Development of one of the first electromechanical computers.
Harvard research fellow in engineering and applied physics, Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, worked with Howard Aiken ’39 (Ph.D.) to develop and program the MARK series, among the first large-scale automatic digital computers, in the early 1940s. Around the same time, a new generation of technically- trained students began to share their knowledge well beyond Harvard’s campus. Alumnus and donor of an endowed professorship at SEAS), Allen E. Puckett S.B. ’39, S.M. ’41, went on to define modern aerodynamics, served as CEO as Hughes Aircraft, and won the National Medal of Honor in Technology.

Invention of the COBOL programming language.

Grace Murray Hopper is generally credited with developments that led to COBOL, the programming language for business applications on which the world’s largest corporations ran for more than a generation.

Development of APL.

APL (A Programming Language) is an array programming language based on a notation invented in 1957 by Kenneth E. Iverson ‘51, ‘54 while pursuing his master’s at Harvard University. It originated as an attempt to provide consistent notation for the teaching and analysis of topics related to the application of computers. IIverson received the Turing Award in 1979.

Harvard was one of the first nodes on the ARPANET.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency Networks (ARPANET) was the first packet switching computer network and precursor of the Internet. In 1969, the Department of Defense commissioned the ARPAnet for network research. The first official network nodes were UCLA, Standford Research Institute, UCSB, and the University of Utah. The first node to node message was sent from UCLA to SRI. In 1971, more nodes, including Harvard and NASA, joined the network, bringing the total to 15.

Development of BASIC interpreter; Founding of Microsoft.
Harvard undergraduate Bill Gates, who worked on the code for what would become Microsoft’s first product (Microsoft BASIC), left the University in 1975. His classmate and future colleague, Steven A. Ballmer AB ’77, did finish his degree and returned in 1999 to dedicate the Maxwell Dworkin Building that he and his former classmate made possible, perfectly melding the past with the optimism of the present.

Establishment of one of the first full-featured computer science curriculums.
In 1984 Harvard offered a stand-alone undergraduate concentration in computer science; CS had previously been part of applied mathematics.

The stifling of talent by universities is real, but cannot hold a candle to the real bullying and destruction of anything like talent or enthusiasm that takes place in the corporation. Furthermore, I would question whether we (former) programmers really had any right whatsoever to demand that our jobs be ultra-satisfying.

Excellent article.


char* createStringFrom(int n)
{
int neg = n0) ++digits;
if(neg)++digits;
char* result = malloc(sizeof(char)*(digits+1));
result[digits] = 0;
int k;
int e = neg?1:0;
for(k=digits-1;k>=e;--k)
{
char c = '0' + n%10;
n = n/10;
result[k] = c;
}
if(neg)
{
result[0] = '-';
}
return result;
}

Parenthetically, I might add that, when I took undergrad courses on compiler design and operating system design, it was quite clear that the main topic of study was “techniques for the systematic design of non-trivial software artefacts”. The specific applications were merely example “carriers” for technique, like études for music students. I find it hard to see how to transmit this ability to students without using detailed specific examples. (However, this was in the mid-eighties… evidently things have changed in CS education since then.)

Most of the software that I have been involved with here works almost all the time, is used (a lot) by many people, and improves the quality of their lives, at least from there own perspective. The characteristic of this software that distinguishes it from Dijkstra’s products is that the software is created, enhanced and maintained by teams of people. Some of them write lines of code, while others maintain wikis, manage bug-tracking databases, run tests, design interfaces and so on. Certainly that subset who actually churn out lines of C needed a lot of training. The courses we taught as part of our undergradaute program were fine for this training. On the other hand, I would say that the grades we gave were a very poor predictor of programmer quality. The only exception is that those few people who consistently attained As in evry course they ever took were likely to be successful programmers.

But there is a lot more to a successful software product than lines of code. And I see little evidence that these factors can be taught at a University or any other institute. Rather, they are a pool of much individual experience and talent.

He did, by the way, finally agree to accept a Macintosh, which he used for email and web browsing –but never for “word processing”

I’ve taken the liberty of improving the Dijkstra Archive by adding a link to this post.

Thanks,

–Ham