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Ask HN: Best way to learn about computing history?

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Re: Ask HN: Best way to learn about computing history?

#137

Post by macintux »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #87

Code, by Charles Petzold: http://www.charlespetzold.com/code/ Explains how we got from Boolean logic to microchips and software. Also, the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley has an excellent exhibit containing both early computing devices and the seminal papers that were the precursors and enablers of modern computers: https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/ ; https://computerhistory.org/timelines/ ;

IIRC, that museum also sometimes has retired pioneers in computing offering demonstrations.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to learn about computing history?

#138

Post by nicklaf »

eigenvalue wrote: post #96

I think the best way to learn this stuff is from the people who did it, speaking in their own words. But watching videos takes forever, so the best way to do this is to read oral histories. The Computer History Museum has really great content-- I've read dozens of these. You can easily find them, ranking in approximate order of popularity, with the following google search: https://www.google.com/search?q=oral+history…

Don't forget as well the Oral History of Unix! https://www.princeton.edu/~hos/Mahoney/unixhistory

Re: Ask HN: Best way to learn about computing history?

#139

Post by rst »

bin_bash wrote: post #47
RugnirViking wrote: post #5

There are also several good museums dedicated to the subject. I used to work for the national museum of computing at bletchley park in the UK, and there they have a lot of good exhibits that teach basics of how computers and networking works and has evolved over the years. Another good approach one can take to learn is starting with a simple system with well-defined rules, and making a simple computer out of it. Many…

I second Bletchley. Consider it your obligatory pilgrimage as a computing professional.

Note that there are two museums on the site of Bletchley Park, with different opening hours -- the historic site, including the main house and the huts, and the separate National Museum of Computing, which has the Colossus replica, the WITCH, and a large collection of other British computing machinery and memorabilia. If your interest is in computing history, you'll probably want to see both -- which means timing your visit when they're both open, so be sure to check.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to learn about computing history?

#140

Post by tiahura »

themadturk wrote: post #22

Steven Levy's Hackers is a foundational work of the history of computing. Levy spends a lot of time on the MIT hackers of the 1960s and 1970s, the group that hatched Lisp, Richard Stallman and the free software movement, and also a lot of time on the Bay Area hackers that kick-started the microcomputer revolution. Certainly it's not a comprehensive guide to the full range of computing history, but it's an important a…

One cannot recommend Hackers enough. In many ways, the stories on Hackernews’ front page are the ripples of the events chronicled by Levy.
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