I started out as a programmer in 1983 (I did a sandwich degree in maths and that was my year ‘in industry’). I had been introduced to lacemaking in the 1970s since one of my grandmas made lace (btw, I’m still tracking down information to send to Suffolk).
I worked in the defence industry using languages specific to our computers. One (Fixpac) was a low level language where we were directly manipulating the bits and bytes - space was at a premium in those days. The other (Coral) was a higher level language which compiled down to Fixpac (both were proprietary to my then employer, Ferranti, as was the hardware). This was probably about as close as you could get to a lacemaking equivalent. However at no point did I associate one with the other. To me the link is logic (one of my strengths, and weaknesses) with the ability to also be creative in how you manipulated the component parts to produce something powerful. Isn’t this also the basis of the early machines for making lace? IMHO, to see lace within a computer programme would be unlikely unless you were programming something similar - weaving perhaps? For me, you would probably need to go back to when the lacemaking machines were being conceived and have somebody who made lace by hand and then saw how to translate the steps into a mechanised version. As usual, just my C$0.02. Helen, who is trying to get the dog to realise that it is too hot for a walk at the moment! > On May 27, 2018, at 13:10, Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Dear Friends > if any of you are computer programmers, 1984 and 1985 was a long time ago, > but do you remember if you had any bright ideas about the resemblance > between lace making or lace-patterns and coding? And if so, in what > software language? > > Thanks > Sharon - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
