Software comes, goes and changes so rapidly that the concept of a "history" of software seems almost nonsensical. Today's innovations now appear with such ferocity that anything aged more than a few years instantly becomes technologically geriatric. And why remember those musty relics of the past? Who still wants to use Word Perfect 6.2? More importantly, who actually can still use Word Perfect 6.2? Software tends to have a ridiculously minuscule lifespan, at least when examined outside of the current culture dominated by short-term thinking. Studying software's history reveals a disturbing historical volatility. Paradoxically, it arguably takes less effort to read a five hundred year old document than it does to read a floppy disk from 1982. For these and other reasons British Parliament kept its records on vellum, though it only very recently switched to archival paper. Imagine if they had transferred everything to magnetic tape in the 1960s, then to hard drives in the 1970s, then to floppy disks, Zip disks, CD ROMS, DVD ROMS, USB drives and so on. Compared to vellum's longevity, the storage lifespan of most digital technology looks pretty feeble. Of course computers have other incalculable advantages over dried calfskin, yet it seems strange that as technology progresses, the lifespans of its respective manifestations seem to decrease rather than increase. This may also make the study of the history of computing feel like a somewhat worthless effort. Not to mention that the largely now forgotten breakthroughs of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s appear almost ridiculous in an age where nearly everyone has a constant computer companion in the form of a mobile device. Living without these "digital friends" now seems inconceivable to many and studying historical technology probably looks like an exceedingly irrelevant and pointless endeavor. After all, shouldn't we always look forward? And what time do we even have to look back since "progress" keeps moving faster and faster? What can the short history of computing teach us?
To add yet another layer to an already lumbering pile of skepticism, the history of computer programming languages appears even more ephemeral than that of computers in general. Experienced programmers know that this year's "must learn" language or framework will either receive a breaking update, one that partially or completely obsoletes all previous versions, or the language itself will become completely obsolete before it gets a chance at full development or dominance. Many programmers have probably experienced projects that begin using one version of a specific programming language and end with implementing a higher version of that same language. Things move that quickly. The battle to keep up becomes futile and programmers often need to resign themselves to a state of lifelong continual learning. Given that, why would anyone care about the history of computer programming languages? Programmers, the very, and possibly only, people that would have any interest in that esoteric subject, probably remain far too busy keeping up with current advances to give a whiff about what happened five years ago in their industry, much less what happened ten, twenty or thirty years ago. It takes enough energy just to keep up with current and future trends. So, to add yet another seemingly impermeable layer upon this now dangerously teetering tower of questionable questions, why would anyone want to read a book published twenty years ago on the history of computers and programming languages? Surely this pursuit, beyond doubt, adds up to nothing more than a purely maniacal and nonsensical waste of time?
Well, no. First of all, very few books on the history of programming languages exist. The few that do exist date from the 1960s to the 1990s. An expensive two-volume tome, called "History of Programming Languages," from 1996 contains a few thousand pages of papers from an academic conference. This might accommodate those of an academic bend, but it might not be an easy place to start, given both the set's cost and length, for working programmers. In 2001, a much shorter book aimed at general readers appeared called "Go To," or, to give its exhaustingly full title, "Go To: The Story of the Math Majors, Bridge Players, Engineers, Chess Wizards, Maverick Scientists and Iconoclasts - The Programmers who Created the Software Revolution." Though often listed amongst the very few books that delineate the history of programming languages, the book's full title helps reveal what the book really contains. It does include a history of programming languages, true, but not one with much technical depth. For one, the book contains very little actual code, with an emphasis on "very little." Also, the author doesn't appear to have ever worked as a programmer. Anyone expecting anything resembling a detailed technical analysis or a comparison on the usability of one language over another will not find it here. In fact, programmers will likely learn little to nothing about the art or craft of programming from this book. It will not make anyone into a better programmer.
Despite that, "Go To" still deserves a read, especially by programmers. It may not make anyone a better programmer, but it will heighten historic awareness of the profession, reveal just how programming fits into the business of computing overall and how it ultimately became a viable profession. After a certain point in the history of computing, programming alone could make or break platforms and operating systems. After all, programming extends and customizes a platform and some businesses disappeared because their platforms didn't efficiently accommodate customization through programming as well as others. Likewise, some businesses triumphed because they made programming easier and more widely accessible. The book's main narrative begins with IBM's struggles in the 1950s to make programming its hardware easier. Assembly language then dominated and its close to the machine and sometimes mystical nature kept programming relegated to a "priesthood" of specialists. FORTRAN and compilers changed all of that, it also ushered in the era of disgruntled programmers complaining about disruptive technology devaluing their skills by making programming "easier." Fear of job losses by people holding the title of "Computer," once a human occupation, also created anxiety right at the dawn of the business computing era. Higher level languages proved themselves and FORTRAN spawned many descendants, including Lisp, Algol and COBOL. In the 1960s, COBOL, with its designed by committee English-like syntax, claimed to make programming accessible to business users, but programming nonetheless remained a specialty staffed by people that embodied an evasive skill set difficult to ascertain.
The political atmosphere of the 1960s led to a schism of sorts. An "us versus them" mentality arose as IBM became "the big evil machine" and another group of programmers arose in the 1960s and 1970s that initiated a movement now identified with "open source." From this came Unix, C, Linux and Java. Microsoft came to dominate during the BASIC revolution as programming became more accessible to non-specialists. Visual Basic helped vault Microsoft's Windows platform to absolute ubiquity, mostly because it made creating programs easy (or it at least seemed to). Microsoft soon supplanted IBM as "the big evil machine" for many reasons, but Bill Gates' 1976 open accusation that hobbyists were stealing software probably didn't help. By the 1990s the "Personal Computer," or "PC," originally conceptualized in the late 1960s at Stanford Research Institute and further refined in the early 1970s at Xerox PARC, had become the primary computing platform. Apple also played a large role in the PC revolution after its overpriced "Lisa" evolved into the Macintosh in the mid-1980s. The book also discusses the influence of Europe on computing. Early on, Europe didn't possess as many computers as the USA, so computing began there with a more academic and theoretical approach that initially produced difficult and inefficient languages such as Algol and Simula. In response, the more practical Pascal emerged and gradually Europe would produce some of the biggest breakthroughs in computing, including C++, Linux and the World Wide Web itself. Throughout, the book also scatters a litany of short biographies of the programmers, business people and engineers who contributed to the history of computing and programming. These include: Charles Simonyi, John Backus, Grace Hopper, John McCarthy, Lois Haibt, Marvin Minsky, Jean Sammet, Thompson & Ritchie, Kurtz & Kerney, Bill Gates, Bjourne Stroustrup, Andy Hertzfeld, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Englebart, Alan Kay, Larry Ellison, John Gage, James Gosling, Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds and others. The narrative moves in roughly chronological order, but some stories span a number of chapters, sometimes non-contiguous chapters. It also states openly that it does not present a definitive history, but it does give a decent high-level overview of computing and programming up to the years of 2000 and 2001.
"Go To" remains interesting both for what it says and for what it does not say. In 2001, few saw the mobile revolution coming. Some may have suspected it, but the rapidity of its rise may have surprised even its practitioners. The book, understandably, makes no mention of mobile. As such, it gives a peek into the now lost pre-mobile age. It does see the Internet as a threat to the then dominant PC culture and this remains accurate, especially from a programming perspective. Today, web frameworks, typically utilizing JavaScript, have taken a large chunk of center stage away from "back end" languages such as C# and Java. The book mentions .NET more as an "up and coming" technology and the mostly now forgotten "Java Applets" were then still notable. The book could also not have seen the cloud-based SaaS and PaaS revolutions on the horizon. These have since begun to displace the PC as a self-contained working unit and have gradually turned PCs back into terminals that function mostly as interfaces with SaaS and PaaS solutions. Desktop programming and hardware have become increasingly less relevant in the new cloud era, but programming in general lives on despite attempts to make it "easier" for the multitudes. Though this has also changed with web page WYSIWYG applications, SaaS applications such as Salesforce and introductory point-and-click languages such as SmallBasic and Scratch. Regardless, "programming for the millions" still feels like an "unrealized promise," as "Go To" stated some twenty years ago. Some argue that programming, particularly web programming, has actually become more difficult.
Studying the history of something as fast-moving as programming will show not only where the field has been, but it also hints at where it may be going. Not only that, reading a book such as "Go To," which has itself become historical, shows just how little we may know of what is to come. For example, the book's short Afterword mentions "Grid computing" as an up and coming "big thing." Though Grid computing has definitely made strides and still holds potential, it pales in comparison to the other already mentioned "big things" that have since arrived. "Grid Computing" does not qualify as a buzzword today. Obviously, "Go To" could use a massive update, but until other books come along it remains one of the few highly accessible printed resources for its subject matter. Many online resources also exist, but these can sometimes be difficult to validate or substantiate. Ultimately, books may prove useless in the endless churn of change that refuses to abate. Especially In the realm of computing and programming, a book will almost always lag behind the times. In that case, maybe "Go To" will never have a print successor. If so, it will continue to remain one of the best, yet inevitably incomplete and outdated, introductions to a topic that will always defy summary.
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2002Format: Hardcover
Top reviews from other countries
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SKReviewed in France on December 18, 2023
très bon livre sur l'histoire de l'informatique
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase - OnionManReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 26, 2021
Ghost history
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase -
