If it were possible to make CompuSoft books more fun, they would include cartoons by Bob Stevens. And that’s just what we did. Below are only a few single-panel illustrations readers enjoyed about every five pages. Stevens’ caricatures depicted him as the bumbling BASIC programmer, with occasional supporting characters resembling our dear Dr. Lien.

Chuck Yeager, a 25-year fan of Stevens’ work in Air Force Magazine, said, “Any guy who can make something humorous out of a gear-up landing has my vote as a first class cartoonist.”

I met Bob Stevens in my first year at CompuSoft. He died in 1994 at the age of 71 after battling cancer.

Academic Press asked me to write Who’s Afraid of Perl? as part of their series of programming books. After completing the front and back matter, chapter outline, sample chapters and programs, my editor unexpectedly left the company. Inquiries into the fate of the book went unanswered for months. However, things were picking up at CTSnet, so I didn’t pursue the publisher about it. Oddly, this book was listed on Amazon. (Maybe it should be called Who’s Afraid to Publish a Perl Book?)

[ with co-author Rick Stout. ] The concept is deceptively simple: find a science or technology web site, learn all about it, and write a pithy description. Repeat that process hundreds and hundreds of times… and you have the makings of a major writing chore. To keep our sanity while producing a fun and functional sci-tech site catalog, it demanded outrageous and funny departures. Despite more work than expected, I had a great time writing with Rick Stout. Check out my IYP:SRT web site for more details. Among many other books, Rick also wrote the original Internet Yellow Pages with Harley Hahn. Here’s a signed inscription from a copy they presented to me. (blush)

[ with co-author Dan Gookin. ] This was the more technical follow-up to the original Apple IIGS programming book Dan and I wrote the year before. Though it had fewer pages, it was more challenging to write as it included C, Pascal, and 65816 assembler code for every example.

[ with co-author Dan Gookin. ] This 642-page monster reveals the secrets to programming the Apple IIGS, Apple’s last incarnation of the Apple II series. The IIGS combined the value of the venerable Apple II with the user-friendliness of the Mac. The GS stands for graphics and sound, cutting edge at the time, rivaling that of its Mac brethren for a while. (Trivia: The publisher sorted our hexadecimal toolbox function index in alphabetical order, making it a treat for programmers to follow.)

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