Macdonald Elsevier (84 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good with no dust jacket. Second impression revised. Ex university library copy sticker on rear cover and last page (both inked out). Pocket on inside rear cover. Stamped on page edges, typical internal stamps including withdrawn stamps. NOT stamped ot title page. ; Part of the History of Science Library series. ; Ex-Library; 6 3/8 x 9 1/2 "; 312 pages.…

Hardcover. Condition: As New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. US gar shelf 1 This hardcover of 312 pages is New in a New dj. White spine, black title.

Hardcover. Condition: UsedGood. Hardcover; surplus library copy with the usual stampings; reference number and bar code taped to front cover; fading and shelf wear to exterior; tear in rear endpaper from removal of card pocket; otherwise in good condition w ith clean text, firm binding. Dust jacket, fading and shelf wear, protected by a Mylar cover. …

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Dust jacket is price-clipped and in a protective cover. No markings.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. Beautiful copy in like dust jacket. Book has green cloth boards with gold lettering. The dust jacket is beautiful with a nickel size sticker scar on front panel. 312 pages.

Hardcover. Condition: UsedGood. Hardcover; surplus library copy with the usual stampings; light fading and shelf wear to exterior; bump to bottom corners; otherwise in good condition with clean text, firm binding. Dust jacket shows fading, light soiling, an d a few small edge tears.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Near Fine. First Edition. London: Macdonald and Elsevier New York, (1970). First Edition. 8vo. xiv, 312 pages, Index. 5 b&w plates on glossy paper. Cloth, fine condition in near fine dj (price clipped, price sticker on flap). Explores conflicting views as to whether force (energy) is conserved or lost when one hard body strikes another. Descartes and Leibniz fall on the conservationist side; Newton "advanced his atomic theory of hard atoms, flatly rejected Descartes' principle and asserted that the quantity of motion in the universe was diminished by every impact of hard bodies" - from dj. History of Science Library series. ; History of science library; 5 plates; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 312 pages.…

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Hardcover and dust jacket. Good binding and cover. Edge wear. Jacket clipped. Pages tanned, but unmarked. From the library Dr. Owen Hannaway. Hannaway was director of the Center for the History and Philosophy of Science at Johns Hopkins University. He authored numerous books and served as an editor of academic magazines in the history of science. Partial list of publications: Chemists and the Word: The Didactic Origins of Chemistry (1975); Observation, Experiment, and Hypothesis in Modern Physical Science (1985); The Evolution of Technology (1989); Science and the Practice of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century (1994); and The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional and Intellectual Contexts (1996).…

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dustjacket included. Later Edition. ISBN . Hardback. No statement of later printing on copyright page. Slight wear to corners; previous owner's bookplate on front pastedown (2"x2-1/2"); slight browning to page edges; otherwise tight, sound and unmarked in Very Good condition. Dustjacket with slight wear to corners and edges; slight overall dustsoiling; L3.50net original price is present and unclipped on front flap of dustjacket; otherwise Very Good condition. We have placed dustjacket in a brodart protective cover and it looks much better than described. No Signature.…

Hardcover. Condition: UsedVeryGood. Hardcover; light fading, light shelf wear to exterior; otherwise in very go od condition with clean text, firm binding. Dust jacket, fading and edge we ar, front corner clipped.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Fair. 1st Edition. First edition of Wilson L. Scott's scholarly history of the long-running conflict between atomistic theories of matter and principles of conservation in early modern and nineteenth-century physics. Published jointly by Macdonald in London and Elsevier in New York in 1970. The volume contains xiv + 312 pages with five plates, notes, bibliography, and index. Contemporary bibliographic records confirm the 1970 Macdonald/Elsevier edition and pagination. Scott traces the debate from the seventeenth century through 1860, examining the competing conceptions of matter, motion, force, and energy associated with figures including Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, and their successors. A substantive contribution to the history of physics and the conceptual development of conservation laws. Condition: Very Good hardcover in Fair original dust jacket. Book itself appears sound and well preserved, with clean title and copyright pages and firm binding. Dust jacket shows substantial age and wear, including considerable rubbing and surface soiling, discoloration and staining particularly along the spine, chipping and short tears at the head and extremities, edge wear, and scattered abrasions to the illustrated panels. Jacket remains substantially complete and retains its attractive History of Science Library design. Please refer to photographs for full condition detail. Ships carefully packed and protected. USPS Media Mail standard; expedited shipping available upon request. Returns accepted in accordance with AbeBooks policy. SCI 2b.…

Hardcover. Condition: Good. The book is in good condition with a sturdy hardcover binding. There is no dust jacket present, and the cover shows minimal wear with slight scuffing. The spine is intact with clear gold lettering. The pages are clean and free of inscriptions or markings, indicating that it has been well-preserved over the years.…

First Edition. Near fine copy in the original gilt-blocked cloth. Slightest suggestion only of dust-dulling to the spine bands and panel edges. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description: [5], 307 pages : facsimiles ; 25 cm. Notes: Contains facsimile reprints of Webster's Academiarum examen, 1654; Vindiciae academiarum, by J. Wilkins and S. Ward, 1654, and Hall's Histrio mastix, 1654.Includes bibliographical references. Contents: Includes facsimile reprints of: Academiarum examen / by John Webster -- Vindiciae academiarum / by John Wilkins and Seth Ward -- Histrio-mastix: a whip for Webster / by Thomas Hall. Instead of Histrio-mastix some copies have: Vindiciae literarum / by Thomas Hall (p.261-335). Subjects: Webster, John 1610-1682Webster, John (Arzt)Science Study and teaching Great Britain History.1600-1699. Geschichte 1600-1700. 17th CenturyEducation History 17th century. Education ; Early works to 1800. Science History 17th century.Education history. Science history. Universities.E?ducation ; Ouvrages avant 1800. 1 Kg.…

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. Book: Fine/Almost As New/, $29.89 0444199861 RECURSIVE TECHNIQUES IN PROGRAMMING, Computer Monograph Series 3 * BARRON, D. W. Elsevier Science / MacDonald 1969 Various Locations * * * * * 1sT Edition, 3rD Printing D/j + H/c Sun Browning On A Glossy 0ff~White Spine With Title In Black And Red Letters, Dust Jacket: Fine/, Slight Shelf, Edge And Corner Wear. Front Interior Flap, $5.25. Hard Cover Book: Fine/Almost As New/, Slightest Shelf, Edge And Corner Wear. 64 Numbered Pages Appear To Be Lightly Read, Clean And Tight To The Spine, Printed On 0ff~White Paper, In Fine/As New/ Condition. Prior Owner`s Stamp Inside Front Cover Of, Data Processing Department, County of Los Angeles. This Item Will Be Sent Wrapped In Plastic, Taped Shut And In A = Padded Mailing Envelope = To Prevent Shipping Damage So That It Will Arrive In The Description Described Which Applies To This Item, = ONLY. = No Odors, No Writing, No Names, No Rippling, Not Stuck Together, No Book Plate, Not X~Library, No Other Marks. = Will Make It, An Excellent Addition To Your Own Personal Library Collection, Or As A Gift, For The Discriminating Reader / Collector. = WORLD WIDE SHIPPING, AVAILABLE *. Book: Fine/Almost As New/, 1969 (illustrator).…

Hardcover. Condition: Like New. book in Fine shape hardly ever used.

First Edition. Near fine copy in the original gilt-blocked cloth. Slightest suggestion only of dust-dulling to the spine bands and panel edges. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description: [5], 307 pages : facsimiles ; 25 cm. Notes: Contains facsimile reprints of Webster's Academiarum examen, 1654; Vindiciae academiarum, by J. Wilkins and S. Ward, 1654, and Hall's Histrio mastix, 1654.Includes bibliographical references. Contents: Includes facsimile reprints of: Academiarum examen / by John Webster -- Vindiciae academiarum / by John Wilkins and Seth Ward -- Histrio-mastix: a whip for Webster / by Thomas Hall. Instead of Histrio-mastix some copies have: Vindiciae literarum / by Thomas Hall (p.261-335). Subjects: Webster, John 1610-1682Webster, John (Arzt)Science Study and teaching Great Britain History.1600-1699. Geschichte 1600-1700. 17th CenturyEducation History 17th century. Education ; Early works to 1800. Science History 17th century.Education history. Science history. Universities.Éducation ; Ouvrages avant 1800. 1 Kg.…

Hardback. Condition: Fair. Quick COBOL (1971) by L. Coddington is the sort of book that doesn?t so much teach you a programming language as invite you into a particular kind of civilisation ? one built from punched cards, careful indentation, and the quiet certainty that if you name your variables properly, the whole world will balance its books on time. COBOL, of course, is the language that never really went away. It simply retreated into the warm humming glow of banks, governments, insurance firms and payroll departments, where it has been loyally shuffling money and meaning around for decades, like a very polite but unstoppable clerk who refuses to retire. If you?ve ever wondered what the hidden engine room of the modern world looks like, this is part of it ? not neon cyberpunk, but crisp formality and a deep respect for records . And ?Quick? in 1971 doesn?t mean ?five-minute YouTube tutorial.? It means: Here is a sensible, structured route into a serious language, in a serious book, with serious intent. You can almost smell the chalk dust and hear someone explaining that computers are not toys, and neither is your syntax. This is a splendid time capsule from the era when: computing was corporate, terminals were precious, storage was expensive, and ?user-friendly? meant the manual had a reasonably clear index. Condition (Fair, but honourably so) This copy is Fair , with a quite slanted spine ? as if it spent a few years leaning over someone?s desk, patiently waiting for them to stop panicking and start declaring their data divisions correctly. The important bit: the binding is strong , and the pages are clean and good . So it?s structurally sound, perfectly readable, and ready to be consulted again by anyone who wants to learn the language of institutional endurance. Why you want it Because it?s both practical and oddly philosophical. COBOL is not trendy, and that?s the point. This is programming as administration, as logistics, as the quiet machinery behind civilisation. Owning Quick COBOL is like owning a manual for the bureaucratic heart of the 20th century ? and, inconveniently, quite a lot of the 21st. Perfect for: vintage computing collectors programmers with an unhealthy curiosity about how the world actually runs anyone who enjoys retro technical books with diagrams, discipline, and zero emojis and people who know the future was built by people in shirts who wrote code that looks like English and never apologised for it Crappy Old Books offers it with a crooked spine and clean pages ? a slightly lopsided relic from the era when ?software? wore a tie and ?quick? meant ?methodical..…

24 x 16 cm, hardcover with dust jacket, xiv, 312 pages, Text in English, small signs of use, price clipped dust jacket, very good condition, see picture. History of Science Library. Scholarly study of the tension between atomistic theories of matter and conservation principles in physics and chemistry from the 17th to the 19th century. Examines key debates in the development of modern science. 720g.…

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. 1st Edition.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Illustrated cream dust-jacket, some discoloration to the spine but otherwise clean and neat, not price clipped. Book bound in green cloth, patch fading on spine. Pages smooth, clean, appearing unused.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition; First Printing. Fine first edition, first printing. Former owner initials on front fly. Non price clippes ($15.00) , lightly shelf rubbed DJ, small wear and tear to edges and a blue round sticker near bottom of spine, bottom corner of front DJ flap is clipped. * (We ship most books six days a week and will confirm with tracking number for domestic orders or customs number for non domestic) *; 8vo. …

Hardback. Condition: Good. Executive Programs and Operating Systems (1970) by G. Cuttle and P. B. Robinson is a title that sounds faintly corporate, faintly technical, and entirely determined to bring order to machines that, at the time, were roughly the size of a respectable wardrobe. This is 1970 ? the era when computing meant serious rooms, raised floors, spools of tape, and the steady hum of hardware that looked as though it had been designed by an architect with a fondness for rectangles. The ?executive program? wasn?t someone in a suit making decisions in a boardroom; it was the supervisory layer of a computer system ? the part that kept everything organised, scheduled, allocated, and (one hoped) not on fire. In other words: this book is about the unseen management class of the machine world. Cuttle and Robinson approach their subject with the calm authority typical of early technical publishing from MacDonald?Elsevier . There is no breathless futurism here. No silicon valley swagger. No friendly mascots encouraging you to ?click here.? Instead, you get structured prose, careful explanations, and that unmistakable 1970s tone that implies competence is achievable if you just read closely and stop panicking. This is the age when operating systems were still being worked out . Batch processing versus time-sharing. Resource allocation. Interrupt handling. Job control. Memory management. The great intellectual puzzle of persuading an extremely expensive machine to juggle multiple tasks without sulking. It?s the foundation layer of modern computing ? long before ?update required? became a daily ritual. And there is something deliciously ironic about reading this today. We now carry operating systems in our pockets that manage billions of instructions per second, yet still find ways to freeze when we most need them. Back in 1970, the ambition was grand but measured: build a system that can supervise programs sensibly, efficiently, and predictably. One almost misses that quiet optimism. Condition (Good, and appropriately supervisory) This copy is in Good condition , which feels entirely appropriate for a book about orderly control. The binding is firm, the pages are clean, and it presents with the dignified air of something that once sat on the desk of someone who genuinely cared about interrupts and scheduling policies. It hasn?t been reduced to a doorstop for a server rack. It hasn?t been annotated into chaos. It has simply survived ? like a well-run system should. Why you want it Because this is not just a technical manual; it?s an artefact of computing?s formative years. A moment when operating systems were not taken for granted, but studied, debated, and engineered with almost philosophical seriousness. It?s also a reminder that behind every glossy interface lies a deeply structured, rule-bound executive quietly keeping things in line. Perfect for: collectors of vintage computing texts operating system enthusiasts who like their history foundational programmers curious about how the discipline began anyone nostalgic for technical books that assume you?re capable of thinking Crappy Old Books offers it as a solid survivor from the dawn of system-level seriousness ? a 1970 guide to the machinery that keeps the machinery running. Calm, methodical, and faintly majestic in its belief that if we can just organise the programs properly, everything will be fine.…

Condition: Good. Signed Copy . Good dust jacket. Signed by author on front endpage. Owner's name on front endpage. Slightly dampstained. Volume 15.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Publisher's hardback in very good condition: firm and square, strong joints, just mildly rubbed. Complete with original dustjacket: slightly edge-worn and a little darkened, even so still showing well. Contents tight and clean; no pen-marks. Not from a library so no such stamps or labels. Thus a tidy book in presentable condition.…

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Publisher's hardback in very good condition: firm and square, strong joints, just mildly rubbed. Complete with original dustjacket: slightly edge-worn and a little darkened, even so still showing well. Contents tight and clean; no pen-marks, save a former owner name at the endpaper. Not from a library so no such stamps or labels. Thus a tidy book in presentable condition.…

Hardback. Condition: Good. A Comparative Study of Programming Languages (1973) by Bryan Higman is the kind of book that arrives wearing a sensible jacket, clears its throat politely, and then proceeds to compare programming languages with the calm authority of someone who genuinely believes civilisation can be improved by better syntax. And you know what? He?s not wrong. This is 1973: computers are large, expensive, and generally treated with the respect usually reserved for nuclear reactors and senior managers. ?Software? is still a slightly exotic concept. ?Programmer? is not yet a hoodie-wearing archetype but more of a disciplined craftsperson with a stack of paper listings and a healthy fear of wasting machine time. And into this world comes Higman, doing something delightfully ambitious: looking across the landscape of programming languages and asking the eternal question ? what are these things actually like, and why do they behave the way they do? The joy of this book is the tone: serious, structured, and wonderfully pre-hype. No breathless claims that one language will ?change everything.? No tribal shouting. No ?best language? nonsense. Just careful comparison ? the kind that assumes the reader is intelligent, curious, and capable of holding more than one idea in their head at once. It?s computing as analysis, not as fandom. Of course, the comedy is that even in 1973 the language wars were already simmering. Humans will argue about anything, but give them a compiler and they?ll form factions. This book is the peace treaty attempt: step back, examine the features, consider the philosophies, and try to understand what each language is for ? rather than declaring victory and printing a T-shirt. It?s also a quietly fascinating time capsule of the moment when ?modern programming? was still being invented in public. You can feel the field deciding what matters: readability, structure, efficiency, expressiveness, reliability ? all the themes we still argue about now, except Higman does it without memes or hot takes. Condition (Good, as it should be) This copy is in Good condition ? clean, solid, and presentable, which feels appropriate for a book devoted to orderly thinking. It has clearly survived the decades without being thrown across a room by someone debugging at 3am, and it?s ready for a new reader who wants to see how the craft sounded when it still spoke in measured paragraphs. Why you want it Because it?s not just about languages ? it?s about the mindset behind them. It?s the history of thought, packaged in the most MacDonald?Elsevier way possible: practical, earnest, and quietly confident that good analysis can tame complexity. Perfect for: vintage computing collectors programmers who enjoy the archaeology of their own profession anyone who suspects the ?new? debates are mostly old debates in fresher fonts readers who like their tech writing calm, rigorous, and faintly intimidating Crappy Old Books offers it as a handsome survivor from the age of mainframes and measured prose ? a book from when programming languages were still young enough to be compared politely, before the internet taught everyone to shout.…

Hardback. Condition: Good. Introduction to Operating Systems (1971) by A. J. T. Colin is a charmingly understated title for a subject that is, in reality, the invisible stage manager of modern life. Operating systems are the reason anything works at all, yet they rarely get applause. They just stand in the wings, shuffling tasks, managing memory, and quietly preventing everything from collapsing into chaos ? a bit like a competent civil servant, but with fewer tea breaks and more interrupts. And this is 1971 , when ?operating system? didn?t mean a colourful interface and a friendly app store. It meant big machines, serious institutions, and the thrilling possibility that your expensive computer might be persuaded to do more than one thing without having a nervous breakdown. This is the era of batch jobs, time-sharing, job control, scheduling, spooling, and the sort of concepts that sound dry until you realise they?re basically the rules that stop a computer from turning into a very fast paperweight. Colin?s approach is wonderfully of its time: methodical, clear, and quietly confident that the reader is capable of learning difficult things without being emotionally coddled. There are no ?quick wins? here. No motivational graphics. No friendly mascots. Just proper explanations, likely accompanied by diagrams that look like they were drawn with a ruler and a firm belief in correctness. The real joy is that this book captures the moment when computing was transitioning from ?one program, one machine, one job? into something more ambitious ? systems that could share resources, keep order, and serve multiple users without collapsing into a queue of despair. In other words, it?s about teaching the computer to behave like a well-run building rather than a single-use workshop. And yes, there?s something deliciously ironic about reading a 1971 operating systems textbook now, in a world where your phone is running an OS capable of doing roughly everything except making you feel calm. Back then, the grand challenge was allocating memory. Today, the grand challenge is stopping your operating system from politely suggesting you ?try a mindfulness app? while it updates itself in the background. Condition (Good, and proudly functional) This copy is in Good condition ? the ideal state for a book about systems doing their job properly. It presents well, holds together firmly, and has clearly survived the decades without being used as a doorstop for a server room. If it has any signs of age, they?re the honest kind: a bit of mellowing, a bit of history, but still solid, readable, and ready for another round of education. Why you want it Because it?s vintage computing with real substance. This isn?t nostalgia for blinking lights ? it?s the intellectual infrastructure that made modern computing possible. It?s also a brilliant artefact for anyone who enjoys the deep mechanics of how machines are organised, controlled, and prevented from fighting over resources like toddlers in a toy shop. Perfect for: collectors of classic computing texts operating-systems nerds and students who like seeing the foundations programmers who enjoy the archaeology of ?how we got here? anyone who suspects the world is run by scheduling, queues, and polite rules Crappy Old Books offers it as a clean, sturdy survivor from the age of mainframes and disciplined prose ? a 1971 guide to the unseen system that keeps the whole machine from falling apart. Which, frankly, is also what we all want.…

Hardback. Condition: Good. Use of Files (1973) by D. R. Judd is one of those gloriously straight-faced titles that could only come from the era when computing was a serious business conducted in serious rooms by serious people who didn?t want excitement, they wanted order . Not ?content.? Not ?data.? Not ?the cloud.? Just? files . Plain, sensible, obedient files, lined up and doing what they?re told. And yet, behind this modest title lurks the beating heart of modern life. Because whether you?re running a bank, an airline, a national insurance scheme, or simply trying to stop your own paperwork from multiplying like rabbits, everything eventually becomes a question of: where do we put the information, how do we find it again, and how do we stop it becoming a disaster? In 1973, ?files? meant more than a folder on your desktop. It meant systems. Structures. Records. Access patterns. The thrilling administrative romance of making information behave . This is the kind of book that sits quietly at the foundation of civilisation, like plumbing: unglamorous, essential, and only truly appreciated when it fails catastrophically. Judd writes with that wonderfully calm, slightly stern technical tone of the early 1970s ? a period when documentation assumed the reader was competent, attentive, and not emotionally fragile. There?s no ?quick start.? No ?in five easy steps.? No motivational pep talk. Just a steady, methodical explanation of how to organise and handle information properly, in an age when storage was expensive, memory was small, and every choice had consequences. The book has the faint aura of the mainframe: humming, reliable, quietly judging you. And the irony, of course, is delicious. Fifty years later we are drowning in files. Files everywhere. Files inside files. Files you didn?t create and can?t delete. Files auto-synced, duplicated, cached, versioned, and politely resurrected by a service you cancelled in 2019. We live in a world where the use of files is no longer a technical question but a moral one. Which is why this book is such a satisfying artefact: it captures the moment when people still believed that with enough careful thought, the file problem could be solved. Condition (Good, like a well-kept cabinet) This copy is in Good condition ? fittingly tidy for a book about keeping things tidy. It presents well, holds together properly, and has clearly not spent its life face-down under a coffee mug. It looks like it has been respected, perhaps even consulted, and then sensibly returned to its place ? the highest praise any book on files can receive. Why you want it Because it?s a crisp, practical slice of early information-systems thinking ? and a time capsule from the age when the digital world was being built with caution and discipline, rather than apps that ask for your contacts ?for a better experience.? Perfect for: collectors of vintage computing and information science anyone who loves obscure but foundational technical books people who enjoy the quiet grandeur of systems and structure the sort of reader who finds comfort in indexes, headings, and orderly thinking Crappy Old Books offers Use of Files exactly as intended: solid, sensible, and quietly important. A 1973 manual for the management of information ? from back when we still believed information could be managed.…

Hardback. Condition: Good. Ah yes, Computer Handling of Chemical Structure Information (1971) ? a title so magnificently unapologetic that it manages to sound both wildly futuristic and crushingly administrative at the same time. Written by M. F. Lynch, J. M. Harrison, W. G. Town and J. E. Ash, and published by the sternly dependable alliance of MacDonald and American Elsevier, this is a book from the glorious early age of computing, when the idea of getting a machine to understand chemistry still had the thrilling whiff of science fiction about it. Today, of course, we take it for granted that a computer can store, search, sort and juggle chemical structures while also distracting us with emails and weather alerts. But in 1971 this was serious frontier work. The challenge was not merely one of chemistry, nor merely one of computing, but of persuading these two extremely complicated realms to sit down together and behave themselves. How, after all, do you teach a machine to cope with molecules, rings, chains, bonds, substitutions and all the rest of the gloriously fiddly architecture of chemistry? It is one thing for a chemist to glance at a structural formula and nod wisely. It is quite another to reduce that same formula to something a large humming box can process without existential complaint. That is the territory this book inhabits: the fascinating, slightly forbidding borderland where punch-card logic meets molecular elegance. It is concerned with systems of representation, indexing, retrieval and classification ? in other words, the hidden bureaucracy of scientific knowledge. Not the dramatic bubbling flask end of chemistry, but the equally vital question of how one actually organises chemical information so that it can be found again before the heat death of the universe. There is something wonderfully ambitious about a book like this. It comes from a period when computers were still enormous, temperamental, and far less interested in helping ordinary people than in quietly revolutionising specialist disciplines from the inside. Here we see that revolution in progress. The authors are grappling with problems that now underpin huge areas of cheminformatics, database science and pharmaceutical research, but they do so in the measured, deliberate tone of people who know they are building part of the future with graphs, coding schemes and a deep faith in orderly systems. And what a future it promised. This is a world where the proper encoding of a benzene ring is not a niche concern but the sort of thing upon which the whole modern edifice of searchable chemical knowledge may eventually depend. It is, in its own dry and noble way, a book about translation: taking the exquisite visual language of chemistry and converting it into forms that computers can store, compare and retrieve. It may not sound romantic, but there is a peculiar beauty in the effort. Humanity had spent centuries discovering substances, naming compounds and drawing structures, and then along came computing to say: splendid, now please put all of that into a system. Naturally, being a technical volume from 1971, it does not exactly bounce along like a thriller. It is dense, precise and entirely untroubled by the modern need to be ?accessible? It assumes, with admirable confidence, that the reader has turned up because they genuinely want to know about machine methods for handling chemical structure information, and not because they were hoping for a light diversion before bed. In that sense, it is refreshingly honest. No gimmicks, no simplification, no brightly coloured sidebars pretending data structures are fun for the whole family. Just proper intellectual machinery, laid out with seriousness and care. Still, that is part of the charm. For collectors of vintage scientific and computing texts, this is exactly the sort of book that radiates period authority. It belongs to that lovely moment when computers were beginning to colonise every corner of specialist knowledge, and each ne.…

Hardcover. Condition: Good. second impression Torn/worn dj. Good hardcover with some shelfwear; may have previous owner's name inside. Standard-sized.