4 ms·

Christopher Strachey’s Nineteen-Fifties Love Machine (2017)

28 points by Petiver 6y ago

Jun8 6y ago
Here's an example of the poetry generated from https://rhizome.org/editorial/2013/apr/9/queer-history-computing-part-three/ https://rhizome.org/editorial/2013/apr/9/queer-history-compu..., which is a much better article than this one in explaining the technology and connections: SWEETHEART MOPPET YOU ARE MY ANXIOUS LONGING: MY ANXIOUS LOVE. MY SYMPATHETIC HEART FERVENTLY YEARNS FOR YOUR SYMPATHY. MY WINNING ENTHUSIASM LOVES YOUR PASSION. MY DEAR ENTHUSIASM BURNINGLY TEMPTS YOUR ENCHANTMENT. YOURS AVIDLY M. U. C. Except for the "my dear enthusiasm" part (which leaves an enigmatic Tates in its echo of the previous sentence) that's not too bad!
haltingproblem 6y ago
This site generates poetry on the fly and links to a python 2/3 version ;) https://nickm.com/memslam/love_letters.html https://nickm.com/memslam/love_letters.html
082349872349872 6y ago
The official expansion of CPL is Combined Programming Language, but I wonder if an inofficial one was ever Chris' Programming Language. (Compare Thierry Coquand) Doug McIlroy visited Strachey for a year in 1968, a link in the transatlantic story of computer history. https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2724586 https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2724586 > "According to Doug McIlroy, Christopher Strachey's GPM (general-purpose macrogenerator—a macroexpander of the same era) was only 250 machine instructions, yet it was sufficient to enable Martin Richards's BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language) implementation, later inspiring Ken Thompson to bootstrap C via B, eventually leading to the self-hosting native-code-generating tool chains we now take for granted."
sgt101 6y ago
I remember vaguely that Strachey was also responsible for using the Mark 1 to generate music - Baa Baa Blacksheep I believe. He was the first Professor of Computer Science at Oxford. You can see him on this video at 6:50 ish https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GZWFnWOqkA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GZWFnWOqkA
neonate 6y ago
https://archive.is/0qZeA https://archive.is/0qZeA
vncecartersknee 6y ago
Why have journalists lately become obsessed with "teaching computers things" he wrote a program, he programmed the computer to write letters.
8bitsrule 6y ago
Strachey also taught a Pilot Ace computer to play checkers in 1951. He'll become the first CSci prof at Oxford. (His father was a cryptographer; his brother was Lytton.) http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=161-csac71180#0 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=161-...

28 points by Petiver 6y ago

Jun8 6y ago

Here's an example of the poetry generated from https://rhizome.org/editorial/2013/apr/9/queer-history-computing-part-three/ https://rhizome.org/editorial/2013/apr/9/queer-history-compu..., which is a much better article than this one in explaining the technology and connections: SWEETHEART MOPPET YOU ARE MY ANXIOUS LONGING: MY ANXIOUS LOVE. MY SYMPATHETIC HEART FERVENTLY YEARNS FOR YOUR SYMPATHY. MY WINNING ENTHUSIASM LOVES YOUR PASSION. MY DEAR ENTHUSIASM BURNINGLY TEMPTS YOUR ENCHANTMENT. YOURS AVIDLY M. U. C. Except for the "my dear enthusiasm" part (which leaves an enigmatic Tates in its echo of the previous sentence) that's not too bad!

haltingproblem 6y ago

This site generates poetry on the fly and links to a python 2/3 version ;) https://nickm.com/memslam/love_letters.html https://nickm.com/memslam/love_letters.html

082349872349872 6y ago

The official expansion of CPL is Combined Programming Language, but I wonder if an inofficial one was ever Chris' Programming Language. (Compare Thierry Coquand) Doug McIlroy visited Strachey for a year in 1968, a link in the transatlantic story of computer history. https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2724586 https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2724586 > "According to Doug McIlroy, Christopher Strachey's GPM (general-purpose macrogenerator—a macroexpander of the same era) was only 250 machine instructions, yet it was sufficient to enable Martin Richards's BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language) implementation, later inspiring Ken Thompson to bootstrap C via B, eventually leading to the self-hosting native-code-generating tool chains we now take for granted."

sgt101 6y ago

I remember vaguely that Strachey was also responsible for using the Mark 1 to generate music - Baa Baa Blacksheep I believe. He was the first Professor of Computer Science at Oxford. You can see him on this video at 6:50 ish https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GZWFnWOqkA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GZWFnWOqkA

neonate 6y ago

https://archive.is/0qZeA https://archive.is/0qZeA

vncecartersknee 6y ago

Why have journalists lately become obsessed with "teaching computers things" he wrote a program, he programmed the computer to write letters.

8bitsrule 6y ago

Strachey also taught a Pilot Ace computer to play checkers in 1951. He'll become the first CSci prof at Oxford. (His father was a cryptographer; his brother was Lytton.) http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=161-csac71180#0 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=161-...