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Go To: The Story of the Math Majors, Bridge Players, Engineers, Chess Wizards, Maverick Scientists, and Iconoclasts-- the Programmers Who Created the Software Revolution
In Go To , Steve Lohr chronicles the history of software from the early days of complex mathematical codes mastered by a few thousand to today's era of user-friendly software and over six million professional programmers worldwide. Lohr maps out the unique seductions of programming, and gives us an intimate portrait of the peculiar kind of genius that is drawn to this blend of art, science, and engineering, introducing us to the movers and shakers of the 1950s and the open-source movement of today. With original reporting and deft storytelling, Steve Lohr shows us how software transformed the world, and what it holds in store for our future.
272 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 5, 2012
apparently cobol is, as expected and understood, totally crappy unless being discussed in the context of grace hopper, because anything associated with history's most overrated-for-sociological-purposes programmer couldn't be bad. this book read like the first "research paper" i ever had to write, back in 8th grade on zelda fitzgerald of all things, when i sat there with a bunch of quotes on index cards and tried to figure out how to weave them into crap prose.
July 12, 2007
A quick read, but somewhat inspirational
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March 17, 2020Informative narrative and explanations. A nice gateway for further research.
May 16, 2021
Serves as a short summary of the history of programming.
October 6, 2016
Readable history of programming languages until ~2000; ends at Java and the rise of open source movements in the late 90s. Doesn't get too mired in details but still gives enough context to understand how things evolved the way they did and the general forces driving them. Took me a long time to finish this book because, while interesting, it wasn't exactly gripping. But if you're naturally curious about the stuff it'll fill in a few gaps.
April 25, 2009
The author presents a history of software in an interesting way. Mini-biographies of the pioneers of the industry, tools, and languages make the story of these inventors and how they came about their discoveries in a lively and entertaining way.
January 17, 2016
Excited to see Ian Foster ("a native of New Zealand") mentioned on the last page
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews