04 Hamming, Learning to Learn: History Of Computers - Software, 4 April 1995
Channel: Hamming on Hamming: Learning to Learn
Date: 2018-02-20

History of Computers - Software. 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.

00:00 Introduction: Software
03:30 In early programming
06:48 IBM story: jobs not fit for humans
09:32 Those programmers that design logical languages don’t last long; write psychological
10:15 POL : problem oriented languages
12:33 10 decimal system with a drum
14:20 Book from Cambridge
16:15 History tends to be charitable and gives the first guy credit
17:00 10 Decimal digit illustration
21:24 The person who discovers something rarely understands it
23:11 The difference between the logical and psychological language
24:42 Language call APL
27:36 There a presumption that the languages we are using are reasonable well designed do the job they are doing
29:37 There are two languages
31:31 Programming is closer to novel writing then it is to engineering
32:11 Method to improve programming: Think before you write
35:06 Numbers about programming improvement
38:40 What does make a good programmer?
42:38 When Hamming started programming...
44:20 You can not compete with the people working for you
47:37 Software is a major problem that will not go away
51:43 End

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