The Art of Writing Software

CHM Exhibition "Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing"

Software is more than obscure computer code. It’s an art form: a meticulously-crafted literature that enables complex conversations between humans and machines. From FORTRAN to sophisticated programs in use today, discover the technology, creativity, hard work, and technique behind these elegant languages. Software pioneers share their stories.

Catalog Number: 102695613
Lot Number: X6142.2011

[Colstonewall]

Although I'm just an amateur, I can definitely understand how Knuth and others feel when they write code. It's like building something, planning the Empire State Building, then building it yourself. The feeling you get when it's finished is almost indescribable. I suppose the same as when a architect sees his building after finished, or when a musical group writes a song and hears it on the radio. A great feeling.

[paullangton-rogers]

The guy at the start who spoke so passionately about programming as eash new line of code giving him a high and making him feel good.. only a programmer I think can truly understand what he's conveying.

I'm a programmer myself, self-taught. My first program was in BASIC before modern deskop computers became more affordable and commonplace. I borrowed a friends BBC Micro which he used exclusively for playing games on, like most people. Nobody I knew thought to try programming one. So my friend was puzzled when he saw that black screen and cursor flashing. He asked if I'd broken the computer. I reassured him it was not broken, just awaiting instructions.

I remember writing my first program in BASIC which was a simple print hello loop pressing enter and seeing it work (after a few trial and errors) and my second program added two numbers together. Seeing the second program run and do math was astonishing. I experienced that feeling of awe and the high programmer described. I began thinking, how can I expand this program to do different type of math, beyond just addition, and soon it did.

Programming is both a science and a creative act. It's almost like modern form of alchemy in many ways, providing the ability to manipulate matter and energy using a machine and languge code. Complex ideas from your mind can become realised in the physical world through programming. It's kind of magical and empowering. The only limit is your imagination.

I remember writing my first real program. Several thousand lines of code written in Perl. The program was a comprehensive Web-based eBay seller manager which interfaced directly to eBay using their API. Back then, eBay was still very crude. It lacked so many simple time saving features and obvious ways to improve and optimise businesses selling on eBay. So I studied the API closely and used it to help sellers get the most out of eBay and save a great deal of time. I overcame limitations in the API with a little creative thinking and programming, to go further to surpass the limitations.

It wasn't long before my program reached around 37, 000 lines of code. With not a single subroutine and no error handling! It soon became difficult to improve further and to debug errors. So I reached out to the programmer community and found someone who became a programming mentor and a close friend for many years. He told me my program was the ugliest program he'd ever seen and absolutely hideous! However he was impressed I'd managed to write such a large first program and overcome API limitations with programming but that in so, I had massively over-complicated the program by not using existing objects, due to my lack of programming knowledge and experience. He taught me the disciplines of programming. The need for subroutines, error handling, neat correct syntax, clear commenting explaining what the subroutines did, and so on. Then he taught me how to use and create objects and SQL quering which took my programming to the next level. We later collaborated together on developing an algorithm for trading financial markets.

Programming is extremely satisifying. Seeing something go from an idea in your mind, to a flow chart, then to a running computer program that does something truly unique And it's even more rewarding when your code is used by others, who derive benefits and you receive praise or acknowledgement for making someones life a bit easier or better.

Despite programmers having the stereotype image of being loner geeks who don't socialise, the programming community is very socially connected. Ideas, knowledge and skills flow freely between programmers in a way not seen anywhere else. Many programmers are willing to share their time, knowledge and often source code freely, to help others. Solving problems and learning new things together is what makes programming so special. It's what enables software and hardware technology to continually improve and evolve.

It's a priviledge being part of a diverse worldwide community of programmers which transcends all cultures and countries. Many programmers have gone on to achieve remarkable things or businesses that have impacted or changed the world forever. And they usually relied upon other programmers. Take the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. A programmer who in the midst of the 2008 banking crisis had a vision for a de-centralised digital currency. He started the programming himself and then formed a small team. Gradually it evolved into a worldwide community that realised the concept behind his ingenious blockchain ledger and nodes approach. And now its created many spin-offs and an entire digital currency ecosystem, all from one man and one idea.

[CommandoMaster]

Can't wait for what the future holds in technology and software.

[UKGeezer]

I remember writing my own assembler, in Basic, for the Commodore 64 when I was 14 back in the mid 80s. Writing machine code in pure decimal was quite painful, so I wrote an assembler to make it easier. Being able to code using mnemonics was a huge leap for me.
I remember my very first machine code program on the C64 was moving a sprite across the screen. When I ran the program it just looked like a blur, and I thought it was a bug until I realised it was just moving really fast. I had to put a load of NOP instructions in to slow it down. Happy memories, and all these years later I'm still doing it (in C++) and still loving it. Plus it's provided me with a good career. I love software.

[kristypolymath]

Beautiful video. Brought me to tears at the end. I've never been a professional programmer, and never will be, but I find coding syntax to be beautiful. I find the abstraction of lower level instructions hidden by a print( "hello world") to be beautiful.

[sergiofernandez]

getting a high from coding... I know that feeling.

[SusanJMT]

A nice walk down memory lane for those of us educated in the late 60's/early 70's and active in the field throughout our careers.  Also an easy way to pick up some history of the field.

[the-programing]

Coding is like an extension of your thought, it runs when you want to make something happen again and it runs super fast. Even when you are not there to make sure it runs, if it is crafted well, it can run over and over again, like a part of your mind but efficient and unrelenting. The feeling that I get from successfully implementing a feature is euphoric and addictive. I absolutely love writing good code, especially when it can run even when you are asleep.

[exstee]

As someone who wants to major in computer science, this video was really informative. Thank you.

[luiss.]

For people young like me it is great to learn from the pioneers in the field. A lot of programmers my age don't really have a concept of how the higher languages developed over the course of a lifetime. When people here of fortran or assembly they think it is the most archaic thing they have ever herd.

[louiecullen]

Don Kluth's enthusiasm brings a smile to my face, I wish I liked anything as much as he likes programming. His love for the field really shows.

[adelincavasi]

What a great production quality. I wish this was just the introduction to a 2 hour video

[justicewillprevail]

I find programming similar to solving a puzzle. Stressful at time but so happy when I accomplished it. There’s def a difference between beautiful codes and ugly ones. It’s like writing. Some can write beautifully and some writes with nothing but grammatical errors.

[andrescramosm]

Simply beautiful! it's amazing the capacity of the human's brain to create things with a such level of complexity

[lotfullahandishmand]

combining all these information in one video is also an Art!

[brettany_renee_blatchley]

Writing software is like writing literature or poerty for me; and I write software for people to read as well as computers to execute. It's art to me. 💙💚💜 It is a set of magical incantations that come to life!

[icebeardoesnttalkmuch]

Programming is literally an art. Not everyone has the eye or mind for it.

[Kevin-yhol]

*writes a 7 line code
*gets 47 errors
Don't get high before writing the code

[kormsonnili]

This video was just awesome. It just puts everything into perspective. And makes the somewhat unbelievable and magicly unreal aspect of how computers work to showing us that it works that way because thats how we want it to.

[dark_evil]

I’m a competetive programmer and I find this video true and deserving !