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Subject:Re: 10 Things All Technical Writers Should Do From:"Ned Bedinger" <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 12 Nov 2004 13:06:00 -0800
> Back in the early 1890's there were no software
> functions, just people performing tasks.
Somewhere along the line I got the idea that "programming" was grasped and
implemented in the weaving industry in the 19th century. Powered looms
(running on waterwheel or steam power) got their instructions for producing
fabric from cards, anticipating computer-readable paper tape and punch card
media. In other words, the operation of the loom was reduced to operational
instructions, encoded on separate media, and fed into the looms to specify
the steps and parameters to produce the desired output (e.g., which bobbins
to pull thread from, what pattern to weave, how many threads per inch, ...).
I would say that this is difficult to distinguish from software. Luddites
must have had harsher comments.
Likewise, I think there was a Victorian era "difference engine" that ran on
mechanical principles to perform some basic database f\unctions. Some
guy/gal wearing striped pants and plaid shirt did the operational analysis
and implemented the calculations in hardware (like a mechanical adding
machine, if you've ever seen one of them gathering dust in thrift shop, but
programmable).
Someone please confirm? I'm not entirely certain that I haven't backslid
into a Bruce Sterling novel.
Ned Bedinger
Ed Wordsmith Technical Communications
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