Ivan and Bert have been special in the development of some of the most
important parts of computing.
This year is the 50th anniversary of Sketchpad -- still one of the very few top
conceptions in computing, still one of the greatest theses ever done, and still
very much worth reading today.
Ivan is such a giant that we sometimes forget that Bert's thesis was a
graphical programming language in which he invented and used the idea of
dataflow. (This was done after Ivan's thesis even though Bert was the older
brother, because Bert did a stint as a Navy pilot before going to grad school).
One experience that many "inquisitive children" had while living in the
vicinity of New York in the 50s was to be able to visit and get stuff on "Radio
Row" -- most of it on Courtlandt Street in lower Manhattan where the World
Trade Center was later built. There were literally hundreds of shops on both
sides of the street for what I recall was at least a mile full of nothing but
second hand gear, much of it WWII surplus electronics and some mechanical gear.
You could mow a few lawns and earn enough for a subway ride to and from (I
lived in Queens at that time -- Ivan and Bert lived in Scarsdale I think) and
still have enough left over to buy 15,000 volt transformers, RCA 811A
transmitting triodes, etc., to make dandy Tesla coils, ham radios, little
computers out of relays as set forth in Ed Berkeley's books, etc.
Cheers,
Alan
>________________________________
> From: Jb Labrune <[email protected]>
>To: Fundamentals of New Computing <[email protected]>
>Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 2:59 AM
>Subject: Re: [fonc] Smalltalk-75
>
>about people that learned how to assemble a computer at a young age, i
>remember talking with the Sutherland brothers once about their childhood. Ivan
>explained to me that Ed Berkeley gave Sutherland's family a DIY computer
>called SIMON in the 50's. Ivan and Bert were very creative for sure, but they
>also benefited from great ressources in their environment! When will we see
>STEPS, MARU and other foncabulous seeds in schools and DIY magazines ? :]
>
>about Simple Simon & SIMON
>http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/simon/index.html
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_%28computer%29
>
>ooh, and of course this video about the S's bros is so great! i would like to
>watch one for each one of you guys on this list ^^
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM1bNR4DmhU .:( Mom Loved Him Best - w/ Alan
>in the audience! ):.
>
>cheers*
>Jb
>
>Le 20 avr. 2012 à 03:20, Fernando Cacciola a écrit :
>
>> On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 9:43 PM, Alan Kay <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Well, part of it is that the 15 year old was exceptional -- his name is
>>> Steve Putz, and as with several others of our children programmers -- such
>>> as Bruce Horn, who was the originator of the Mac Finder -- became a very
>>> good professional.
>>>
>>> And that Smalltalk (basically Smalltalk-72) was quite approachable for
>>> children. We also had quite a few exceptional 12 year old girls who did
>>> remarkable applications.
>>>
>> I was curious, so I googled a bit (impressive how easy it is, these
>> days, to find something within a couple of minutes)
>>
>> The girls you are most likely talking about would be: Marion Goldeen
>> and Susan Hamet, who created a painiting and a OOP-Illustration
>> system, respectively.
>> I've found some additional details and illustrations here:
>> http://www.manovich.net/26-kay-03.pdf
>>
>> What is truly remarkable IMO, is Smalltalk (even -72). Because these
>> children might have been exceptional, but IIUC is not like they were,
>> say, a forth-generation of mathematicians and programmers who learned
>> how to assemble a computer at age 3 :)
>>
>>
>> Best
>>
>> --
>> Fernando Cacciola
>> SciSoft Consulting, Founder
>> http://www.scisoft-consulting.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> fonc mailing list
>> [email protected]
>> http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
>
>--
>
>Jean-Baptiste Labrune
>MIT Media Laboratory
>20 Ames St / 75 Amherst St
>Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
>
>http://web.media.mit.edu/~labrune/
>
>_______________________________________________
>fonc mailing list
>[email protected]
>http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
>
>
>
_______________________________________________
fonc mailing list
[email protected]
http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
