This will be a two part review of the book Revolution in the Valley. The first part will be a more over view of the book and also a more personal review relating to my life The second part of this review will be a more logical analysis of the book through a six part break down.
Part One.
The most recent book that I have read is called Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made , it is written by Andy Hertzfeld who was a major contributor to the creation of the first Macintosh Computer as well as other Apple Products. The story is written from his eyes as he spends his years writing code and developing this amazing new technology. There are also some inserts from other members of the Apple Company to give a better view of what was happening.
This book very closely relates to my interests in life because I have always loved computers and will continue to love computers or whatever technology replaces them for the rest of my life. I truly loved being albe to read through one of the greatest creations in recent history. I know that for most people this would be a terrible book to read it goes through pages and pages of coding talk and is always referencing things that are just dry and boring but I personally have a bais to these things I can read page after page talking about UI's ROM, C++ or whatever else realting to computers with no problem at all.
I know that this book relates to my life in many ways. Not only do I spend hours on a Apple computer everyday but I also have spent hours of my life messing with every other type of computer. Plus I know that in years to come I will spend even more time on computers so I feel it's only right to undertand how it all got started especially if 30 years from now or even 100 these men could be considered the legends of the millennium.
Part Two
Speaker
The speaker throughout 99% of the book is Andy Hertzfeld who was one of the main designers and coders for the Macintosh. he worked on the Apple 2 team Primarily but was soon transferred to the more prestigious Mac team. The other 1% of the book is written by andy's co-workers. Here and there a additional author would add in a few details essentially.
Occasion
The occasion for this book is the 1980's mainly and is located in Silicon Valley. Silicon valley at the time was a MAJOR hub for technological advancements and was the home to the world known Apple company. Throughout this book the Mac team that Andy is working for travel from building to building as they expand and grow as a company.
Audience
The audience for this book is in my opinion hard to pin down because in my mind it is meant for a few difference audiences. The primary group of readers will be people entering the tech business and wanting to know how one of the greats started. The second main group I think is teens who are interesting in where their shinny new computer came from.
Purpose
The main purpose of this book is to document the growth and evolution of the Macintosh computer thorough it's early years thought the eyes of one of the men who created it. It gives an average person a great view into how Steve Jobs reacted to situation he liked and didn't like and showed how truly committed people were to the project on average working 90+ hour weeks.
Style
The style of the book is very jumping there is a lot of skipping around from year to year and from history to how the computer was developed. It's rather difficult to follow until you are about halfway through the book where you gain a more complete picture of everything that is going on.
Tone
Throughout most of the book the tone of the author is very positive, he is very proud of all the accomplishments that occur. There are some times where the author is depressed or saddened and he take you through those emotions very well so the over all tone of the book is well written.
I give this book 4.5 outta 5 Apple 2's
