Programming history in 12 talks
Curated by Claude · 12 videos · 12 hr 24 min
A chronological walk through programming history, told mostly by the people who were there. After an overview from Uncle Bob, it moves from Colossus and Grace Hopper through BASIC, Engelbart's 1968 demo, Unix, Xerox PARC and Lisp machines, then the home computer boom, free software and the open-sourcing of Netscape. Some are talks, some are films; all are ones HN keeps recommending.
Play all on YouTube- 11:18:21
"Uncle" Bob Martin - "The Future of Programming"
1.8M views • 10 years agoPaul Stringer's Mobile TechRobert C. Martin (Uncle Bob) traces the history of software from 1948 to today, looking at the problems programmers faced, how they were solved, and what mistakes the profession made. He then projects where the field is going, including professionalism and regulation.The opener and map: Uncle Bob tells the whole story from 1948 to today, which one HN commenter called a fascinating introduction to how hardware and languages evolved.
- 21:00:26
Colossus - The Greatest Secret in the History of Computing
1M views • 6 years agoThe Centre for Computing HistoryChris Shore of the Centre for Computing History explains how Colossus was built, how it worked, and how it affected the course of World War II. It is an hour-long museum lecture on the codebreaking computer.The start of the timeline, the wartime codebreaking machine at Bletchley Park, told with stories of the unsung engineers who built it.
- 32:04
Admiral Grace Hopper Explains the Nanosecond
163K views • 14 years agofunburyAdmiral Grace Hopper holds up a length of wire to show how far light travels in a nanosecond, about 11.8 inches. She explains how she made the idea concrete to people who could not picture a billionth of a second.Two minutes with the compiler pioneer herself, holding up a length of wire to make a nanosecond something you can see.
- 438:13
Birth of BASIC
1.5M views • 12 years agoDartmouthA Dartmouth-produced documentary on how professors John Kemeny and Tom Kurtz, with a group of undergraduates, invented the BASIC language. It covers the creation of BASIC and the early time-sharing environment at Dartmouth.1964 at Dartmouth: Kemeny, Kurtz and their students invent BASIC and time-sharing, in what HN calls the definitive documentary on it.
- 5
1:40:53The Mother of All Demos, presented by Douglas Engelbart (1968)
1.2M views • 14 years agoMarcelThe full recording of Douglas Engelbart's 1968 demonstration, which introduced the mouse, hypertext, video conferencing, word processing, and real-time collaborative editing. It runs about 100 minutes.1968: the mouse, hypertext, video calls and collaborative editing all shown in one sitting, which HN treats as essential viewing.
- 6
1:03:51VCF East: Ken Thompson interviewed by Brian Kernighan
417K views • 7 years agoVintage Computer FederationBrian Kernighan interviews Unix co-creator Ken Thompson at VCF East 2019. Thompson recounts how he was hired at Bell Labs, writing the Unix kernel in about three weeks, the origins of B and TMG, pipes, and other anecdotes.Unix and C from the source: Ken Thompson tells Kernighan how he wrote the Unix kernel in about three weeks, plus stories even Kernighan hadn't heard.
- 7
32:56Bret Victor The Future of Programming
305K views • 13 years agoJoey ReidBret Victor's DBX 2013 talk, delivered in the guise of a 1973 IBM engineer with an overhead projector. It surveys forgotten ideas from 1960s and early 70s computing and warns against assuming you know what you're doing.Bret Victor speaks as if it were 1973, a playful reminder of how many bold ideas from that era programming quietly dropped.
- 8
2:08:02Alto System Project: Dan Ingalls demonstrates Smalltalk
36K views • 7 years agoComputer History MuseumA roughly two-hour demonstration by Dan Ingalls of Smalltalk running on the Computer History Museum's restored Xerox Alto. It shows the integrated environment and language designed at Xerox PARC as personal dynamic media.Xerox PARC in action: Dan Ingalls runs Smalltalk on a restored Alto, the live programming environment that shaped personal computing.
- 9
13:43Symbolics Lisp Machine demo Jan 2013
52K views • 13 years agoKalman RetiSymbolics developer Kalman Reti gives a short introductory demo of a Symbolics Lisp Machine running Genera in an emulator. It shows the context-aware command line, typed on-screen objects, and the live-editable system, including swapping in a C-compiled JPEG decoder.Lisp's high point, a whole computer built around the language; HN's go-to demo, and one commenter said it makes modern editors look like banging rocks together.
- 10
1:24:13Micro Men - 720p (2009)
461K views • 13 years agogimpymooMicro Men is a 2009 BBC comic drama about the early 1980s British home computer boom. It follows the rivalry between Clive Sinclair and Acorn founder Chris Curry over the BBC Micro contract and the ZX Spectrum.The early-80s home computer boom as a comic BBC drama about Sinclair versus Acorn, the rivalry that eventually produced ARM.
- 11
1:25:10Revolution OS
208K views • 14 years agoVon HashRevolution OS is a feature-length documentary on the history of free software and Linux. It covers Stallman and the GNU project, Torvalds and the kernel, and Raymond and Perens on open source, starting from the era of freely shared hobbyist code.The free software story from Stallman and GNU to Torvalds and Linux, the standard documentary HN points to for the backstory.
- 12
56:09Project Code Rush - The Beginnings of Netscape / Mozilla Documentary
337K views • 13 years agoThe Documentary NetworkCode Rush is a one-hour documentary following Netscape engineers in Silicon Valley through the company's last year as an independent firm. It covers the Mozilla open-source announcement, the frantic push to ready the source for release by March 31, 1998, and the toll on engineers' lives before the AOL acquisition.A fitting close where the web and open source meet: Netscape engineers race to release the Mozilla source in 1998, filmed from inside the company.