Coding Horror: The Cartoon Guide to.. Programming?

April 21, 2006

The Cartoon Guide to.. Programming?

I recently found a link to a series of Larry Gonick's mathematical cartoons that were originally published in Discover magazine:

Beauty and the Beasts (neural nets)
Prime Time (cryptography)
Proof Positive? (probabalistic proofs)
Lumps, with Mother Nature (chaotic mixing)
Speed (relativity)
The Solution (traveling salesman's problem)
Filler Up! (space-filling solids)
The Bowerbird's Dilemma (game theory)
El Topo (DNA topology)
Portrait of a Problem (protein-folding energy landscsapes)
It's the Pits (wavelets)

It's great stuff. Here's a sample panel from the one on cryptography:

A panel from Larry Gonick's comic 'Prime Time', about Encryption

I've followed Larry Gonick's work for ages. He's famous for his easy to grasp, beautifully illustrated treatment of complex topics -- as exemplified in the series of books he's published:

Cartoon History of the Universe Vol I (1990)
Cartoon History of the Universe Vol II (1994)
Cartoon History of the Universe Vol III (2002)
Cartoon History of the Modern World Vol I (ETA late 2006)
Cartoon History of the United States (1991)
Cartoon Guide to Chemistry (2005)
Cartoon Guide to the Computer (1983)
Cartoon Guide to the Environment (1996)
Cartoon Guide to Genetics (1991)
Cartoon Guide to (non)Communication (1993)
Cartoon Guide to Physics (1992)
Cartoon Guide to Sex (1999)
Cartoon Guide to Statistics (1994)

Although I made fun of the Learn ASP.NET in 24 Hours meme, I am a big fan of learning subjects in cartoon form. You learn more when you're having fun doing it.

Posted by Jeff Atwood View blog reactions

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Comments

For even more sweet, hot Gonick action, check out his 14-comic "Candide in China" series:

<a href="http://china.candidemedia.com/html/dispatches/cartoonarc1.html">http://china.candidemedia.com/html/dispatches/cartoonarc1.html</a>;

It's about Chinese inventions that predated the western equivalents, sometimes by many hundred years (eg, the printing press).

Jeff Atwood on April 21, 2006 04:11 PM

Dare I say... First!

Kurt Koller on April 21, 2006 06:01 PM

But seriously, I've always liked stuff like this. In fact, I read cartoon guide to genetics back when it came out and it really did impart a lot of decent information.

Kurt Koller on April 21, 2006 06:03 PM

Also, and I apologize for the triple post, but is it my imagination or does the traveling salesman strip not actually explain or show a solution to the traveling salesman problem? The note in the last panel seems to say that it doesn't solve what it should actually be solving.

Kurt Koller on April 21, 2006 06:07 PM

Have you see the poignant guide to Ruby?
http://poignantguide.net/ruby/chapter-3.html

Scott on April 21, 2006 07:41 PM

"Also, and I apologize for the triple post, but is it my imagination or does the traveling salesman strip not actually explain or show a solution to the traveling salesman problem? The note in the last panel seems to say that it doesn't solve what it should actually be solving."

There's a second page to the cartoon ;)

RiX0R on April 22, 2006 05:07 AM

Never mind cartoons, I recently found programming concepts stick in your mind much better if you use a perverted analogy.

Mags on April 24, 2006 03:47 AM

Somewhat related:

I just want to point out that Mark Wheelis, the co-author with Larry Gonick for the Cartoon Guide to Genetics was my microbiology professor from UC Davis (Behind my mild mannered software developing exterior I'm actually a microbiologist).

Steve Bush on April 24, 2006 09:49 AM

Ah yes, well how about that! Silly me.

Kurt Koller on April 24, 2006 08:24 PM

Couldn't agree more - programming was a black art to me until I discovered "Illustrating Basic". Now...

David on May 26, 2006 07:55 AM