[PLUG] Lineage of early programmers

[Russell Senior]

I actually was a little bit disappointed, since the search space for
potential changes was so small, he could have exhaustively checked all of
the possibilities in a relatively short time without all the thinking. I
had imagined a more exhaustive search. I mean, we were doing brute force
search on Enigma and other codes ~30 years before Apollo. He only had a few
likely things to try, it almost feels like cheating.

I do get your general point about: a) better preservation practices going
forward; and b) selecting worthwhile problems. On the other hand, these
early days of computing were simple enough so that the problems are
comprehensible in a way that modern complex systems (like a compiler or a
wifi driver) are not. And the erosion of time can be repaired by
application of some efforts, and as a result archaic technologies, though
they may be, are preserved as example systems to inform future invention.
Some looking backwards is still useful.

-- 
Russell Senior
russell at personaltelco.net


On Mon, Jun 8, 2020 at 1:35 PM Tomas Kuchta <tomas.kuchta.lists at gmail.com>
wrote:

> That is truly remarkable.
>
> I am philosophically uncertain whether this amount of time/dedication from
> such smart guy is actually positive effort to celebrate.
>
> My thinking goes along this line:
> * The lessons to learn for the future - put stuff to public domain early
> enough - so that qualified people/librarians/historians can chose what to
> preserve and do it on cheap while it is fresh.
> * The fact that this smart guy spends many man years on studying the past
> without useful path to the future application - is a sign of lack of
> current scientific opportunities.
> * Surely - he should be very busy working on development of current landers
> to whatever planet and solar system we want to relocate our elite to save
> them from the climate destruction on this planet.
> .....
>
> Tomas
>
> On Mon, Jun 8, 2020, 01:35 Russell Senior <russell at personaltelco.net>
> wrote:
>
> > Utterly pointless, and yet delightful!
> >
> > See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JTa1RQxU04
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Jun 7, 2020, 23:00 Tomas Kuchta <tomas.kuchta.lists at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Completely wrong analogy Russell.
> > >
> > > What you are describing is not linguistics but archeology!
> > >
> > > Tomas
> > >
> > > On Sun, Jun 7, 2020, 15:55 Russell Senior <russell at personaltelco.net>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > The other thing I'd add is that you have an understanding that
> semantic
> > > > ambiguities have to be resolved somehow, and there is likely to be a
> > > marker
> > > > in the language for resolving those ambiguities, and so you pay
> > attention
> > > > to where those clues might be.
> > > >
> > > > Right now I am working on reverse engineering a communications
> protocol
> > > > internal to a particular series of models of the IBM Wheelwriter
> > > typewriter
> > > > (mine is a WW5), and understanding where information originates, and
> > > where
> > > > it needs to go is a huge help in puzzling out what is likely to be
> > going
> > > > on, and that if a letter comes out on the paper, it got there for a
> > > reason.
> > > > Eventually, this project will be offered as a potential PLUG talk.
> > > >
> > > > On Sun, Jun 7, 2020 at 3:40 PM John Jason Jordan <johnxj at gmx.com>
> > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > On Sun, 7 Jun 2020 14:38:17 -0700
> > > > > Ali Corbin <ali.corbin at gmail.com> dijo:
> > > > >
> > > > > >No reference, but a personal anecdote.   In my first job, back in
> > > > > >late 70's, the company was having problems finding people with CS
> > > > > >degrees. They ended up going to colleges and recruiting language
> > > > > >majors.
> > > > >
> > > > > I am a linguist, not a language major, but I have long observed
> that
> > > > > many language majors are such because they have found that they are
> > > > > good at learning languages. And as a linguist (and one who is also
> > good
> > > > > at learning languages), the key to being good at learning languages
> > is
> > > > > an ability to recognize complex patterns unconsciously and store
> them
> > > > > in the deeper parts of the brain. And the more languages you learn
> > the
> > > > > easier it is to learn new ones, even ones that are unrelated to
> your
> > > > > current languages.
> > > > >
> > > > > Those programmers who are proficient in more than one computer
> > language
> > > > > may find a kernel of truth in the above.
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