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Contemporary programmer: spends a whole weekend tweaking CSS parameters, asking web forums for LaTeX templates, finding a cool fresh font pairing on Google Font
by mbrock 8y ago
Contemporary programmer: spends a whole weekend tweaking CSS parameters, asking web forums for LaTeX templates, finding a cool fresh font pairing on Google Fonts.
1980s programmer: sits down at the typewriter and bangs out a fixed width table, finishes with a signature.
- khazhou 8y agoHa! The trashcan is usually full of crumpled-up failed attempts. But the smell of typewriter ink. Man, I miss it.
- ak39 8y agoBut it's more than the romance of the ink that is missed. One has lost the visual impact of all discards with the use of the virtual trashcan. The psychology of seeing or the stark visual impact of a trashcan filled to the brim with all the imperfect and therefore discarded attempts of one's creative effort is lost - almost forever. These were the metrics of effort now untenable in the virtual trashcan. Gone. Who knows how one's next attempt would have shaped out or re-imagined had one seen even a few of the uncountable crumpled up balls of paper strewn across the room? Maybe a signal to give up? Maybe a sign to believe that one hasn't reached even half way to acceptable quality? The mess is still there but only now one keeps the detritus of all of one's creative efforts, all the previous discarded attempts, silently gunked up in the recesses of the forgetful mind. One would argue that version control might be sufficient to trace the evolution of ideas. But no. One would still miss the violence of the mind changes, of reckless scribbles or of reattempts that often take place in between the commits. Things are forever lost in the virtual trashcan and it's blunt implement, the backspace.
- falcor84 8y agoI really have no idea what you're talking about. I absolutely hated paper. The inconvenience of wanting to add some content higher up the page and having to redo the whole page to achieve that was infuriating to me. I for one am quite pleased that I no longer have as many violent urges when I'm composing text.
- rytis 8y agoTrue. However the inflexibility of the physical media (pen/typewriter+paper) forced people to think and plan before they acted. These days, not so much, and I can see the difference in approach when my kids are writing essays - back in the day we were taught to come up with a little plan, toc, etc before getting down to the details. Now my kids just spit it out without structure, then add bits an pieces here and there and call it done. Maybe they are taught the structural approach in scool, but the tools aren't helping.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoThis is like complaining about interactive terminals because programmers no longer have to think so hard about their code before writing it out to punch cards....
- walshemj 8y agoI think you mean writing it out on coding sheets before sending it to the "girls" to be punched onto card's
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoThat was so early 1960s. In the mid 60s to the mid 70s, you had to mostly do it yourself unless you were really senior and still programming.
- walshemj 8y agoWell in the early 80's I entered fortran code that an Engineer had written onto coding sheets for our two phase flow simulator And I suspect that this went on longer in traditional big iron shops.
- chestervonwinch 8y agoIt's called agile essay writing.
- somebadguy 8y agoHipster wankfest
- mntmn 8y agoI have this again today with 3D printing. It’s such a flawed process, and my real trash bin fills up quickly with failed prints.
- fermienrico 8y agoYou should write. This was amazing to read. Do you have a blog?
- exikyut 8y agoHopefully you get to enjoy VR/AR at some point. You could build a widget that connects your git repos to visualizations of filing cabinets, and your Recycle Bin to a visualization of your room being full to the ceiling with crumpled documents. For bonus points, find a generic document preview library (a la macOS Preview), render images of everything in the Recycle Bin, and use these as the textures for all the crumpled bits of paper. And use a procedural physically-based renderer to make all the crumples move as you walk around the room! Potentially also make all the videos in the Recycle Bin play on the crumples. I'm completely serious; this will exist eventually. You might as well make it, you have the romantic motivation for it.
- walshemj 8y agoI still miss the IBM selectric typewriter :-)
- 3rdAccount 8y agoI enjoyed learning how they added a rotating ball to that typewriter and hooked it up to some kind of mainframe for the first APL implementation I think. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_DTpQ4Kk2wA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_DTpQ4Kk2wA
- fitba1969 8y agoI miss the lined green dot matrix printouts. Best way to read code. But maybe I'm just romanticising.
- MaggieL 8y agoReal 1980s programmer: sits down at IBM 3278 mainframe terminal, edits resume into text file containing DCF/Script markup. Prints mailing copies on IBM 3800 laser printer using typewriter font, hoping operations staff running printer doesn't notice (unlikely considering speed printer runs at). --signed, real 1980s programmer (also 1970s programmer, 1990s programmer, 2000s programmer, 2010s programmer) current resume http://linkedin.com/in/maggieleber
- walshemj 8y agoAround that time I think I did mine as a text file using ed on a PDP 11.
- y4mi 8y agojust in case you don't know, that resumee can't be accessed without a linkedin account. it generally doesn't matter, because most HR employees probably have one where you're from.
- TimTheTinker 8y agoI can see why a real programmer might have favored the typewriter: computer time and printer ink (esp. laser) were expensive and normally reserved for business-related jobs.
- andrewmweaver89 8y agoYou worked at Andesa, weird .. I work there now
- Torwald 8y agoThis is not weird. The fact you both have worked for the same place makes it more likely that you end up in the same online community as well, not less likely.
- technofiend 8y agoAfter getting into the guts of unix's typesetting system I decided to use it for my resume. I customized the macros used for online help called man pages. Man pages have a reference across the top which cite the command and section so man itself reads man(1). My resume read RESUME(8) across the top. One person got the joke. One. I went back to using TeX until everyone refused anything but a word doc. Mostly so they could take your information off and replace it the agency info.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- 0xBA5ED 8y agoAnd the 1980s one is more pleasurable to read. No cruft. Just the facts.
- bluedino 8y agoLooks like he had ‘sd’ sit down at the typewriter
- Spooky23 8y ago1980s programmer bangs it out on a legal pad and hands it off to a friendly face in the typing pool!
- chiph 8y agoMy first job out of college (1991), my mom asked me if I got a secretary. Errr, no. But OP's father probably had a secretary assigned to the programming group.