The Art of Electronics

[Tony Duell]

> I have the first edition (black slipcover) and bought it back when I 

I bought both editions and both lab manuals, and never regretted any of 
them. The lab manuals have a fair amount of practical advice in them, and 
cover some stuff not in the main book (the second edtion has you making a 
simple 680008-based computer at the end :-)).

I was lucky, I was in Cambridge (England) at the time, and one of the 
bookshops sold damaged Cambridge Universtiy Press books at a considerably 
discount. 'Damaged' meant crumpled corners, not missing or illegible 
pages. On the grounds I wanted to read said books (whereupon the corners 
would get dog-eared anyway), I bought a lot of stuff there,

> was making a mere $4 an hour in the early 80's.  And I have never 
> regretted that purchase.  It is the 'modern' edition of 'The Radiotron 
> Designer's Handbook' which is a similar book from the vacuum tube

FWIW, I have the Radiotron Designers Handbook too, and like it a lot. In 
fact I bought the reprinted one that was available about 10 years ago, 
and then later found an earlier edition in  second-hand bookshop for 
very little money (I don't think they knew what it was). 

But I don't think the Radiotron Designers Handbook is that useful for 
repairing classic computers (although it _is_ a book I think every 
electronics hacker should have and should have read).
 
> era.  Lots of substancial content.  The Art of Electronics can be your 
> ONLY electronics book and stand well in that role.  

Well, as you said, it was really for scientists desinging 
instrumentation. There are some areas it doesn't really cover -- valves, 
cathode ray tubes, radio, etc. If you are particularly interested in one 
of those areas, you are going to need to get some other books. But you 
still should get TAoE, it's a book that you will want to refer to.

-tony