> On May 22, 2024, at 3:29 PM, Gavin Scott via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org>
> wrote:
>
> On Wed, May 22, 2024 at 2:25 PM John Herron via cctalk
> <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
>> Out of curiosity is the book the size of a floppy disk or some computer
>> item at the time? (Any significance or just him being unique?).
>
> Here's an Amazon listing showing what it looked like. Ordinary book
> size if not shape.
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Structures-Readings-Examples-McGraw-Hill/dp/0070043574/
It's about as high as a typical hardcover textbook, just unusually wide. I
don't know of any other reason other than "it's different".
As I mentioned, it is not unprecedented; I have a book about book design which
talks at some length about choosing the page proportions, and it mentions
square pages as one of the recognized choices. I think it says that it isn't
very common, but I don't remember what else it says, for example any particular
reason why one might choose this format (or reasons to avoid it).
paul
