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I feel like the line between computer user/operator and computer programmer used to be fuzzier. I've always wanted to better understand how and where that disti
by nonesuchluck 7y ago
I feel like the line between computer user/operator and computer programmer used to be fuzzier. I've always wanted to better understand how and where that distinction has shifted over time. To this day, IBM calls mainframe operators, "systems programmers."
I suspect that shifting narrative may tell a chapter of the story of how women were gradually pushed out of our industry.
- chrisfinazzo 7y agoTalking to my parents, there was definitely a hierarchy between the two. Although the programmers might have looked down on the operators as grunts, these people were in the privileged position of actually getting to interact with the machine directly, which is something. You're pretty much right on re their exodus. Thompson's book, which I mentioned in my earlier comment, has a chapter called 'The ENIAC Girls Vanish'.