Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- A quick tour through the book
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue: Blog entry from Jonathan Hey
- 1 Beginnings of a revolution
- 2 The hardware
- 3 The software is in the holes
- 4 Programming languages and software engineering
- 5 Algorithmics
- 6 Mr. Turing’s amazing machines
- 7 Moore’s law and the silicon revolution
- 8 Computing gets personal
- 9 Computer games
- 10 Licklider’s Intergalactic Computer Network
- 11 Weaving the World Wide Web
- 12 The dark side of the web
- 13 Artificial intelligence and neural networks
- 14 Machine learning and natural language processing
- 15 The end of Moore’s law
- 16 The third age of computing
- 17 Computers and science fiction – an essay
- Epilogue: From Turing’s padlocked mug to the present day
- Appendix 1 Length scales
- Appendix 2 Computer science research and the information technology industry
- How to read this book
- Notes
- Suggested reading
- Figure credits
- Name index
- General index
3 - The software is in the holes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- A quick tour through the book
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue: Blog entry from Jonathan Hey
- 1 Beginnings of a revolution
- 2 The hardware
- 3 The software is in the holes
- 4 Programming languages and software engineering
- 5 Algorithmics
- 6 Mr. Turing’s amazing machines
- 7 Moore’s law and the silicon revolution
- 8 Computing gets personal
- 9 Computer games
- 10 Licklider’s Intergalactic Computer Network
- 11 Weaving the World Wide Web
- 12 The dark side of the web
- 13 Artificial intelligence and neural networks
- 14 Machine learning and natural language processing
- 15 The end of Moore’s law
- 16 The third age of computing
- 17 Computers and science fiction – an essay
- Epilogue: From Turing’s padlocked mug to the present day
- Appendix 1 Length scales
- Appendix 2 Computer science research and the information technology industry
- How to read this book
- Notes
- Suggested reading
- Figure credits
- Name index
- General index
Summary
Computer programs are the most complicated things that humans have ever created.
Donald KnuthSoftware and hardware
Butler Lampson, recipient of the Turing Award for his contributions to computer science, relates the followi ng anecdote about software:
There’s a story about some people who were writing the software for an early avionics computer. One day they get a visit from the weight control officer, who is responsible for the total weight of the plane.
“You’re building software?”
“Yes.”
“How much does it weigh?”
“It doesn’t weigh anything.”
“Come on, you can’t fool me. They all say that.”
“No, it really doesn’t weigh anything.”
After half an hour of back and forth he gives it up. But two days later he comes back and says, “I’ve got you guys pinned to the wall. I came in last night, and the janitor showed me where you keep your software.”
He opens a closet door, and there are boxes and boxes of punch cards.
“You can’t tell me those don’t weigh anything!”
After a short pause, they explain to him, very gently, that the software is in the holes.
It is amazing how these holes (Fig. 3.1) have become a multibillion-dollar business and arguably one of the main driving forces of modern civilization.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Computing UniverseA Journey through a Revolution, pp. 39 - 57Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014