6 ms·

Kateryna Yushchenko

328 points by known 7y ago

based2 7y ago
https://medium.com/a-computer-of-ones-own/kateryna-l-yushchenko-inventor-of-pointers-6f2796fa1798 https://medium.com/a-computer-of-ones-own/kateryna-l-yushche... https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/flztwo/til_the_first_highlevel_programming_language/ https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/flztwo/til_t... -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalk%C3%BCl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalk%C3%BCl
nivertech 7y ago
It seems that this APL (Address Programming Language) notation is kind of a high-level microcode, similar to one used in Intel x86 CPUs, assuming that not only RAM words, but every register and I/O port are also directly addressable. Of-course microcode is executable, but Address notation was manually translated into each specific CPU architecture. Since every operation defined as a set, it seems it supported expressing SIMD-style vectorized computations.
mxcrossb 7y ago
Interesting. That page, and the page on the address programming language, both could use a lot more detail and significant editing. Hopefully more people who speak Russian can contribute to these articles.
- mrlambchop 7y ago
  Hear hear. I've explored the old USSR via youtubers like bald and bankrupt and various urban explorer channels (and of course, the amazing HBO/Sky show, chernobyl) but I would love something as digestible based on older computing systems from Russia and beyond. Just yesterday, an urban exploration channel found a bunch of abandoned computers in a bunker that I could not find a single reference to on the internet (and that looked fairly intact).
  - musha68k 7y ago
    Hey there, those channels you like sound awfully interesting to me as well. Would you mind sharing where you saw this bunker exploration video exactly? Thank you :)
    - Nextgrid 7y ago
      For Soviet-era bunkers and similar urbex I suggest you have a look at Shiey (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpXwMqnXfJzazKS5fJ8nrVw/videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpXwMqnXfJzazKS5fJ8nrVw/vid...) as well as Urbex Polska's videos on "Sobieskiego 100" (https://www.youtube.com/user/NaszaRzeczywistosc/videos https://www.youtube.com/user/NaszaRzeczywistosc/videos).
    - mrlambchop 7y ago
      I think this the channel that I was last watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Gux1jDm8Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Gux1jDm8Q
  - carlob 7y ago
    It's not about programming languages, but it contains a lot of information about the birth of cybernetics in the USSR: Red Plenty by Francis Spufford. Highly recommended!
wet_grass_sound 7y ago
Dude looks like a lady
- dang 7y ago
  We've banned this account for repeatedly posting flamebait and unsubstantive comments to HN. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
zerr 7y ago
Can anyone find any snippet of the above mentioned language?
- ainar-g 7y ago
  There are a couple of articles in Russian on Habr[1][2]. At a glance, it seems like the language was closer to a form of mathematical notation than it was to what we now consider a programming language. [1] https://habr.com/ru/company/ua-hosting/blog/387837/ https://habr.com/ru/company/ua-hosting/blog/387837/ [2] https://habr.com/ru/company/ua-hosting/blog/274019/ https://habr.com/ru/company/ua-hosting/blog/274019/
  - keymone 7y ago
    https://habrastorage.org/r/w780/files/154/629/59f/15462959ff3d484392601db510c34360.jpg https://habrastorage.org/r/w780/files/154/629/59f/15462959ff... Photo of programmers from 1956. Twelve women, zero men.
    - myth_drannon 7y ago
      My father worked in one of these Central Calculation Centers in the 80s. Almost all programmers were women. Man tended to work more with the hardware which was considered more "dirty" work since you had to be stuck for hours in those huge machines trying to find the piece that broke. Too bad we lost all our Ada lang, linear programming books...
      - cosmodisk 7y ago
        If I'm not mistaken this was the case across the board
    - papito 7y ago
      That was not uncommon. I went to school both in the United States and the USSR. Back there, almost always the student at the top of their class was a girl. I remember that American female students struck me like a bunch of divas at first. That's when I realized these things are purely cultural.
billfruit 7y ago
Another Soviet technology in software development, sounds very interesting but hard to find information about it: It is named R-Technology a visual programming system said to be still used for critical software in the Russian Space Program: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045926X05800163 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045926X0... "The essence of R-technology is the use of weighted, oriented graphs to express control logic and to enforce good programming style. Unlike other developments in visual programming, R-technology can accommodate many programming languages and has been used for numerous development projects. Despite the fact that it has been extensively documented in the Soviet literature, it is practically unknown in the United States."
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  PDF link: https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1016/S1045-926X(05)80016-3 https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1016/S1045-926X(05)800....
- ACE_Recliner 7y ago
  Re: Soviet visual programming environments, I usually hear DRAKON brought up in that context (as far as what's usually cited in real world use for Buran etc.) I wonder if "R-technology" is either another term for DRAKON or a distinctly different system. Given how underdocumented Soviet high technology (esp around computing and related fields) is in English sources, either can be considered a real possibility.
  - vasili111 7y ago
    Its is complitly different. I know DRAKON and it is very different what I see in the article. Also DRAKON is very different from other visual diagraming systems. DRAKON is open but system that is actually used in space programming (if i remember correctly is called Grafit-Floks, https://books.google.com/books?id=0g9kDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA198&lpg=PA198&dq=Grafit-Floks&source=bl&ots=F42sHt0oS2&sig=ACfU3U1Qpw7gnRGP760novl0x2OwcsXMvQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiYtp-rwKzoAhWEiOAKHbBuCdEQ6AEwC3oECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=Grafit-Floks&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=0g9kDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA198&lpg=...) is not open and as far as I know is not in market. If you are interested in DRAKON there is a forum.drakon.su which has english section and on that forum is made by inventor of DRAKON and he participated in discussion. DRAKON has also wikipedia page.
bronlund 7y ago
She is obviously a guy! :P
- dang 7y ago
  We've banned this account for repeatedly posting flamebait and unsubstantive comments to HN. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
bloodm 7y ago
I would not date the lady.
- dang 7y ago
  We've banned this account for repeatedly posting flamebait and unsubstantive comments to HN. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
tvalentyn 7y ago
There is a good book covering the development of computing in Kyiv in those days: intro: http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/DIFFERENT/StoreEternally.html http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/DIFFERENT/StoreEternally.ht... pdf: http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/TXT/MalinovskiyBN_StoreEternally_rus.pdf http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/TXT/MalinovskiyBN_StoreEter... Some more about Kateryna Yushchenko on the Museum's website: http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/Ushchenko-memoirs.html http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/Ushchenko-memoirs.html See also: http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/museum-map.html http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/museum-map.html

328 points by known 7y ago

https://medium.com/a-computer-of-ones-own/kateryna-l-yushchenko-inventor-of-pointers-6f2796fa1798 https://medium.com/a-computer-of-ones-own/kateryna-l-yushche... https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/flztwo/til_the_first_highlevel_programming_language/ https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/flztwo/til_t... -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalk%C3%BCl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalk%C3%BCl

nivertech 7y ago

It seems that this APL (Address Programming Language) notation is kind of a high-level microcode, similar to one used in Intel x86 CPUs, assuming that not only RAM words, but every register and I/O port are also directly addressable. Of-course microcode is executable, but Address notation was manually translated into each specific CPU architecture. Since every operation defined as a set, it seems it supported expressing SIMD-style vectorized computations.

mxcrossb 7y ago

Interesting. That page, and the page on the address programming language, both could use a lot more detail and significant editing. Hopefully more people who speak Russian can contribute to these articles.

mrlambchop 7y ago
Hear hear. I've explored the old USSR via youtubers like bald and bankrupt and various urban explorer channels (and of course, the amazing HBO/Sky show, chernobyl) but I would love something as digestible based on older computing systems from Russia and beyond. Just yesterday, an urban exploration channel found a bunch of abandoned computers in a bunker that I could not find a single reference to on the internet (and that looked fairly intact).
- musha68k 7y ago
  Hey there, those channels you like sound awfully interesting to me as well. Would you mind sharing where you saw this bunker exploration video exactly? Thank you :)
  - Nextgrid 7y ago
    For Soviet-era bunkers and similar urbex I suggest you have a look at Shiey (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpXwMqnXfJzazKS5fJ8nrVw/videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpXwMqnXfJzazKS5fJ8nrVw/vid...) as well as Urbex Polska's videos on "Sobieskiego 100" (https://www.youtube.com/user/NaszaRzeczywistosc/videos https://www.youtube.com/user/NaszaRzeczywistosc/videos).
  - mrlambchop 7y ago
    I think this the channel that I was last watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Gux1jDm8Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Gux1jDm8Q
- carlob 7y ago
  It's not about programming languages, but it contains a lot of information about the birth of cybernetics in the USSR: Red Plenty by Francis Spufford. Highly recommended!

wet_grass_sound 7y ago

Dude looks like a lady

dang 7y ago
We've banned this account for repeatedly posting flamebait and unsubstantive comments to HN. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

zerr 7y ago

Can anyone find any snippet of the above mentioned language?

ainar-g 7y ago
There are a couple of articles in Russian on Habr[1][2]. At a glance, it seems like the language was closer to a form of mathematical notation than it was to what we now consider a programming language. [1] https://habr.com/ru/company/ua-hosting/blog/387837/ https://habr.com/ru/company/ua-hosting/blog/387837/ [2] https://habr.com/ru/company/ua-hosting/blog/274019/ https://habr.com/ru/company/ua-hosting/blog/274019/
- keymone 7y ago
  https://habrastorage.org/r/w780/files/154/629/59f/15462959ff3d484392601db510c34360.jpg https://habrastorage.org/r/w780/files/154/629/59f/15462959ff... Photo of programmers from 1956. Twelve women, zero men.
  - myth_drannon 7y ago
    My father worked in one of these Central Calculation Centers in the 80s. Almost all programmers were women. Man tended to work more with the hardware which was considered more "dirty" work since you had to be stuck for hours in those huge machines trying to find the piece that broke. Too bad we lost all our Ada lang, linear programming books...
    - cosmodisk 7y ago
      If I'm not mistaken this was the case across the board
  - papito 7y ago
    That was not uncommon. I went to school both in the United States and the USSR. Back there, almost always the student at the top of their class was a girl. I remember that American female students struck me like a bunch of divas at first. That's when I realized these things are purely cultural.

billfruit 7y ago

Another Soviet technology in software development, sounds very interesting but hard to find information about it: It is named R-Technology a visual programming system said to be still used for critical software in the Russian Space Program: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045926X05800163 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045926X0... "The essence of R-technology is the use of weighted, oriented graphs to express control logic and to enforce good programming style. Unlike other developments in visual programming, R-technology can accommodate many programming languages and has been used for numerous development projects. Despite the fact that it has been extensively documented in the Soviet literature, it is practically unknown in the United States."

TeMPOraL 7y ago
PDF link: https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1016/S1045-926X(05)80016-3 https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1016/S1045-926X(05)800....
ACE_Recliner 7y ago
Re: Soviet visual programming environments, I usually hear DRAKON brought up in that context (as far as what's usually cited in real world use for Buran etc.) I wonder if "R-technology" is either another term for DRAKON or a distinctly different system. Given how underdocumented Soviet high technology (esp around computing and related fields) is in English sources, either can be considered a real possibility.
- vasili111 7y ago
  Its is complitly different. I know DRAKON and it is very different what I see in the article. Also DRAKON is very different from other visual diagraming systems. DRAKON is open but system that is actually used in space programming (if i remember correctly is called Grafit-Floks, https://books.google.com/books?id=0g9kDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA198&lpg=PA198&dq=Grafit-Floks&source=bl&ots=F42sHt0oS2&sig=ACfU3U1Qpw7gnRGP760novl0x2OwcsXMvQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiYtp-rwKzoAhWEiOAKHbBuCdEQ6AEwC3oECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=Grafit-Floks&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=0g9kDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA198&lpg=...) is not open and as far as I know is not in market. If you are interested in DRAKON there is a forum.drakon.su which has english section and on that forum is made by inventor of DRAKON and he participated in discussion. DRAKON has also wikipedia page.

bronlund 7y ago

She is obviously a guy! :P

dang 7y ago
We've banned this account for repeatedly posting flamebait and unsubstantive comments to HN. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

bloodm 7y ago

I would not date the lady.

dang 7y ago
We've banned this account for repeatedly posting flamebait and unsubstantive comments to HN. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

tvalentyn 7y ago

There is a good book covering the development of computing in Kyiv in those days: intro: http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/DIFFERENT/StoreEternally.html http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/DIFFERENT/StoreEternally.ht... pdf: http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/TXT/MalinovskiyBN_StoreEternally_rus.pdf http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/TXT/MalinovskiyBN_StoreEter... Some more about Kateryna Yushchenko on the Museum's website: http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/Ushchenko-memoirs.html http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/Ushchenko-memoirs.html See also: http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/museum-map.html http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/MUSEUM/museum-map.html