Tales from the computing frontier
Tags: books, computinghistory
Published: 2020-02-23 00:00:00

---
title: Tales from the computing frontier
date: "2020-02-23T00:00:00.000Z"
tags: ["books", "computinghistory"]
---

I've always enjoyed reading about computing history, particularly tales of computing pioneers and I continue to regard Englebart, Kay, Shannon, Wozniak and others with awe. The books below are some of my favourites and ones I eagerly recommend to friends and colleagues.

(Some links go to amazon.co.uk but are referral-free.)

## [The Soul of a New Machine](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/0316491977)
A Pulitzer prize winner, _The Soul of a New Machine_ tells the story of an engineering team at [Data General](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General) and their efforts to design a next-generation minicomputer (the [Eclipse MV/8000](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General_Eclipse_MV/8000)) against almost insurmountable odds. Led by the enigmatic Tom West, the team run a skunkworks project (codenamed 'Eagle') as a Plan B to keep pace with Digital Equipment Corporation's offerings should the favoured Data General project ('Fountainhead') fail.

_Soul of a New Machine_ is a thrilling read, expertly told. It conjures a perhaps-romanticised tale of an engineering team pouring their very being into a project, willing it to completion in a cauldron of invention and creation.

I was a young, inexperienced software engineer when I first read _Soul of a New Machine_ and it had an enormous effect on me. It galvanised me to seek out others who also viewed software engineering as craft and to work on projects that amounted to more than their constituent bytes. Revisiting it now with wiser eyes, I can of course see the negative aspects of projects like Eagle more clearly. 

If you only read one book about the history of computing - _make it this one_.

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## [Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution-Anniversary/dp/1449388396)

Told in three parts, _Hackers_ chronicles hackerdom from the 1950s through to the early 1980s.

As a child of 1980s personal computing and gaming the third part of the book, _Game Hackers_, resonates most for me (although all parts are excellent).

Ken and Roberta Williams found [Sierra On-Line](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Entertainment) and enjoy meteoric rise developing and publishing games for the [Apple II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II) and [Atari 8-bits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_8-bit_family), ultimately winning a legal battle with Atari over Pac-Man that leaves Williams with an uncertain victory. Game developer John Harris ([who considers his portrayal inaccurate](https://dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/HARRIS.HTM)) features prominently as the archetypal game hacker, weaving magic on his beloved Atari 800.

If hardware engineers like Steve Wozniak or early game programmers like Harris approach rock star status in your eyes you'll enjoy _Hackers_ greatly.

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## [The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Idea-Factory-Great-American-Innovation/dp/0143122797)

The legacy of [Bell Labs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs) is staggering. The birthplace of research and technologies that shaped the 20<sup>th</sup> century and continue to shape the 21<sup>st</sup> - transatlantic communication, the transistor, the laser, the communications satellite, UNIX, the C programming language... its importance cannot be overstated.

A comprehensive account of Bell Labs from its foundation through to its decline in the 1980s following the breakup of AT&T, _The Idea Factory_ - while necessarily brief in places - superbly documents some of the extraordinary individuals who worked there and the contributions they made.

[Claude Shannon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon), father of Information Theory.

[John R. Pierce](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Pierce), co-inventor of pulse code modulation and considered one of the fathers of communication satellites.

[William Shockley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley), co-inventor of the transistor (whose legacy has been tarnished by his repellent views on Eugenics).

Shannon, Pierce, and Shockley were giants of their field, and _The Idea Factory_ explains why. That they worked collectively at the same research laboratory is mind blowing.

If you want to be energised by accounts of true innovation, read this book.