Re: [History] My Story, part 1 (1236 words)
On Tue, 2004-06-08 at 10:08, Hooman Mehr wrote: > The spelling used by Roozbeh is the > official spelling used on someone's passport -- if he does not insist > otherwise. I'm very sorry. I forgot that you spell it with "oo". > I insisted on Hooman spelling and got it even on my > passport. So do I, with "Roozbeh" (but not with "Pournader", which I prefer the way it is). roozbeh ___ PersianComputing mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.sharif.edu/mailman/listinfo/persiancomputing
Re: [History] My Story, part 1 (1236 words)
On Jun 8, 2004, at 8:20 AM, C Bobroff wrote: Thank you, Hooman. [BTW, some of you may want to note the spelling of Hooman] Part 1 was great! I especially appreciated the Pre-history Thank you, too. If it wasn't for your insistence, I would never get myself into writing such things... By the way, I write the spelling of my name Hooman to help in correct pronunciation by foreigners. My name is exactly pronounced like two fused English words "who-man". The spelling used by Roozbeh is the official spelling used on someone's passport -- if he does not insist otherwise. I insisted on Hooman spelling and got it even on my passport. - Hooman Mehr ___ PersianComputing mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.sharif.edu/mailman/listinfo/persiancomputing
Re: [History] My Story, part 1 (1236 words)
Thank you, Hooman. [BTW, some of you may want to note the spelling of Hooman] Part 1 was great! I especially appreciated the Pre-history section in Tabriz. As you know the Iranian Autobiography as a genre is very rare so what you're giving us is a real treat. I know it's difficult to expose yourself like this, but I can only encourage you to keep providing the whole story and not hold back any details. In fact, I may have to keep a copy for my virtual Persian Computing Museum. (I just received my first printed Arabic Yeh exhibit this morning as a matter of fact.) In a few years, kiddies will sit down to type Persian and not realize how lucky they are. I've also all along been noting the painful story of those who brought printing and the press to Iran in their day. Please do continue the story as you have time and inclination. And thank you for getting after the other old-timers as well. I've been trying to tell them how important it is to document every detail for years! This is truly one of THE MOST IMPORTANT threads on this list. Thank you again and again for sharing your story! -Connie On Mon, 7 Jun 2004, Hooman Mehr wrote: > Hi everybody, especially Connie, > > First of all, apologies for not being around for a while. I was kind of > busy with miscellaneous obligations... > > I promised Connie to write something about the history of my > involvement with Persian computing. This is the first part in a series > of posts. It acts as an introduction to establish the context and > background. As such, it is not fully about Persian computing per se. > > OK, here begins my story as a life in the history of Persian computing: > > 1. Pre-history > > In the early eighties, during my high school days in Tabriz, I was > obsessed with thinking about the meaning of life and my mission in > life, playing with cats, studying geometry and modern physics > (Einstein, Heisenberg, etc.), shooting with my air rifle, throwing > knives at any wooden target, touring the city on my bicycle, building > shelves and cabinets for the family and friends, building and tweaking > hand-made Hi-Fi for my sister, building small steam engines with my > cousin, trying to build gunpowder-propelled model rockets with my best > friend, and other weird stuff. Those days I was totally unaware of > girls, my appearance and my (lack of) social behavior. Back then, I > barely knew computers existed, they where completely absent from my > world. This period of my life coincides with the period of war, > full-scale embargo, terrorist attacks, and the government treating > anybody who wasn't an insider like the enemy. > > I barely thought about what career I would like to pursue, but was > inclined to become a mechanical engineer. Then I graduated high school > in 1984 and immediately took the university entrance exam and landed in > Sharif University of Technology as a student of civil engineering. It > was quite a surprise and disappointment for me. I disliked civil > engineering, but I did a foolish thing and put it as my first choice > because of the pressure from teachers, friends and family. I was quite > confident that I wouldn’t be accepted in Sharif University. I was > really surprised when I learned that I had the 14th grade for the > position. I expected the others to do far better than me. > > So, when I arrived at my dorm room, I wasn't very enthusiastic. What I > found there didn't help either. I found a stinky mess in the room with > three depressed guys who were hit by the Cultural Revolution and > closing of the universities for almost two years, not to mention mostly > arbitrary changes to the course syllabus and the fact that the room was > designed for two students not four. I was dragging my foot when it came > to studying civil engineering and was in the verge of dropping out of > school and going to the war front when I discovered the joy of > programming and computers. > > It was the second semester and we had a basic programming course on > FORTRAN 66. We were punching cards and putting our deck of cards in the > queue to be batch processed by Control Data CDC-6000 mainframe > remaining from the seventies. We would get the printout of the program > source and its output a few hours later. All of my programs ran > correctly in the first try and my teacher kept all of my projects as > outstanding examples of good solutions and stylish programming. He kept > asking me whether I had prior experience with computers and refused to > believe that I didn't. > > After that course, my life was changed forever. I started spending most > of my time in the computer science department, computer lab, and its > library. I continued the rest of my days in the university barely > passing my courses in civil engineering and focusing my energy on > programming and computer science instead. For those who don't know: I > didn't have the choice of changing my study, because of the very > limited capacities and the sheer resistance of t
Re: [History] My Story, part 1 (1236 words)
On Mon, 2004-06-07 at 11:19, Hooman Mehr wrote:
> P.S. 2: Roozbeh, and other old-timers: How about starting to write down
> your own memories concerning history of Persian Computing as well?
Come on guy, I'm not an old-timer. I started my career in Persian
Computing about when you were leaving it!
But anyway, it all started on a cold winter night, when I was trying to
typeset the problems of the mathematics olympiad camp (because of my
awful handwriting style) but I could find no cheap Persian typesetting
software affordable by a high school student that can typeset 2^{2^{n}}
in running text... Of course before that, I had my own adventures with
computers, including a two year experience of BASIC programming on
pieces of paper without ever touching a keyboard...
Houman, everybody here has a story like that. It's you who has been in
the field much more than the others, and that's the reason we appreciate
your story.
roozbeh
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Re: [History] My Story, part 1 (1236 words)
Hi Hooman, Thanks for the very interesting story. Although your story started roughly when I was born, but a great sense of deja vu still roams around yours. More comments below: On Mon, 7 Jun 2004, Hooman Mehr wrote: > It was the second semester and we had a basic programming course on > FORTRAN 66. We were punching cards and putting our deck of cards in the > queue to be batch processed by Control Data CDC-6000 mainframe Did they show you that CDC-6000 in Sharif Computing Center? It's still there and we had a great time discovering different technologies inside that. > The main difference between Pishkar/Sayeh glyph set and Iran System > gyph set was that Iran System was strictly mono-spaced and one byte per > glyph but Pishkar/Sayeh used special tail glyphs to better display wide > glyphs (using two glyph parts). The reason that ultimately Iran System > prevailed was its relative simplicity from a programmer's point of > view. From a user's perspective, Pishkar/Sayeh solution was preferable > because it was much more readable. Yes, I remember using that. It was far more readable than Iran System. > - Hooman Mehr > > P.S.: Am I too far off topic? Too self centered? Please provide > feedback. No you are exactly on the track. --behdad behdad.org ___ PersianComputing mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.sharif.edu/mailman/listinfo/persiancomputing
[History] My Story, part 1 (1236 words)
Hi everybody, especially Connie, First of all, apologies for not being around for a while. I was kind of busy with miscellaneous obligations... I promised Connie to write something about the history of my involvement with Persian computing. This is the first part in a series of posts. It acts as an introduction to establish the context and background. As such, it is not fully about Persian computing per se. OK, here begins my story as a life in the history of Persian computing: 1. Pre-history In the early eighties, during my high school days in Tabriz, I was obsessed with thinking about the meaning of life and my mission in life, playing with cats, studying geometry and modern physics (Einstein, Heisenberg, etc.), shooting with my air rifle, throwing knives at any wooden target, touring the city on my bicycle, building shelves and cabinets for the family and friends, building and tweaking hand-made Hi-Fi for my sister, building small steam engines with my cousin, trying to build gunpowder-propelled model rockets with my best friend, and other weird stuff. Those days I was totally unaware of girls, my appearance and my (lack of) social behavior. Back then, I barely knew computers existed, they where completely absent from my world. This period of my life coincides with the period of war, full-scale embargo, terrorist attacks, and the government treating anybody who wasn't an insider like the enemy. I barely thought about what career I would like to pursue, but was inclined to become a mechanical engineer. Then I graduated high school in 1984 and immediately took the university entrance exam and landed in Sharif University of Technology as a student of civil engineering. It was quite a surprise and disappointment for me. I disliked civil engineering, but I did a foolish thing and put it as my first choice because of the pressure from teachers, friends and family. I was quite confident that I wouldn’t be accepted in Sharif University. I was really surprised when I learned that I had the 14th grade for the position. I expected the others to do far better than me. So, when I arrived at my dorm room, I wasn't very enthusiastic. What I found there didn't help either. I found a stinky mess in the room with three depressed guys who were hit by the Cultural Revolution and closing of the universities for almost two years, not to mention mostly arbitrary changes to the course syllabus and the fact that the room was designed for two students not four. I was dragging my foot when it came to studying civil engineering and was in the verge of dropping out of school and going to the war front when I discovered the joy of programming and computers. It was the second semester and we had a basic programming course on FORTRAN 66. We were punching cards and putting our deck of cards in the queue to be batch processed by Control Data CDC-6000 mainframe remaining from the seventies. We would get the printout of the program source and its output a few hours later. All of my programs ran correctly in the first try and my teacher kept all of my projects as outstanding examples of good solutions and stylish programming. He kept asking me whether I had prior experience with computers and refused to believe that I didn't. After that course, my life was changed forever. I started spending most of my time in the computer science department, computer lab, and its library. I continued the rest of my days in the university barely passing my courses in civil engineering and focusing my energy on programming and computer science instead. For those who don't know: I didn't have the choice of changing my study, because of the very limited capacities and the sheer resistance of the authorities thinking they are saving me from ruining my career... I was introduced to home and personal computers in this period. The first personal computer I used was NCR Decision Mate 5. It was a wonder in its time: A generic MS-DOS machine with two 360K 5 1/4" floppy disk drives and an astonishing 256KB of main memory with high resolution eight color 640x400 pixel display (some of them with bilingual keyboard and Persian character set). I felt like the master of the universe sitting at DM5 and programming with Turbo Pascal 2.0. After a while, it was overshadowed by IBM PC AT clones assembled by Iran System with high resolution monochrome displays and a different built-in Persian character set -- yes, the same infamous Iran-System character set [2]. It was in 1986 when the cover of a magazine in the library grabbed my attention. The title was "The Mac Is Back" with a picture of Mac Plus and LaserWriter on its cover. I read about Mac and its graphical user interface and WYSIWYG display and got hooked without even seeing a Mac in person. It took two more years until I finally started working on a Mac. During the above period I wasn't aware of Persian computing and didn't realize its importance.
