Name: Zen of Graphics Programming
ISBN: 9781883577896

What Hacker News says

AndyCappDevFeb 2026

Yea... the first two interpreters I wrote in C used no third party libraries either. But I admit that I did not write a rasterizer for those as all they needed to do whas convert to other formats.

I did write rasterization code for a Win95 driver for HP that was very fast. I used Michael Abrash's Zen of Graphics Programming as a starting point and extended/expanded on his algorithms.

This time around I wanted to focus on the PostScript language itself and cairo saved me a lot of time on the hind end. Though it does have some bugs... Like it's strokepath implementation for dashed lines. I worked around them though by writing my own strokepath and feed them to cario as raw paths.

The LaserWriter angle is certainly interesting though. Why specific to the LaserWriter may I ask?

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disqardApr 2024

It's a fun journey -- I hope you enjoy it! I never liked math, until I read Abrash's "Zen of Graphics Programming", and learned that graphics is chock-full of math :D

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musageOct 2017

Abrash's Zen of Graphics Programming was my first programming book I really loved.. still thanks, but no thanks.

> Well, Google has some new, ridiculous thing, they're marketing glasses which have a small computer on them. So you can be on the internet 24 hours a day, just what you want. It's a way of destroying people,

http://grittv.org/?video=noam-chomsky-on-secret-trade-deals-...

Call him an old fool for not liking your toy, but I think he has his priorities straight, which not a lot of people can say for themselves.

> smart, motivated people who want to change the world

People who do things like invent penicillin don't talk about "changing the world" or "inventing the future" all the time. Orwell enhanced our perspective on a lot of things but I think he simply wanted to get it out of his system. Kafka? Wanted his stuff burned. Konrad Zuse? Was painfully aware of the pacts with the devil, something the "greats" of today just take as axiomatic. I could go on. Yes, there were also a lot of great people totally full of themselves, and they still were great. But generally, changing the world for the better happens in hindsight. Rosa Parks didn't want to end segregation -- not that she didn't want it to end, my point is she was just sick of being pushed around. That's where most meaningful change happens, humble and concerned with the thing and not with the change, and then some needy assholes swoop in and take credit.

These engineers may be exceptional in their fields, but this and all it rubs shoulders with, in the bigger scheme and considering really great people, both big and small, is highly driven mediocrity, constantly touting its own horn. Entertainment and ads, ads and entertainment. Everything's so awesome and paradigm shifting, as new avenues to fill more landfills with old product are created. People have specific questions, concerns, needs, desires. Those keep getting ignored or twisted for profit, while more gimmicks and tools of surveillance and control are pushed and rationalized. These days, everybody is aligned with marketing.

I'm slightly sorry for being negative but only for those normal people who are excited about this stuff. I don't want to pee on your parade. Everybody has their hobbies, but when people talk about the future and the world and the human condition and whatnot they're in the territory of greats, and in this case it's like bringing a footgun to a nuclear war.

At any rate, this isn't some guy starting out in his garage, he'll live and prosper either way. To be honest, what triggered me mostly is how I cherished that book, just because it was the first cool one I had. Now it doesn't feel cool anymore. Otherwise I still have the above thoughts with plenty of stories or comments, but I just roll my eyes. But this is a master of his field laying it on so very thickly.

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W0lfJun 2017

I've gathered all the book titles in this thread and created Amazon affiliate links (if you don't mind. Otherwise you still have all the titles together :-) )

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Zen of graphics programming, Abrash http://amzn.to/2rKIW6Q

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comatose_kidNov 2013

I implemented Bresenham's algorithm in ARM assembly on the gameboy advance based on reading his 'zen of graphics programming'. Great writer, the anecdotes at the beginning of each chapter really hooked me in.

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cmicaliApr 2012

The book Zen of Graphics Programming was one of the seminal books that got me deeply interested in programming. There's a good argument that my life today is as good as it is in no small part to the hard work Mr. Abrash put into that book. So nice to hear what he is up to 16 years later

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