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The Story of Mel (unsung genius from when programmers were men)
- timf 17y agoMel seems to come up every few months :-) http://searchyc.com/story+of+mel http://searchyc.com/story+of+mel
- donaq 17y agoWhich is as it should be. :)
- michaelcampbell 17y agoWhile there are many tales of retro-computing, ROMs to download to play old favorite games, articles about "the good old days", and links to computer history museums, this is by far and away my favorite. And the things mentioned in it predate my career by a good bit. All hail Mel!
- ywgdana 17y agoI don't think he can be called unsung given the frequency at which his story shows up on sites like hn and reddit...
- Kadin 17y agoHas anyone ever tried to track down "Mel"? Not that I doubt the veracity of the story, it'd just be interesting to read an interview with the guy, if he's still alive. I guess if he was programming in the late 50s odds are against him still being around, though.
- roel_v 17y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Kaye http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Kaye .
- noamsml 17y agoI'm not voting for this only because I've seen it on HN before, but if you haven't, it's a true must-read.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- seanmcq 17y agoTitle is on the sexist side and exclusive of female programmers. To a female reading this, you would be glamorizing the time when they weren't in this field. You can glorify past events without being sexist. Try setting up a true scottsman.
- rauljara 17y agoI agree, but just wanted to say that the title almost certainly isn't intended to denigrate women or imply they can't be awesome programmers. When such and such were men almost always really means when such and such were awesome. The sexism comes from awesome being equivalent to manly, and fact that not even an ounce of consideration is given to the possibility of non-manly awesomeness. It's not that the author is consciously thinking that women couldn't ever be awesome programmers. The question simply doesn't enter into his mind.
- ionfish 17y agoIt's not merely sexist, it's misleading. When the LGP-30 was in use in the late '50s (the RPC 4000 was introduced in 1960), the proportion of women in the field was higher than it is today. When "programmers were men", more of them were women. References (secondary sources only, sorry): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_computing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_computing http://knol.google.com/k/the-decline-of-women-in-computer-science-from-1940-1982 http://knol.google.com/k/the-decline-of-women-in-computer-sc...
- lsb 17y agoYup, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper was a pretty important figure in computer science in the mid-20th century.
- lutorm 17y agoI was going to make exactly this point. Computer science is the only field I know of that has actually increased its male dominance over time.
- gn 17y ago
- rick_2047 17y agoI had written a blog entry inspired by this article (but not entirely related to it) http://lifeasparesh.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-obsession-with-your-nostalgia.html http://lifeasparesh.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-obsession-with-y...