For questions about the history of programming and computing.
40
votes
3answers
2k views
IPv4 to IPv6. where is IPv5?
As all of us know that after IPv4 it came IPv6. How this transition happened?
I just want to know was there any IPv5 also? or there is any other logic in naming this version of IP as IPv6?
170
votes
7answers
23k views
Why is 80 characters the 'standard' limit for code width?
Why is 80 characters the "standard" limit for code width? Why 80 and not 79, 81 or 100? What is the origin of this particular value?
10
votes
2answers
2k views
How was windows 1.0 programmed? [closed]
Did Bill Gates program most of windows 1.0?
Does anybody know how many people have worked on windows 1.0 ?
How much time did it take them to complete?
What programming language did they use?
Any ...
32
votes
12answers
4k views
Why is 0 false?
This question may sound dumb, but why does 0 evaluates to false and any other [integer] value to true is most of programming languages?
String comparison
Since the question seems a little bit too ...
15
votes
3answers
1k views
What is the origin and meaning of the phrase “Lambda the ultimate?”
I've been messing around with functional programming languages for a few years, and I keep encountering this phrase. For example, it is a chapter of "The Little Schemer, which certainly predates the ...
5
votes
3answers
343 views
Whatever happened to Pascal? [duplicate]
In reading this blog post about Photoshop 1.0 I was surprised to learn that it was written in Pascal (Object Pascal to be exact). But you never hear about Pascal anymore. Why is that?
1
vote
2answers
71 views
Origin of the name “OpenServer” for the SCO Unix operating system
I was looking over the evolutionary history of Unix and Unix-like systems on Wikipedia and one operating system name stood out to me: OpenServer.
Judging from the image, SCO's OpenServer is ...
19
votes
5answers
1k views
How did they debug segmentation faults before protected memory?
Now, when I make a programming mistake with pointers in C, I get a nice segmentation fault, my program crashes and the debugger can even tell me where it went wrong.
How did they do that in the time ...
17
votes
3answers
1k views
Where did the convention of naming command line arguments as 'argv' come from?
It seems like Python, PHP, and Ruby all use the name "argv" to refer to the list of command line arguments. Where does the name "argv" come from? Why not something like "args"?
My guess is that it ...
3
votes
2answers
156 views
How did the term “hypervisor” come into use?
I've read about the "hypervisor" in hardware virtualization. VMs are not my area, so I can't quite see where the term came from.
THe wikipedia article talks about how "the hardware's supervisor ...
5
votes
7answers
3k views
What was the first programming language written for computers?
Looking at so many programming languages we have today, each one being unique in it's own way, I've tried to figure out what the first programming language written for computers is.
Looking at the ...
3
votes
2answers
539 views
Why is C so high in TIOBE index of popularity, while C++ is just under here too, but not as popular? [closed]
I can't get my head around this. If C is so much used, but C is not C++, can someone explain to me the most important reasons that makes C more used than C++ ? Where is all this C code written for ?
...
4
votes
6answers
1k views
Programming using an old computer(s) [closed]
Anybody still programming using old computers, e.g. ZX Spectrum BASIC, Amiga BASIC, dumb terminals?
If so, do you find it useful for programming using today's technologies?
Lastly why do you do it? ...
4
votes
4answers
593 views
First dedicated IDE?
What was the first program that was created as a dedicated IDE? That is, purpose built for coding, rather than simply allowing integration as part of its expansion options.
This is opposed to a text ...
7
votes
3answers
559 views
Why there are no compound assignment operators for logical operators (such as ||, && etc)?
According to ECMA-262, part 11.13, following is the exhaustive list of compound assignment operators: *= /= %= += -= <<= >>= >>>= &= ^= |=.
According to the part 11.11, var c ...
5
votes
3answers
339 views
What's the first language that had the 'Unless' conditional/loop built into itself?
What's the first (oldest) language that had the 'Unless' conditional/loop built into itself?
Where an example could be
unless (myVar) == if (!myVar)
until (myVar) == while (!myVar)
9
votes
4answers
996 views
In what programming language did “let” first appear?
I was wondering about the origins of the "let" used in Lisp, Clojure, and Haskell. Does anyone know which language it appeared in first?
2
votes
1answer
160 views
Why did Aiken decided to separate data and instructions in the Harvard Mark I?
When Aiken devised the Mark I, why did he decided to separate data and instructions? It was not mentioned in Wikipedia (or in any other searches I've looked) on how or why Aiken separated data and ...
22
votes
8answers
1k views
What is the etymology of the phrase “Source Code”?
With the movie "Source Code" just coming out today, I have had to explain the meaning of the phrase to non-techies. Then I was asked why source code is called source code and couldn't really answer.
...
2
votes
1answer
145 views
Is there genetic relationship between ARM and PDP-11 architectures?
Reading about ARM architecture I found many similarities to PDP-11 architecture which did not exist between ARM and x86.
For example,
General-purpose registers named Rx compared to AX, BX,... for ...
15
votes
13answers
1k views
What features contributed to the evolution of Pascal?
I am compiling a detailed history of the Pascal language, and there are a few details I am missing.
There are so many features today that we take for granted. What features significantly contributed ...
52
votes
8answers
24k views
Why did Alan Kay say, “The internet was so well done, but the web was by amateurs”?
Ok, so I paraphrased. The full quote:
The Internet was done so well that most people think of it as a natural resource like the Pacific Ocean, rather than something that was man-made. When was the ...
16
votes
2answers
739 views
Why is Java boolean primitive type name not 'bool'?
Java has
int and Integer
boolean and Boolean
This seems a bit inconsistent, why not either
bool vs Boolean to use an established shorter name for primitive type?
or
integer vs Integer to ...
2
votes
2answers
327 views
I need some help with defining a shell syntax
I'm trying to understand more about shells, I'm looking to implement one, and want to look at what's been done in the past.
In a regular shell, you have features like aliases and relative paths, and ...
20
votes
5answers
1k views
When did the standard for packaging Linux source code become .tar.gz?
When browsing open-source projects that are primarily developed for Linux systems and downloading the latest packages, the source code is always stored in a .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 file.
Is there any ...
17
votes
12answers
2k views
How did JavaScript become popular?
In ancient history, Brendan Eich had a language design, and in today's world, JavaScript is a popular language implemented and used in many different places.
What caused the language to become ...
32
votes
1answer
2k views
Where does the term “Red/Black Tree” come from?
A Red/Black Tree is one way to implement a balanced binary search tree. The principles behind how it works make sense to me, but the chosen colors don't. Why red and black, as opposed to any other ...
18
votes
3answers
1k views
Why five dining philosophers?
I was wondering why the Dining philosophers problem is based on a five philosophers case. Why not four?
I guess that we can observe all unpleasant issues that can occur when discussing five ...
38
votes
22answers
7k views
Was classical BASIC ever used for commercial software development and if so how were limitations overcome?
Many of us, including me, started their programming life with programs written on home computers, something like
10 PRINT "ENTER RADIUS"
20 INPUT R
30 PRINT "CIRCUMFERENCE="; 2 * R * PI
40 PRINT ...
41
votes
4answers
16k views
Why do programming languages, especially C, use curly braces and not square ones? [closed]
The definition of "C-Style language" can practically be simplified down to "uses curly braces ({})." Why do we use that particular character (and why not something more reasonable, like [], which ...
16
votes
4answers
794 views
What was the first hierarchical file system?
"Directories containing directories and files" seems to have been around forever, but there must have been a first.
29
votes
5answers
2k views
How much of original code is left in modern software products? [closed]
Many of you out there work for large companies that ship well-known software. I was wondering, how much of original code (basically, code that was "v1.0" release) is left in modern massive ...
8
votes
3answers
599 views
Have there been disputes when software identifies genders with a boolean? [closed]
I remember that in our first programming class with Java, while explaining data types, the following occurred (kinda):
Professor: So, what data type would you choose if your program needs
to ...
15
votes
3answers
4k views
How could the first C++ compiler be written in C++?
Stroustrup claims that Cfront, the first C++ compiler, was written in C++ (Stroustrup FAQ).
However, how is it even possible that the first C++ compiler be written in C++?
The code that makes up the ...
77
votes
14answers
14k views
What triggered the popularity of lambda functions in modern mainstream programming languages?
In the last few years anonymous functions (AKA lambda functions) have become a very popular language construct and almost every major / mainstream programming language has introduced them or is ...
4
votes
2answers
186 views
Who first coined the term Higher Order Function and/or First Class Citizen?
I've come to understand that long before Haskell, O'Caml or LISP, higher order functions were an academic research subject and in mathematics, Schönfinkel (in 1967) and Haskell Curry (in 1968) already ...
46
votes
11answers
7k views
Why has C prevailed over Pascal?
My understanding is that in the 1980s, and perhaps in the 1990s too, Pascal and C were pretty much head-to-head as production languages.
Is the ultimate demise of Pascal only due to Borland's neglect ...
6
votes
1answer
282 views
When was source control invented?
I'm aware of many version control systems: CVS, SVN, TFS etc...
I've googled for the very first "revision control/version control system" and seen various conflicting answers.
When was source ...
14
votes
1answer
902 views
Who designed exceptions?
Where did exceptions and exception handling come from?
I like how .NET uses it, I like how C++ supports it (but libraries unfortunately use return code or is written in C instead). I know its pretty ...
-3
votes
2answers
588 views
Why aren't there modern C IDEs? [closed]
Why weren't the features present in modern IDEs for Java & C# (Intellij IDEA, Visual Studio, eclipse) developed in (earlier) IDEs for C language? I mean I don't know any IDE which has modern ...
11
votes
2answers
515 views
Where does the the term “feature creep” come from?
There is a decent Wikipedia article on the "Feature Creep", but it doesn't state an origin. A Google search only leads to some vague article claiming "Earl Rich" coined the term, but there isn't much ...
2
votes
2answers
284 views
History of Associative Array?
In quite a lot of modern scripting languages (e.g. Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP, Lua, JavaScript), associative arrays are supported as a primitive or first-class data type (with various names like map, ...
40
votes
3answers
20k views
Is there any evidence that drugs can actually help programmers produce “better” code? [closed]
I just read this quote from Steve Jobs:
"Doing LSD was one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life."
Also a quote from that article:
He was hardly alone among computer ...
0
votes
3answers
149 views
What was the first consumer-oriented hardware/software solution? [closed]
We all know the story of the personal computer as a consumer-oriented product. But I just thought that real end user solution should have appeared before that time. So a product that was probably ...
3
votes
5answers
2k views
Why was Objective-C popularity so sudden on TIOBE index?
I'd like to ask a question that is pretty similar to the one being asked here, but for Objective-C.
According to TIOBE rankings, the rise of popularity of Objective-C is unprecedented. This is ...
1
vote
3answers
870 views
How did Python become popular as a scripting language? [closed]
I looked at it in my field of work, which is film and pretty much every software we use comes with python as a scripting language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Python_software That made me ...
0
votes
1answer
126 views
Did “Viaweb” work in the browser without JavaScript and somehow use only Lisp?
I just read Beating the Averages, and Mr. Graham writes that they had a significant advantage over competitors because they used Lisp.
From what I understand, Viaweb was a WYSIWYG editor that ran in ...
8
votes
5answers
632 views
What is the historical basis of using Javascript in web programming?
I come from a scientific biology background where we also use Python a lot.
Now that I've begun to start with Web development, I've consistently found myself wondering just why it is that JavaScript ...
23
votes
4answers
1k views
What language was “standard” for Apple development before Objective C?
I don't think Objective C was in use from the beginning of Apple hardware development. What languages did app developers use for the earlier Apple computers, such as Apple II or Mac Classic?
80
votes
11answers
18k views
Why is the sudden increase in number of Git submitters on Debian popcon graph in 2010-01?
Almost every article I've read 1 comparing Git and Mercurial it seems like Mercurial has a better command line UX with each command being limited to one idea only (unlike say git checkout).
But at ...
