At ACM Books, I would like to thank Thomas Misa, who initiated this project and encouraged me as I worked on the early chapters. Tamer Ozsu and Achi Dosanjh provided helpful guidance as the project took shape and made its way into the publishing system at the venerable Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Also at the ACM, I would like to thank Barbara Ryan, for her help with permissions, and Bernadette Shade, for her support with print production and graphics. Kim Halvorson sized and edited many of the images included before they entered production. Finally, I am grateful to Karen Grace for her careful editorial work as this book made its way through the publishing system.
At Pacific Lutheran University (PLU), I would like to thank the Provost and President’s Offices for taking an interest in the Code Nation project and offering a sabbatical to support the writing of the first chapters. I am very grateful to the talented staff of the Mordvedt Library, who helped me locate many obscure books and magazines through interlibrary loans. My history, computer science, and innovation studies colleagues have been welcoming conversation partners throughout the project. Damian Alessandro contributed research to Chapter 2, and we shared many enjoyable chats about the early years of Apple Computer and counterculture activities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Michael Schleeter in the Department of Philosophy has been a great teaching partner, and I have benefited greatly from his wisdom about ethics and technology. Finally, Dale and Jolita Benson have been very generous supporters of this book from its beginning, and I appreciate their many contributions to the Business and Economic History program at PLU.
At the University of Washington, Steven Pfaff in the Department of Sociology offered many helpful comments, especially ideas related to “technology enthusiasm” and using computing mythologies as a way to tease out the subtle relationships between technology initiatives and popular movements in the U.S. The staff of the Engineering Library helped me locate many obscure computer books and magazines.
At the Computer History Museum in Fremont, California, Sara Lott helped me to locate and attain permissions for many of the images included in this book. Sydney Olson welcomed me for several on-site visits to the museum’s fantastic archive and reading room, and she tracked down materials in the collection when I had no idea where to look.
At Code.org, I am grateful for the help of Hadi Partovi, Alice Steinglass, and Lian Swanson, who connected me with resources about the Hour of Code campaign and the group’s promising strategies for expanding access to computer science education in schools.
Searching for images and materials took me to numerous corporations, institutions, and databases in the U.S. I am deeply grateful to the following locations for sharing their resources with me: the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Apple Computer, the ACM, Code.org, Dartmouth College, DEC, Getty Images, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, John Wiley & Sons, Microsoft, Macworld, O’Reilly Media, PC/Computing, PC Magazine, PC World, Pearson, Penguin Random House, Springer Nature, University of Minnesota Libraries/Charles Babbage Institute, University of Washington Libraries, and Ziff Davis.
Oral history played an important role in this project, and I would like to thank the following people who shared interviews, email correspondence, photos, and/or printed materials with me: Renzhi Cao, Ray Duncan, Kevin Eagan, Lee Felsenstein, John Froschauer, Ken Goffman, Dan Gookin, Kim Halvorson, Dean Holmes, Alison Bailey Kennedy, André LaMothe, Dail Magee, Jr., Theresa Mannix, Robert M. McClure, Bart Nagel, Ted Nelson, Larry Osterman, Charles Petzold, Brian Randell, Jeffrey Richter, David Rygmyr, Megan Sheppard, Amy Stevenson, Patty Stonesifer, Mitchell Waite, Jim Warren, and Van Wolverton.
Finally, I reserve my deepest gratitude for my family, who supported me in untold ways as this project made its way from a collection of curious ideas to a completed book about the history of programming and personal computing. My sons Henry and Felix grew up hearing tales about early personal computers, and we have often chatted about software, music, and computer gaming. Kim has taken it all in stride because she was there for most of it, and often sees what other people miss. I am immeasurably grateful for my life with you.
1How Important is Programming?
“To understand computers is to know about programming. The world is divided… into people who have written a program and people who have not.”
Nelson, Ted Ted Nelson, Computer Lib/Dream Machines (1974)
How important is Programming it for you to learn to program a computer?
Since the introduction of the first Digital electronic computers digital electronic computers in the 1940s, people have answered this question in surprisingly different ways.
During the first wave of commercial computing—in the 1950s and 1960s, when large and expensive mainframe computers filled entire rooms—the standard advice was that only a limited number of specialists would be needed to program computers using simple input devices like switches, punched cards, and paper tape. Even during the so-called “Golden age” of corporate computing “golden age” of corporate computing in America—the mid- to late 1960s—it was still unclear how many programming technicians would be needed to support the rapid computerization of the nation’s business, military, and commercial operations. For a while, some experts thought that well-designed computer systems might eventually program themselves, requiring only a handful of attentive managers to keep an eye on the machines.
By the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, the rapid emergence of Personal computers (PCs) PCs.Personal computers personal computers (PCs), and continuing shortages of computer professionals, shifted popular thinking on the issue. When consumers began to adopt low-priced PCs like the Apple II (1977), the IBM PC (1981), and the Commodore 64 (1982) by the millions, it seemed obvious that ground-breaking changes were afoot. The “PC Revolution” opened up new frontiers, employed tens of thousands of people, and (according to some enthusiasts) demanded new approaches to computer literacy. As Ted Nelson, a prolific inventor and computing advocate wrote, “You can and must understand computers NOW!” On learning to program computers, Nelson energetically compared programming to another American obsession—driving an automobile. “If you’ve never written a program, it’s like never having driven a car,” Nelson instructed. “You may get the general idea, but you may have little clear sense of the options, dangers, constraints, possibilities, difficulties, limitations, and complications.”1
Figure 1.1ProgrammingAmerican school children experiment with computer programmingAmerican school children experiment with computer programming using teletype machines (1970s). (Courtesy of the Computer History Museum)
Ted Nelson was not alone. By the late 1970s, scores of programming advocates recommended that people of all ages learn to code as a way of understanding what the world’s most intriguing devices were capable of. Computer programming—a process of formulating a problem for the computer to solve, writing instructions in a given computer language, loading instructions into the computer’s memory, running the program, and correcting errors—had emerged as a major late-night pastime and (for some) a promising profession. In response to the mandate of Nelson and others, a surge of interest in programming developed, and the number of people who could write at least elementary programs grew from several thousand in the early 1950s into millions by the early 1980s. (See Figure 1.1.) This sea change in computational literacy encouraged the widespread adoption of computers, boosted the global economy, and shaped the contours of the modern information age.
