5 ms·

(Was it Sam H.?) When I was at MIT I had a lab partner who was blind for I think 6.002 or 6.003. I remember that one side-effect of using a screen reader was t

(Was it Sam H.?) When I was at MIT I had a lab partner who was blind for I think 6.002 or 6.003. I remember that one side-effect of using a screen reader was that he easily "recited" code, which I don't think most sighted programmers could do fluently. Of course, in order to understand what he was reciting, my only hope was generally to try to type it into a text editor, format it and look at it. (And it's also hard to transcribe code being read to you.)

brlewis 16y ago
It wasn't Sam H. I don't recall his name.
thwarted 16y ago
My mom and I used to take turns reading the code listings from magazines like Compute! and RUN to each other and typing them in. It took forever. I definitely find it harder to do that with punctuation heavy languages these days (not that I'm typing much code in from magazines anymore).
- tomkarlo 16y ago
  Oh, god I remember doing that for the TRS-80 (was it assembly? that's what I remember.) You'd spend hours typing in codes from a magazine, and I think my Dad and I had about a 5% success rate actually getting the program to run at the end.
  - thwarted 16y ago
    Run often had BASIC programs that built machine language routines from DATA statements, just a series of numbers. At one point they changed the program so that one of the bytes in each DATA statement was a checksum, and it would tell you if the rest of the line was accurate or not. That helped a lot. My mom likes to say "I was just having fun, typing in the games and playing them, but you were actually learning something."
    - mkramlich 16y ago
      That was my first introduction to the notion of checksums and parity bits too. Very practical, in your face, real world consequences kind of impact. Excellent way to learn the concept. I don't miss having to type in all my software by hand, but the sort of forced physical learning and in-your-face impact of syntax and data patterns was really effective and something we should miss.
- mkramlich 16y ago
  This is a classic example of how the culture of home parenting, and individual choices made by the parent, has a big impact on kids. Having your mom, of all people, reading code listings from a software magazine, typing them into a computer with you, pretty much puts you into the top 1% percentile in terms of parental engagement in their child's intellectual development. Race itself is irrelevant compared to this. Nationality itself is irrelevant to this. What the parents do: extremely relevant.
  - deong 16y ago
    True, but race and nationality are pretty relevant as to whether you have a mom who has convenient access to software magazines and computers to type the code into.
    - thwarted 16y ago
      I don't think mkramlich was meaning to imply otherwise, because the relevancy of parents' involvement doesn't just apply to technology. Engaged parents who involve their kids in engine rebuilding or animal husbandry or child rearing or anything else that requires years, effort, and guidance to master are most likely are in the top 1% in terms of intellectual development. Technology and computers wasn't my mom's hobby or profession (she's actually a seamstress -- and I learned the basics of sewing from her) so it wasn't like she was introducing me to her interests; however, when my son gets older (out of diapers), I plan on spending time with him teaching about my major interests and learning new things with him that's he's interested in, independent of what that may be.

brlewis 16y ago

It wasn't Sam H. I don't recall his name.

thwarted 16y ago

My mom and I used to take turns reading the code listings from magazines like Compute! and RUN to each other and typing them in. It took forever. I definitely find it harder to do that with punctuation heavy languages these days (not that I'm typing much code in from magazines anymore).

tomkarlo 16y ago
Oh, god I remember doing that for the TRS-80 (was it assembly? that's what I remember.) You'd spend hours typing in codes from a magazine, and I think my Dad and I had about a 5% success rate actually getting the program to run at the end.
- thwarted 16y ago
  Run often had BASIC programs that built machine language routines from DATA statements, just a series of numbers. At one point they changed the program so that one of the bytes in each DATA statement was a checksum, and it would tell you if the rest of the line was accurate or not. That helped a lot. My mom likes to say "I was just having fun, typing in the games and playing them, but you were actually learning something."
  - mkramlich 16y ago
    That was my first introduction to the notion of checksums and parity bits too. Very practical, in your face, real world consequences kind of impact. Excellent way to learn the concept. I don't miss having to type in all my software by hand, but the sort of forced physical learning and in-your-face impact of syntax and data patterns was really effective and something we should miss.
mkramlich 16y ago
This is a classic example of how the culture of home parenting, and individual choices made by the parent, has a big impact on kids. Having your mom, of all people, reading code listings from a software magazine, typing them into a computer with you, pretty much puts you into the top 1% percentile in terms of parental engagement in their child's intellectual development. Race itself is irrelevant compared to this. Nationality itself is irrelevant to this. What the parents do: extremely relevant.
- deong 16y ago
  True, but race and nationality are pretty relevant as to whether you have a mom who has convenient access to software magazines and computers to type the code into.
  - thwarted 16y ago
    I don't think mkramlich was meaning to imply otherwise, because the relevancy of parents' involvement doesn't just apply to technology. Engaged parents who involve their kids in engine rebuilding or animal husbandry or child rearing or anything else that requires years, effort, and guidance to master are most likely are in the top 1% in terms of intellectual development. Technology and computers wasn't my mom's hobby or profession (she's actually a seamstress -- and I learned the basics of sewing from her) so it wasn't like she was introducing me to her interests; however, when my son gets older (out of diapers), I plan on spending time with him teaching about my major interests and learning new things with him that's he's interested in, independent of what that may be.