jgay@digi.lonestar.org (john gay) (06/08/91)
I don't normally read these groups, so if this has been asked before forgive me. Has anyone read the book Lee Adams' Visualization Graphics in C? If so, how good is it? How good/readable/understandable is the code/book? I got an offer in the mail about a month back for this book for $36.95 (book only) or $61.90 (book and code disks for IBM clones). From the description it sounds pretty good with techniques for * Morphing and tweening * Animation * Geometric processing * 2d and 3d routines etc. If anyone knows about/has seen this book could you please send me email. If anyone else is interested in this book it can be ordered from: Windcrest/McGraw-Hill, Inc. Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17294-0840 or call 1-800-822-8158 (in PA, AK, and Canada call 1-717-794-2191) or FAX 1-717-794-2080 an ISBN is not listed. ----------------------------------- Like Thoreau, I rejoice that there are owls. Part of the reason is that owls eat mice, and thus make a certain number of cats unnecessary, which is always a plus. Jeff Duntemann, Dr. Dobb's June '91 john gay. jgay@digi.lonestar.org -- ----------------------------------- Like Thoreau, I rejoice that there are owls. Part of the reason is that owls eat mice, and thus make a certain number of cats unnecessary, which is always a plus. Jeff Duntemann, Dr. Dobb's June '91
jgay@digi.lonestar.org (john gay) (06/11/91)
I don't normally read these groups, so if this has been asked before forgive me. Has anyone read the book Lee Adams' Visualization Graphics in C? If so, how good is it? How good/readable/understandable is the code/book? I got an offer in the mail about a month back for this book for $36.95 (book only) or $61.90 (book and code disks for IBM clones). From the description it sounds pretty good with techniques for * Morphing and tweening * Animation * Geometric processing * 2d and 3d routines etc. If anyone knows about/has seen this book could you please send me email. If anyone else is interested in this book it can be ordered from: Windcrest/McGraw-Hill, Inc. Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17294-0840 or call 1-800-822-8158 (in PA, AK, and Canada call 1-717-794-2191) or FAX 1-717-794-2080 an ISBN is not listed. john gay. jgay@digi.lonestar.org ----------------------------------- Like Thoreau, I rejoice that there are owls. Part of the reason is that owls eat mice, and thus make a certain number of cats unnecessary, which is always a plus. Jeff Duntemann, Dr. Dobb's June '91 -- ----------------------------------- john gay. jgay@digi.lonestar.org Like Thoreau, I rejoice that there are owls. Part of the reason is that owls eat mice, and thus make a certain number of cats unnecessary, which
jgay@digi.lonestar.org (john gay) (06/13/91)
From article <1991Jun10.204207.548@digi.lonestar.org>, by jgay@digi.lonestar.org (john gay): > I don't normally read these groups, so if this has been asked before > forgive me. > > Has anyone read the book Lee Adams' Visualization Graphics in C? > If so, how good is it? How good/readable/understandable is the > code/book? > I know that I am following up on my own posting, but I happened to be in a local bookstore today, which happened to have the book I was asking about. I browsed through the book and looked at the "C" code. Here is my opinion of the book along with its "C" code: (Taking into account that this is all based on looking at the book for ~10-15 min. and that this is only my opinion) I would not buy it. It didn't have that much in it as far as explanations, techniques, or anything else. The "C" (double quotes intentional) was the worst piece of shit coding that I have ever seen. It looked like very bad basic code translated by a very bad translator into kindagarden (sp?)C. The guy has never-ever heard of a switch statement, but is very, very familar with goto. Also never heard of an if..else. The two co-workers that I was with couldn't believe the code and kept saying just put back...stop ranting about it just put it back. Also if anyone is thinking about actually buying this book, the retail price on the back was $26.95 (without code disks) not the $36.95 "special offer" that I got in the mail. Mmmm... maybe I should tell the postmaster about the difference in advertised retail price and actual retail price.... Summary: NOT recommended on short glance. john gay. jgay@digi.lonestar.org Like Thoreau, I rejoice that there are owls. Part of the reason is that owls eat mice, and thus make a certain number of cats unnecessary, which is always a plus. Jeff Duntemann, Dr. Dobb's June '91 -- john gay. jgay@digi.lonestar.org Like Thoreau, I rejoice that there are owls. Part of the reason is that owls eat mice, and thus make a certain number of cats unnecessary, which is always a plus. Jeff Duntemann, Dr. Dobb's June '91
khan@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman) (06/16/91)
jgay@digi.lonestar.org (john gay) writes: >(Taking into account that this is all based on looking at the book for >~10-15 min. and that this is only my opinion) >I would not buy it. It didn't have that much in it as far as explanations, >techniques, or anything else. The "C" (double quotes intentional) was >the worst piece of shit coding that I have ever seen. It looked like very >bad basic code translated by a very bad translator into kindagarden (sp?)C. >The guy has never-ever heard of a switch statement, but is very, very familar >with goto. Also never heard of an if..else. The two co-workers that I was >with couldn't believe the code and kept saying just put back...stop ranting >about it just put it back. [...] >Summary: NOT recommended on short glance. I can report similar observations of Adams' other books. Oddly enough, this author has about half a dozen (and growing) books published by TAB/Windcrest/ whatever they're calling themselves this week. The C books have horrendous code examples, just as you describe. The other books are (surprise, surprise) written in BASIC. It almost looks as though Adams wrote one book, with BASIC code, and cloned it into a whole series of books, making only minimal changes (like running the BASIC through a translation program to get C code and making only those changes necessary to get it to compile and run). I made the mistake of buying two of these books sight unseen through a book club; biggest waste of money I can think of. Anyone thinking of buying a Lee Adams graphics book, JUST SAY NO. You'll be glad you did! -- Scott Coleman tmkk@uiuc.edu University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign "The military particularly liked Prodigy because the censorship came for free." - Andrew Grove on the use of email services to send mail to troops in the gulf
mfriedel@slate.mines.colorado.edu (Friedel Michael) (06/16/91)
In article <khan.677022842@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu> khan@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman) writes: >jgay@digi.lonestar.org (john gay) writes: > >author has about half a dozen (and growing) books published by TAB/Windcrest/ >whatever they're calling themselves this week. The C books have horrendous >code examples, just as you describe. The other books are (surprise, surprise) >written in BASIC. It almost looks as though Adams wrote one book, with BASIC >code, and cloned it into a whole series of books, making only minimal changes >(like running the BASIC through a translation program to get C code and making >only those changes necessary to get it to compile and run). > >I made the mistake of buying two of these books sight unseen through a book >club; biggest waste of money I can think of. Anyone thinking of buying a Lee >Adams graphics book, JUST SAY NO. You'll be glad you did! > I agree, a frien gave me a book called 'High performance graphics in C' and after reading this message I took another look at the cover, and surprise surprise ADAMS wrote it. I just remeber lookking at it the first time , and my first though was, that this was the worst, and slowest C code I had seen in my life. And yes most of it look like it has been run through some kind of pre-processor to convert it from BASIC to C. On top of all that most of the things he talks about in the book are of absolutely no intrest, I can almost find more information on ghraphics in a DOS manual than in his book. And it is all PC oriented (I hate PC's). Just my humble opinion. Mike -- /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ No user serviceable part inside. Warranty void if opened modified or tampered with. No batteries included. *