History of early programming languages | Brendan Eich and Lex Fridman

TL;DR

The speaker shares their journey of falling in love with programming, starting with a basic program to recreate the Death Star trench run and progressing to Pascal and C languages.

Transcript

when did you first fall in love with programming i didn't program a lot when i was in high school but i had a friend who had a commodore pet and after we saw star wars he said hey let's make a basic uh program that does the death star trench run and it was just you know simple 2d graphics and i didn't know what i was doing so i just helped them out... Read More

Key Insights

• 💖 Watching Star Wars and creating a basic graphics program sparked the speaker's interest in programming.
• ⛽ The speaker admired HP calculators and their scientific functions, further fueling their passion for programming.
• 🖐️ Pascal, as part of the Algol family, played a significant role in the speaker's early programming experiences.
• 🥺 The success of Turbo Pascal and the influence of Anders Hejlsberg led to the evolution of languages like C# and TypeScript.
• 💻 The speaker's interest in Unix and computer architecture influenced their decision to study math and computer science.
• 🏛️ The choice of processor (National Semiconductor NS16032) impacted the speaker's ability to successfully build their own computer and port Unix onto it.
• 😮 The rise of RISC architectures, like Risk One, influenced the microarchitecture within modern processors like Intel.

Questions & Answers

Q: How did the speaker first get into programming?

The speaker got involved in programming after watching Star Wars and helping a friend create a basic 2D graphics program, despite having limited experience.

Q: What was the speaker's preference for programming languages during their undergraduate studies?

While studying physics, the speaker avoided Fortran and used Pascal as their preferred programming language, as it emphasized procedural abstraction and structured programming.

Q: Do Pascal and Fortran still have relevance today?

Pascal, thanks to Turbo Pascal by Borland and the influence of Anders Hejlsberg, went on to have a significant impact in the development of languages like C# and TypeScript. Fortran, on the other hand, has become less commonly used compared to modern programming languages.

Q: How did the speaker's interest in Unix and computer architecture affect their programming trajectory?

The speaker was fascinated by Unix and had an interest in building their own computer and porting Unix onto it. However, they chose the wrong processor (National Semiconductor NS16032) and later shifted their focus to math and computer science.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The speaker's passion for math and science led them to help a friend create a basic 2D graphics program after watching Star Wars.

• They were fascinated by HP calculators and their scientific functions, which further fueled their interest in programming.

• While studying physics, they started hacking on computers, avoiding Fortran and embracing Pascal as their first love in programming.