4 ms·
In a historical retrospective on timesharing[1], Fernando Corbato (of Multics fame) mentioned that he considers VisiCalc (a predecessor of Excel) as a novel and
by sovietswag 4y ago
In a historical retrospective on timesharing[1], Fernando Corbato (of Multics fame) mentioned that he considers VisiCalc (a predecessor of Excel) as a novel and important form of programming (he called it 'declarative').
[1] https://youtu.be/uZxfBbikNkU https://youtu.be/uZxfBbikNkU (it was somewhere in this video)
As time progresses we get more open-minded and close-minded simultaneously -- we're experimenting with new ways of programming and computing, but we've also internalized existing structures as innate/fundamental. Maybe Corbato was just thinking creatively, or maybe he was less corrupted by decades of normative standards about what "programming" means.