[Chicago] Good readings on the history of computing

Wed Sep 25 13:57:42 CEST 2013

Repeat the endorsement of Levy's "Hackers."

I really enjoyed watching the Alan Turing documentary, "Codebreaker," when it screened in Chicago this summer. http://www.turingfilm.com/

I'm also fond of Fred Turner's "From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism," maybe because I was reading the Whole Earth Review before I got on the internet.

I was trying to come up with some similar titles to recommend to students, so I welcome more.

Thanks
  Joe

On Sep 25, 2013, at 5:56 AM, Jason Wirth <wirth.jason at gmail.com> wrote:

> @Matt -- I have a copy of GEB that I got many years ago before I started programming, back when I was studying philosophy.
> 
> @Carl -- The Erlang video is pretty cool. It seems Erlang is gaining some popularity recently. I like hearing about different models of programming. Python is quite newer than, say C. 
> 
> @Andy -- I looked quickly at PEP8 before writing the email to confirm the number, but I skimmed past the part about longer lines.
> 
> @Alex -- def. right about the punch cards. I've long known that it was because terminals were 80 characters, but it never occurred to ask, why are terminals 80 characters?
> 
> @Matt -- That book book is currently available used for $0.01 on Amazon. Much cheaper than today's textbooks. In subjects that don't change much I often find older textbooks more helpful than modern ones, which can "dumb down" the material. 
> 
> @Ross -- both look like excellent books -- sold!
> 
>  
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jason Wirth
>     213.675.5294
>     wirth.jason at gmail.com
> 
> 
> On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 7:53 PM, Ross Heflin <heflin.rosst at gmail.com> wrote:
> a client once recommended this to me.
> http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-A-New-Machine/dp/0316491977
> I enjoyed it much
> and no list would be complete without Steven Levy's Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
> http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Anniversary-Edition/dp/1449388396
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 6:00 PM, Matt Bone <thatmattbone at gmail.com> wrote:
> It's not an article, but here's a really old book I love:
> http://www.amazon.com/Interactive-Programming-Environments-David-Barstow/dp/0070038856
> 
> I think it's interesting to see how little stuff has changed with
> regards to how we actually write programs. This book includes articles
> from notables like Stallman and Kernighan.
> 
> I like this thread because earlier today someone sent me an article
> with this quote:
> 
> "The lack of interest, the disdain for history is what makes computing
> not-quite-a-field." – Alan Kay
> 
> --matt
> 
> On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 5:35 PM, Alex MacKay <chicagomackay at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Again, the 72 is based upon concepts of the 1950's and 1960's.  A old punch
> > card was 80 columns long.  The last 8 (73-80) was used for line numbering.
> > If you dropped the deck of cards, you could easily put the program, data,
> > back in the correct order.
> >
> > On Sep 24, 2013, at 5:07 PM, Andy Boyle wrote:
> >
> > Continuing the off-topic for a moment, for those who are unaware PEP-8 was
> > recently updated to allow for longer line length:
> > http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#maximum-line-length
> >
> > "Some teams strongly prefer a longer line length. For code maintained
> > exclusively or primarily by a team that can reach agreement on this issue,
> > it is okay to increase the nominal line length from 80 to 100 characters
> > (effectively increasing the maximum length to 99 characters), provided that
> > comments and docstrings are still wrapped at 72 characters."
> >
> >
> > Andy Boyle | Chicago Tribune
> > News Applications Developer
> > @andymboyle | andymboyle.com
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 4:49 PM, Carl Karsten <carl at personnelware.com>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 2:40 PM, Jason Wirth <wirth.jason at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >> > Python is a newer language
> >>
> >> [citation needed]
> >>
> >> It is over 20 years old.
> >>
> >> granted pep 8:
> >> http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/
> >> Created:05-Jul-2001
> >>
> >> But back to your question about why 79 chars, I think because many of
> >> us (like me) use text based editors in text based environments like an
> >> ssh shell that defaults to 80 chars.
> >>
> >> and back on topic, you may like this
> >>
> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCwRGHj5jOE "26 years with Erlang or
> >> How I got my grey hairs"
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Carl K
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> Chicago at python.org
> >> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/chicago
> >
> >
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> >
> >
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> 
> 
> -- 
> From the "desk" of Ross Heflin
> phone number: (847) <23,504,826th decimal place of pi>
> 
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-- 
Joe Germuska
Joe at Germuska.com * http://blog.germuska.com * http://twitter.com/JoeGermuska    

"Participation. That's what's gonna save the human race." --Pete Seeger

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