming Step-by-Step(PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE)"

      ----

      thread
    6. sitkackJan 2023
      The New Turing Omnibus is a nice collection of small domain problems that can be solved with computation.

      https://oke.cx/mseih

      In the domain of theoretical physics, I highly recommend, "From Newton to Mandlebrot".

      thread

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