<p dir="ltr">Not an article, buy you could try Charles Petzold's wonderful Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319">http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319</a></p>
<p dir="ltr">It's not strictly historical (it's more about presenting concepts in the order that makes it easiest to understand them) but it does cover the intellectual history of computing in detail. It begins with Morse code (!) and goes from there to telegraph relays to logic gates to memory to graphics with incredible clarity.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sep 24, 2013 7:59 PM, "Ross Heflin" <<a href="mailto:heflin.rosst@gmail.com">heflin.rosst@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">a client once recommended this to me.<div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-A-New-Machine/dp/0316491977" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-A-New-Machine/dp/0316491977</a><br></div><div>I enjoyed it much</div>
<div>and no list would be complete without Steven Levy's Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution</div><div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Anniversary-Edition/dp/1449388396" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Anniversary-Edition/dp/1449388396</a><br>
</div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 6:00 PM, Matt Bone <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:thatmattbone@gmail.com" target="_blank">thatmattbone@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">It's not an article, but here's a really old book I love:<br>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Interactive-Programming-Environments-David-Barstow/dp/0070038856" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Interactive-Programming-Environments-David-Barstow/dp/0070038856</a><br>
<br>
I think it's interesting to see how little stuff has changed with<br>
regards to how we actually write programs. This book includes articles<br>
from notables like Stallman and Kernighan.<br>
<br>
I like this thread because earlier today someone sent me an article<br>
with this quote:<br>
<br>
"The lack of interest, the disdain for history is what makes computing<br>
not-quite-a-field." – Alan Kay<br>
<span><font color="#888888"><br>
--matt<br>
</font></span><div><div><br>
On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 5:35 PM, Alex MacKay <<a href="mailto:chicagomackay@gmail.com" target="_blank">chicagomackay@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> Again, the 72 is based upon concepts of the 1950's and 1960's. A old punch<br>
> card was 80 columns long. The last 8 (73-80) was used for line numbering.<br>
> If you dropped the deck of cards, you could easily put the program, data,<br>
> back in the correct order.<br>
><br>
> On Sep 24, 2013, at 5:07 PM, Andy Boyle wrote:<br>
><br>
> Continuing the off-topic for a moment, for those who are unaware PEP-8 was<br>
> recently updated to allow for longer line length:<br>
> <a href="http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#maximum-line-length" target="_blank">http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#maximum-line-length</a><br>
><br>
> "Some teams strongly prefer a longer line length. For code maintained<br>
> exclusively or primarily by a team that can reach agreement on this issue,<br>
> it is okay to increase the nominal line length from 80 to 100 characters<br>
> (effectively increasing the maximum length to 99 characters), provided that<br>
> comments and docstrings are still wrapped at 72 characters."<br>
><br>
><br>
> Andy Boyle | Chicago Tribune<br>
> News Applications Developer<br>
> @andymboyle | <a href="http://andymboyle.com" target="_blank">andymboyle.com</a><br>
><br>
><br>
> On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 4:49 PM, Carl Karsten <<a href="mailto:carl@personnelware.com" target="_blank">carl@personnelware.com</a>><br>
> wrote:<br>
>><br>
>> On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 2:40 PM, Jason Wirth <<a href="mailto:wirth.jason@gmail.com" target="_blank">wirth.jason@gmail.com</a>><br>
>> wrote:<br>
>> > Python is a newer language<br>
>><br>
>> [citation needed]<br>
>><br>
>> It is over 20 years old.<br>
>><br>
>> granted pep 8:<br>
>> <a href="http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/" target="_blank">http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/</a><br>
>> Created:05-Jul-2001<br>
>><br>
>> But back to your question about why 79 chars, I think because many of<br>
>> us (like me) use text based editors in text based environments like an<br>
>> ssh shell that defaults to 80 chars.<br>
>><br>
>> and back on topic, you may like this<br>
>><br>
>> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCwRGHj5jOE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCwRGHj5jOE</a> "26 years with Erlang or<br>
>> How I got my grey hairs"<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> --<br>
>> Carl K<br>
>> _______________________________________________<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>>From the "desk" of Ross Heflin<br>phone number: (847) <23,504,826th decimal place of pi>
</div>
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