(j3.2006) Dan McCracken

[jeanne-martin at comcast.net]

According to the New York Times, Daniel D. McCracken, the first best-selling author of books that taught people how to use computers, died on July 30 in New York, age 81. 

He taught the first computer class I attended, when I had a summer job at General Electric. Up until then I had encountered no academic mention of computers except in a number theory class where they stated that number systems with bases other than 10 were useful in computers. 

His first book was "Digital Computer Programming" where he discussed a mythical computer called "TYDAC". His biggest seller was "A Guide to Fortran Programming", published in 1961 and selling 300,000 copies. 


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