OK, I was bored...made a tool that produces even more messier output :) At least I got to try out the HN API

https://github.com/dannguyen/hn_dupesum

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Stories containing the title of "a brief history of programming" received:

At least 20 submissions from 2008-05-18 to 2014-05-25, i.e. ~109 days between each submission

- At least 1338 points, i.e. ~66.9 points per submission

- At least 176 comments, i.e. ~8.8 comments per submission

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Submission #1 by DanielRibeiro: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3503896

2012-01-24 (~852 days ago)
389 points and 45 comments

Top comments:

- bitops [27 points]: Only two minor quibbles: 1) did not mention Clojure. 2) broke the amusing narrative a bit in the middle by including a true story (Perl). Really funny otherwise. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3504001]

- f4stjack [26 points]: "1996 - James Gosling invents Java. Java is a relatively verbose, garbage collected, class based, statically typed, single dispatch, object oriented language with single implementation inheritance and multiple interface inheritance. Sun loudly heralds Java's novelty. 2001 - Anders Hejlsberg invents C#. C# is a relatively verbose, garbage collected, class based, statically typed, single dispatch, object oriented language with single implementation inheritance and multiple interface inheritance. ... [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3503969]

- perfunctory [24 points]: My favourite is actually: 1972 - Dennis Ritchie invents a powerful gun that shoots both forward and backward simultaneously. Not satisfied with the number of deaths and permanent maimings from that invention he invents C and Unix. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3504067]

Submission #2 by toddc: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599164

2009-05-08 (~1844 days ago)
299 points and 14 comments

Top comments:

- tumult [52 points]: Lambdas are relegated to relative obscurity until Java makes them popular by not having them. Alright, this was surprisingly amusing. Thanks. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599281]

- jfarmer [33 points]: My favorite:\n1972 - Dennis Ritchie invents a powerful gun that shoots both forward and backward simultaneously. Not satisfied with the number of deaths and permanent maimings from that invention he invents C and Unix. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599308]

- visitor4rmindia [17 points]: Oh my God! That was the best belly laugh I've had in a long time. Very fun read. &#62; 1995 - Brendan Eich reads up on every mistake ever made in designing a programming language, invents a few more, and creates LiveScript. Later, in an effort to cash in on the popularity of Java the language is renamed JavaScript. Later stil, in an effort to cash in on the popularity of skin diseases the language is renamed ECMAScript. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599345]

Submission #3 by ldubinets: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5695816

2013-05-12 (~378 days ago)
209 points and 33 comments

Top comments:

- ldubinets [26 points]: It took me a couple minutes too... The first comment sorts it out though. Turns out that Jacquard's loom was multi-threaded after all. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5697144]

- mercuryrising [17 points]: I like this. I like this a lot. I think far too often people take the concepts we study too seriously. Things get challenging, things get precise, but the moment the humor leaves, the creativity is gone. Think of how easy it would be to learn something if you make a joke every 5 minutes while learning it (about the subject). In your mind, you turned this abstract concept into something else, something funny, something with pathways and connections that weren't expected. You manipulated it, chan... [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5696773]

- Symmetry [17 points]: Reminds me of C being described as "a language that combines all the elegance and power of assembly language with all the readability and maintainability of assembly language". [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5696368]

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