Showstopper
77% recommend23% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Engaging inside account of how Dave Cutler and ex-DEC engineers built Windows NT at Microsoft in the early 1990s, showing mid-90s development practices; suits Windows fans and readers of Soul of a New Machine.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Showstopper is the dramatic, inside story of the creation of Windows NT, told by Wall Street Journal reporter G. Pascal Zachary. Driven by the legendary Bruce Cutler, a picked band of software engineers sacrifices almost everything in their lives to build a new, stable, operating system aimed at giving Micropsoft a platform for growth through the next decade of development in the computing business.Comparable in many ways to the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder, Showstopper gets deep inside the process of software development, the lives and motivations of
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-Showstopper by G. Pascal Zachary -The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman -UNIX in a Nutshell (O'Reilly book written by Arnold Robbins)
on “Ask YC: What would you put on a hacker's bookshelf?” ↗If you ever have a chance to read the book "Showstopper" by G. Pascal Zachary (and haven't already), do it. Awesome book about Cutler and the creation of Windows NT.
on “Why wasn't the Windows 95 shell prototyped on Windows NT?” ↗Showstopper! - G. Pascal Zachary https://www.amazon.com/Showstopper-Breakneck-Windows-Generat...
on “Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?” ↗…Between the Seas by David McCullough - Panama Canal construction. 37. Annapurna by Maurice Herzog - Climbing a Himalayan peak. 38. Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder - Data General engineers. 39. Showstopper by G. Pascal Zachary - Development of Windows NT. 40. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - WWII survival. 41. The Measure of All Things by Ken Alder - Defining the meter. 42. The Cuckoo’s Egg by Clifford…
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗Probably "Showstopper!" by G. Zachary. I remember really liking it.
on “An excerpt from “The One Device” – origin story of the iPhone” ↗For anyone who is interested in the story of the original development of Windows NT, check out the G. Pascal Zachary book, Showstopper.
on “Explorer Shell Merged” ↗Thanks for the recommendation. I have to add G. Pascal Zachary's "Showstopper! The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft" as another excellent look inside Microsoft's software development practices during the mid 1990s.
on “Microsoft Word for Windows 1.0 Postmortem (1989) [pdf]” ↗I enjoyed G. Pascal Zachary's "Showstopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT".
on “The Birth of Unix with Brian Kernighan” ↗If you want to learn more about NT, read "Showstopper! The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft" by G. Pascal Zachary
on “Windows NT 3.1” ↗Cover's the book "Showstopper!" by G. Pascal Zachary. "Showstopper!" is a weird book, but it should be read more, especially by Windows people. There's some problems with the accepted history of Windows NT vs what' in that book,…
on “Chunchmode – The NT Story” ↗Check out "Showstopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft" by G. Zachary. The book was recommended in a thread above. The book is about Dave Cutler and other DEC engineers joining…
on “An excerpt from “The One Device” – origin story of the iPhone” ↗"Showstopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsof" by G. Pascal Zachary is great, about an interesting period of Microsoft's life.
on “Four DB2 Code Bases?” ↗"One exception is The Cuckoo's Egg, which I reread every ~5 years." I do too, others I like to reread "hackers" by Steven Levy and Showstopper by G. Pascal Zachary. I don't know why but I always find these books highly entertaining. Glad I'm not alone.
on “Ask HN: What books do you keep on your desk?” ↗Accidental Empires is probably THE classic, absolutely worth a read. I also enjoyed "Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age" by Michael Hiltzik and "Showstopper! The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft" by G. Pascal Zachary
on “Ask HN: What are more books like “Masters of Doom” or “Showstoppers”?” ↗…haven't been mentioned yet - The Supermen (Charles Murray), essentially a biography of Seymour Cray. A Few Good Men from Univac (Lundstrom and Aspray), similar thoughts about the same era of computing. Showstopper (Pascal Zachary), essentially a biography of David Cutler, plus a bunch of the development of Windows NT.
on “Ask HN: What are some great posts or articles about history of computing?” ↗