Hamming, "History of Computers - Software" (April 4, 1995)
Channel: securitylectures
Date: 2012-08-09

Intro: In the early days of computing the control part was all done by hand. The slow desk computers were at first controlled by hand, for example multiplication was done by repeated additions, with column shifting after each digit of the multiplier. Division was similarly done by repeated subtractions. In time electric motors were applied both for power and later for more automatic control over multiplication and division. The punch card machines were controlled by plug board wiring to tell the machine where to find the information, what to do with it, and where to put the answers on the cards (or on the printed sheet of a tabulator) , but some of the control might also come from the cards themselves, typically X and Y punches, (other digits could, at times, control what happened). A plug board was usually specially wired for each job to be done, and saved and used again each week, or month, as they were needed in the cycle of accounting.



The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn" was the capstone course by Dr. Richard W. Hamming (1915-1998) for graduate students at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey California. 

This course is intended to instill a "style of thinking" that will enhance one's ability to function as a problem solver of complex technical issues. With respect, students sometimes called the course "Hamming on Hamming" because he relates many research collaborations, discoveries, inventions and achievements of his own. This collection of stories and carefully distilled insights relates how those discoveries came about. Most importantly, these presentations provide objective analysis about the thought processes and reasoning that took place as Dr. Hamming, his associates and other major thinkers, in computer science and electronics, progressed through the grand challenges of science and engineering in the twentieth century.