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I'm sorry, what? 😳📖

https://archive.org/details/bitmappedgraphic0000rimm

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The title page of the book "Bit-Mapped Graphics", by Steve Rimmer, published in 1990.
The book's dedication reads: "Also for Megan Who observed that computer books rarely manage a satisfying level of gratuitous sex, suspense, or witchcraft. Perhaps just this once . . ."

Bit-mapped graphics : Rimmer, Steve : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

x, 492 pages : 25 cm
Internet Archive
#theLibrary
in reply to rezmason

rezmason
rezmason
• •

I mean, this might've counted as racy on BBSes in 1990, but it's pretty tame by today's standards. I guess they had a bandwidth problem.

No, the tone of the writing and the fun diagrams are the real highlight of this book. The author is very much aware that it's a tedious subject, and does his best to make it fun.

Bitmapped debauchery. Specifically, an illustration of a nude lady making bedroom eyes, except it's cropped to the top quarter of her body, revealing nothing you read this for, honestly what'd you expect.
Caption: "Two ways of expressing a similar idea, one using graphics and one using text" Left: a facsimile of M.C. Escher's "Dream (Mantis Religiosa)", 1935; beneath shaded arches, a priest sleeps on a bed, but an enormous mantis prays over him. Right: a box with large text reading, "They have very weird hotels here"
in reply to rezmason

rezmason
rezmason
• •
I mean, can you deny that these are some very readable diagrams about decoding images in 80s-era formats?
Caption: "The structure of an EGA color number" (LOW INTENSITY) 0— Blue 1— Green 2— Red (HIGH INTENSITY) 3— Blue 4— Green 5— Red 6 7
A flowchart. Forgive me, but I'm not going to describe it in full unless you ask me to. Caption: "The procedure for unpacking a line of compressed MacPaint data".
in reply to rezmason

Devine Lu Linvega
Devine Lu Linvega
• •
Do you have macpaint images? Looks like a fun puzzle to write a decoder for them.
in reply to Devine Lu Linvega

rezmason
rezmason
• •

I haven't got any handy, though I bet Kid Pix images are just Pict. But you probably don't want baby Rez art. 😄

If this guy speaks truth, there may be gigabytes of it out there already curated by the BBSes they sat on. I'll look around after work, in case there's gold in them thar hills.

I'm so glad I only hoard digital objects. And puns.

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