Semantic Werks

Three great articles this issue in the Annals of History of Computing:

• Niklaus Wirth on the history of software engineering. Choice quote: “the development of C was a great leap backward”.
• Janet Delve on the role of memory in the history of computing. Choice quote: “too many in our field view the original works of pioneers as sacred, and therefore never to be questioned. Hence accounts of events are seldom challenged, revisited, or reinterpreted.”
• Michael Mahoney on challenges in the history of software. I would argue that software engineers actually do study the mistakes of the past, but perhaps not as systematically as one might like. As Janet Delve mentions, it’s easy to see past projects as irrelevant to current projects (this is the Not Invented Here syndrome in a nutshell). Choice quote: “As historical artifact, software is most valuable in its dynamic form. The historian gains most from seeing how the software worked and from working with it.”