The History of Computing in the History of Technology

The History of Computing in the History of Technology

Michael S. Mahoney
Program in History of Science
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

(Annals of the History of Computing 10(1988), 113-125)

After surveying the current state of the literature in the history of computing, this
paper discusses some of the major issues addressed by recent work in the history of
technology. It suggests aspects of the development of computing which are pertinent
to those issues and hence for which that recent work could provide models of
historical analysis. As a new scientific technology with unique features, computing
in turn can provide new perspectives on the history of technology.

Introduction record-keeping by a new industry of data

Since World War II 'information' has emerged processing. As a primary vehicle of
as a fundamental scientific and technological
concept applied to phenomena ranging from communication over bo th space and t ime, it
black holes to DNA, from the organization of
cells to the processes of human thought, and has come to form the core of modern
from the management of corporations to t he
allocation of global resources. In addition to information technolo gy. What the
reshaping established disciplines, it has
stimulated the formation of a panoply of new English-speaking world refers to as "computer
subjects and areas of inquiry concerned with
its structure and its role in nature and society science" is known to the rest of western
(Machlupand Mansfeld 1983). Theories based
on the concept of 'information' have so Europe as informatique (or Informatik or
permeated modern culture that it now is
widely taken to characterize our times. We informatica). Much of the concern over
live in an 'information society', an 'age of
information'. Indeed, we look to models of information as a commodity and as a natural
information processing to explain our own
patterns of thought. resource derives from the computer and from

The computer has played the central computer-based communicationstechnolo gy.1
ro le in that tr ansfo rmat ion, both
accommodating and encouraging ever broader Hence, the history of the computer and of
views of 'information' and of how it can be
transformed and communicated over time and computing is central to that of information
space. Since the 1950s the computer has
replacedtraditional methods of accounting and science and technology, providing a thread by

which to maintain bearing while exploring the

ever-growing maze of disciplines and

subdisciplines that claim information as their

subject.

Despite the pervasive presence of

computing in modern science and technology,

not to mention modern society itself, the

history of computing has yet to establish a

significant presence in the history of science

1To characterize the unprecedented capabilities of
computers linked to telecommunications, Nora and
Minc (1978) coined the term télématique.

Mahoney History of Computing in t he History of Technology page 2

and technology. Meetings of the History of either through regular surveys of the state and
Science Society and the Society for the development of various fields (e.g. Rosen
History of Technology in recent years have 1967, Sammet 1969)3 or compilations of
included very few sessions devoted seminal papers (Randell1982; Yourdon 1979,
specifically to history of computing, and few 1982; AT&T 1987),4 or through
of the thematic sessions have included reminiscences and retrospectives, either
contributions from the perspective of written directly or transcribed from their
computing. There is clearly a balance to be contributions to conferences and symposia.5
redressed here. Biographies of men or machines --some
heroic, some polemical, some both-- are a
The status of the history of comput ing prominent genre, and one reads a lot about
within the history of technology surely reflects "pioneers". A few corporate histories have
on both parties, but the bulk of the task of appeared, most notably IBM's Early
redress lies with the former. A look at the Computers (Bashe et al. 1986), but they too
literature shows that, by and large, histo rians are in-house productions.
of computing are addressing few of the
questions that historians of technology are This literature represents for the most
now asking. It is worth looking at what those part "insider" history, full of facts and firsts.
questions are and what form they might take While it is first-hand and expert, it is also
when addressed to computing. The question is guided by the current state of knowledge and
how to bring the history of computing into line bound by the professional culture. That is, its
with what should be its parent discipline. authors take as givens (often technical givens)
Doing so will follow a two-way street: t he what a more critical, outside viewer might see
history of co mputing should use models from as choices. Reading their accounts makes it
the history of techno logy at t he same time that difficult to see the alternatives, as the authors
we use the history of computing to test those themselves lose touch with a time when they
models. In so me aspects, at least, comput ing did not know what they now know. In the long
poses some of the major questions of the run, most of this literature will become primary
history of technology in special ways. Both sources, if not of the development of
fields have much to learn from the other. computing per se, then of its emerging culture.

Computing's Present History From the outset, the computer
attracted the attention of journalists, who by
Where the current literature in the history of the late '50s were beginning to recount its
computing is self-consciously historical, it history. The result is a sizable inventory of
focuses in large part on hardware and on the
pre-history and early development of the 3Many of the articles in Computing Surveys, begun in
computer.2 Where it touches on later 1969, include an historical review of the subject.
developments or provides a wider view, it is
only incidentally historical. A major portion of 4The 25th-anniversary issues of the leading journals
the literature stems from the people involved, also contain useful collections of importan t articles.

2See Aspray (1984) for a recent, brief survey of the 5Wexelblatt (1981), a record of the 1978 ACM
state of the field. Conferenceon the History of Programming Lan guages,
is an excellent exampl e, as is a recent issue of the
Annals of the History of Computing on the Burroughs
B5000.

Mahoney History of Computing in t he History of Technology page 3

accounts having the virtues and vices of the that has grown exponentially in size and
journalist's craft. They are vivid, they capture variety, looking not so much like an uncharted
the spirit of the people and of the institutions ocean as like a trackless jungle. We pace on
they portray, and they have an eye for the the edge, pondering where to cut in.
telling anecdote. But their immediacycomes at
the price of perspective. Written by people The Questions of the History of
more or less knowledgeable about the subject Technology
and about t he history of technology, these
accounts tend t o focus on the unusual and the The state of the literature in history of
spectacular, be it people or lines of research, computing emerges perhaps more clearly by
and they often cede to the self-evaluation of comparison (and by contrast) with what is
their subjects. Thus the microcomput er and currently appearing in the history of
artificial intelligence have had the lion's share technology in general and with the questions
of attention, as their advocates have roared a that have occupied historians of technology
succession of millenia. over the past decade or so. Those questions
derive from a clust er of seminal articles by
The journalistic accounts veer into George S. Daniels, Edwin T. Layton, Jr.,
another major portion of the literature on Eugene S. Ferguson, Nathan Rosenberg, and
computing, namely what may be called "social Thomas P. Hughes, among others. How has
impact statements". Often difficult to the relatio nship between science and
distinguish from futurist musing on the technology changed and developed over time
computer, the discussions of the effects of the and place? How has engineering evolved,
computer on society and its various activities both as an intellectual activity and as a social
tend on the whole to view computing apart role? Is technology the creator of demand or
from the history of technology rather than a response to it? Put another way, does
from its perspective. Histo ry here serves the technology follow a society's momentum or
purpose of social analysis, criticism, and redirect it by external impulse?6 How far does
commentary. Hence much of it comes from economics go in explaining technological
popular accounts taken uncritically and innovation and development? How do new
episodically to support non-historical, often technologies establish themselves in society,
polemical, theses. Some of this literature rests and how does society adapt to them? To what
on a frankly political agenda; whether its extent and in what ways do societies engender
models and modes of analysis provide insight new technologies? What are the patterns by
depends on whether one agrees with that which technology is transferred from one
agenda. culture to another? What role do governments
play in fostering and directing technological
Finally, there is a small body of
professionally historical work, dealing for the 6George Daniels (1 970) put th e question as an
most part with the origins of the computer, its assertion (p.6): "... the real effect of technical
invention and early development (e.g. Stern inn ovation [has been] to help American s do better
1981, Ceruzzi 1982, Williams 1986). It is what they had already shown a marked inclination to
meant as no denigration of that work to note do." The seemin g "social lag" in ada pting t o new
that it stops at the point where computing techn ology, he argued, is more likely economic in
becomes a significant presence in science, natur e.
technology, and society. There historians stand
before the daunting complexity of a subject

Mahoney History of Computing in t he History of Technology page 4

innovation and development? These are some then or has seemed since. Daniel Nelson
of the "big questions", as George Daniels (1975) and Stephen Meyer (1981) have
(1970) once put it. They can be broken down entered the factory floor by another door to
into smaller, more manageable questions, but study the effects of mass production on the
ultimately they are the questions for which workers it organized.
historians of technology bear special
responsibilitywithin the historical community. Looking at technology in other
They are all of them questions which can shed contexts, Walter McDougall (1985) has
light on the development of computing while anatomized the means and motivation of
it in turn elucidates them. gover nment support of research and
development since World War II, revealing
A few examples from recent literature structures and patterns that extend well
must suffice to suggest the approaches beyond the space program. Behind his study
historians of technology are taking to those stands the ongoing history of NASA and of its
questions. Each suggests by implication what individualprojects. From another perspective,
might be done in the history of computing. A David F. Noble (1984) has examined the
spate of studies on industrial research "command technology" that lay behind the
laboratories has explored the sources, development of numerically controlled tools.
purposes and strategies of organized At a more mundane level, Ruth Cowan (1983)
innovation, invention, and patenting in the late has shown how "progress is our most
19th and early 20th centuries, bringing out the important product" often translated into More
dynamics of technological improvement that Work for Mother, while her own experiments
Rosenberg (1979) suggested was a major in early nineteenth-century domestic
source of growth in productivity. In Networks technology have brought out the intimate
of Power Thomas P. Hughes (1983) has relationship between household work and
provided a model for pursuing another family relations.
suggestion by Rosenberg, namely the need to
treat technologies as interactive constituents In the late 1970s Anthony F.C.
of systems. Developments in one subsystem Wallace (1978) and Eugene Ferguson (1979b)
may be responses to demands in others and recalled our attention to the non-verbalmodes
hence have their real pay-offs there. Or a of thought that seem more characteristic of the
breakthrough in one component of the system inventor and engineer than does the
may unexpectedly create new opportunities in language-based thinking o f the scientist.7
the others, or even force a reorganization of Brooke Hindle's (1981) study of Morse's
the system itself. telegraph and Reese Jenkins's (1987) recent
work on the iconic patterns of Edison's
In detailed examinations of one of the thought provide examples of the insights
"really big questions" of the history of historians can derive from artifacts read as the
American technology, Merritt Roe Smith concrete expressions of visual and t actile
(1977) and David A. Hounshell (1984) have cognition, recognizing that, as Henry Ford
traced the origins of the "American System" once put it,
and its evolution into mass production and the
assembly line. Both have entered the 7See in particular Wallace's "Thinking About
workshops and factories to reveal the quite Machinery" (Wallace 1978, pp.237ff.).
uneven reception and progress of that system,
never so monolithic or pervasive as it seemed

Mahoney History of Computing in t he History of Technology page 5

There is an immense amount analytical engine and George Boole's algebra
to be learned simply by of thought as if they were conceptually related
tinkering with things. It is not by something other than 20th-century
possible to learn from books hindsight. Whatever John von Neumann's
how everything is made --and precise role in designing the "von Neumann
a real mechanic ought to know architecture" that defines the computer for the
how nearlyeverything is made. period with which historians are properly
Machines are to a mechanic concerned, it is really only in von Neumann's
what books are to a writer. He collaboration with the ENIAC team that two
gets ideas from them, and if he quite separate historicalstrands came together:
has any brains he will apply the effort to achie ve high-speed,
those ideas (Ford 1922, p.24).8 high-precision, automatic calculation and the
effort to design a logic machine capable of
The renewed emphasis on the visual has significant reasoning.9
reinforced the natural ties between the
historianof technology and the museum, at the The dual nature of the computer is
same time t hat it has forged links between reflected in its dual origins: hardware in the
history of technology and the study of material sequence of devices that stretches from the
culture. Pascaline to the ENIAC, software in the series
of investigations that reaches from Leibniz's
The Tripartite Nature of Computing combinatorics to Turing's abstract machines.
Until the two strands come together in the
Before trying to translate some of the above computer, they belong to different histories,
questions and models into forms specific to t he the electronic calculator to the history of
history of computing, it may help to reflect a technology, the logic machine to the history of
bit on the complexity of the object of our mathematics,10 and they can be unfolded
study. The computer is not one thing, but separately without significant loss of fullness
many different things, and the same holds true or texture. Though they come together in the
of computing. There is about both terms a computer, they do not unite. The computer
deceptive singularity to which we fall victim remains an amalgam of technological device
when, as is now common, we prematurely and mathematical concept, which retain
unite its multiple historical sources into a separate identities despite their influence on
single stream, treating Charles Babbage's one another.

8In The Sciences of the Artificial Herbert Simon (1981; Thus the computer in itself embodies
cf. Newell and Simon 1976) argues forcefully for the one of the central problems of the history of
empirical natur e of computer research th at under lies technology, namelythe relation of science and
its mathematical trappings. The thinking of computer
designers and programmers is embodied in the way 9I do not make this claim in ignorance of Konrad
their machines an d programs work, and th e langua ges Zuse's Z4 or Alan Turing's ACE, which realized
they use to specify how things are to work are roughly the same goals as von Neuman n's along
themselves artifacts. Th e models they use are fil led independent paths. Clearly the computer was "in the
with images difficult or distractingly tedious to air" by the 1940s. But it was the 1940s, not the 1840s.
translate into words; cf. Bolter (1984).
10I am including the history of mathematical logic in
the history of mathema tics

Mahoney History of Computing in t he History of Technology page 6

technology.11 Computing as an enterprise (data structures) and the relation of computer
deepens the problem. For not only are finite architecture to patterns of computation.
automata or denot at iona l sema ntic s Software engineering, conceived as a
independent of integrated circuits, they are deliberately provocative term in 1967 (Naur
also linked in only the most tenuous and and Randell 1969), has developed more as a
uncertain way to programs and programming, set of techniques than as a body of learning.
that is, to software and its production. Since Except for a few university centers, such as
the mid-1960s experience in this realm has Carnegie-Mellon University, University of
revealed a third strand in the nature of the North Carolina, Berkeley, and Oxford, it
computer. Between the mathematics that remains primarily a concern of military and
makes the device theoretically possible and industrial R&D aimed at the design and
the electronics that makes it practically feasible implementationof large, complex systems, and
lies the programming that makes it the driving forces are cost and reliability.
intellectually, economically, and socially
useful. Unlike the extremes, the middle History of Computing as History of
remains a craft, technical rather than Technology
techno logical, mathematical only in
appearance. It poses the question of the Consider, then, the history of computing in
relation of science and technology in a very light of current history of technology. Several
special form. lines of inquiry seem particularly promising.
Studies such as those cited above offer a
That tripartite structure shows up in pano ply of models for tracing the patterns of
the three distinct disciplines that are concerned growth and progress in computing as a
with the computer: electrical engineering, technology. It is worth asking, for example,
computer science, and software engineering. whether the computing industry has moved
Of these, the first is the most well established, forward more by big advances of radical
since it predates the computer, even though its innovation or by small steps of improvement.
current focus on microelectronics reflects its Has it followed the process described by
basic orientation toward the device. Computer Nathan Rosenberg, whereby "... technological
science began to take shape during the 1960s, improvement not only enters the structure of
as it brought together common concerns from the economy through the main entrance, as
mathematical logic (automata, proof theory, when it takes the highly visible form of major
recursive function theory), mathematical patentable technological breakthroughs, but
linguistics, and numerical analysis (algorithms, that it also employs numerous and less visible
computational complexity), adding to them side and rear entrances where its arrival is
questions of the organization of information unobtrusive, unannounced, unobserved, and
uncelebrated" (Rosenberg 1979, p.26)? To
11It should sharpen the question for th e hist ory of determine whet her that is the case will require
science as well, if only by giving special force to the changes in the history of co mputing as it is
reciprocal influence of scientific theory and scientific currently practiced. It will mean looking
instrumentation. But up to now at least it h as not beyond "firsts" to the revisions and
attracted the same attention. The computer may well modifications that made products work and
change that as the shaping of scientific concepts and that account for their real impact. Given the
the pursuit of scientific inquiry come to depend on the corporate, collaborative structure of modern
sta te of comput er techn ology.

Mahoney History of Computing in t he History of Technology page 7

R&D, historians of computing must follow the the special purposes of customers. Early on,
admonition once made to historians of programming had to conform to the narrow
technology to stop "substituting biography for limits of speed and memory set by
careful analysis of social processes". Without vacuum-t ube circuitry. As largely exogenous
denigrat ing the role of heroes and pioneers, we factors in the electronics industry made it
need more knowledge of computing's possible to expand those limits, and at the
equivalent of "shop practices, [and of] the same time drastically lowered the cost of
activities of lower-level technicians in hardware, programming could take practical
factories" (Daniels 1970, p.11). The question advantage of research into programming
is how to pursue t hat inquiry across the languagesandcompilers. Researchers' ideasof
variegated range of the emerging industry. multiuser systems, interactive programming, or
virtual memory required advances in hardware
Viewing computing both as a system at the same time that they drew out the full
in itself and as a component of a variety of power of a new generation of machines. Just
larger systems may provide important insights as new architectures have challenged
into the the dynamics of its development and established forms of programming, so too
may help to distinguish between its internal theoretical advances in computat ion and
and its external history. For example, it artificialintelligence have suggestednew ways
suggests an approach to the question of the of organizing processors (e.g. Backus 1977).
relationbetweenhardware and software, often
couched in the antagonistic form of one At present, the evolution of computing
driving the other, a form which seems to as a system and of its interfaces with other
assume that the two are relatively independent systems of thought and action has yet to be
of one another. By contrast, linking them in a traced. Indeed, it is not clear how many
system emphasizes their mutual dependence. identifiable systems constitute computing
One expects o f a syst em that the relationship itself, given the diverse contexts in which it has
among its internal components and their developed. We speak of the computer industry
relationships to external components will vary as if it were a monolith rather than a network
over time and place but that they will do so in of interdependent industries with separate
a way that maintains a certain equilibrium or interests and concerns. In addition to
homeostasis, even as the system itself evolves. historically more analytical studies of
Seen in that light, the relation between individualfirms, both large and small, weneed
hardware and software is a question not so analyses of t heir interaction and
much of driving forces, or of stimulus and interdependence. The same holds for
response, as of constraints and degrees of government and academia, neither of which
freedom. While in principle all computers have has spoken with one voice on matters of
the same capacities as universal Turing computing. Of particular interest here may be
machines, in practicedifferent architectures are the system-building role o f the computer in
conducive to different forms of computing. forging new links of interdependence among
Certain architectures have technicalthresholds universities, government, and industry after
(e.g. VSLI is a prerequisite to massively World War II.
parallel computing), others reflect conscious
choices among equally feasible alternatives; Arguing in "The Big Questions" that
some have been influenced by the needs and creators of the machinery underpinning the
concerns of software production, others by American System worked from a knowledge
of the entire sequence of operations in

Mahoney History of Computing in t he History of Technology page 8

production,12 Daniels (1970) pointed to Peter than one company found that the computer
Drucker's suggestion that "the organization of reorganized de facto the lines of effective
work be used as a unifying concept in the managerial power.
history of technology." The recent volume by
Charles Bashe et al. on IBM's Early The computer seems an obvious place
Computers illustrates the potential fruitfulness to look for insight into thequestion of whether
of that suggestion for the history of new technologies respond to need or create it.
computing. In tracing IBM's adaptation to the Clearly, the first computers responded to t he
computer, they bring out the corporate felt need for high-speed, automat ic calculation,
tensions and adjustments introduced into IBM and that remained the justification for their
by the need to keep abreast of fast-breaking early development during the late '40s.
developmentsin science and technologyand in Indeed, the numerical analysts evidently
turn to share its research with others.13 The considered the computer to be their baby and
computer reshaped R&D at IBM, defining new resented its adoption by "computerologists" in
relations between marketing and research, the late '50s and early '60s (Wilkinson 1971).
introducing a new breed of scientific personnel But it seems equally clear that the computer
with new ways of doing things, and creating beca me the core of an emergent
new roles, in particular that of the data-processing industry more by creating
programmer. Whether the same holds true of, demand than by responding to it. Much as
say, Bell Laboratories or G.E. Research Henry Ford taught the nation how to use an
Laboratories, remains to be studied, as does automobile, IBM and its competitors taught
the structure of the R&D institutions the nation's businesses (and its government)
established by the many new firms that how to use the computer. How much of the
constituted the growing computer industry of technical development of the computer
the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Tracy Kidder's (1981) originated in the marketing division remains an
frankly journalistic account of development at untold story central to an understanding of
Data General has given us a tantalizing modern technology.15 Kidder's Soul of a New
glimpse of the patterns we may find. Equally Machine again offers a glimpse of what that
important will be studies of the emergence of story may reveal.
the data-processing shop, whether as an
independent computer service or as a new One major factor in the creation o f
element in established institutions.14 More demand seems to have been the alliance

12Elting E. Morison (1974) h as pursued this point subsequent experience and data show that
along slight ly different but equally revealing lines. programmers have made the transition with no
significant loss of control over their work; cf. Boehm
(1981).

13Lundstrom (1987) has recently chronicled the failure 15See, for example, Burke (1970): "Thus technological
of some companies to make the r equisite adjustments. inn ovation is not the product of society as a whole but
emanat es rather from certain segments within or
14The obvious citations here are Kraft (1977) and outside of it; the men or institutions responsiblefor the
Greenbaum (1979), but both works areconcernedmore innovation, to be successful, must 'sell' it to the general
with politics than with computing, and the focus of public; and innovation does have the effect of creating
their political concerns, the "deskilling" of broad social change.(p.23)" Ferguson (1979a) has
programmers through the impos ition of methods of made a similar observation about sellin g new
structur ed programming, has proved ephemeral, as techn ology.

Mahoney History of Computing in t he History of Technology page 9

between the computer and the nascent field of revolutionizing the procedures
operations research/management science. As of our factories and offices
the pages of the Harvard Business Review for with automation, but what
1953 show, the comput er and operat ions about out decision making? In
research hit the business stage together, each other words, isn't there a
a new and untried tool of management, both danger that our thought
clothed in the mantle of science. Against the processes will be left in the
fanciful backdrop of Croesus' defeat by horse-and-buggy stage while
camel-riding Persians, an IBM advertisement our operations are being run
proclaimed that "Yesterday ... 'The Fates' in the age of nucleonics,
Decided. Today ... Facts Are What Count". electronics, and jet propulsion?
Appealing to fact-based strides in "military ... Are the engineering and
science, pure science, commerce, and scientific symbols of our age
industry", the advertisement pointed beyond significant indicators of a need
data processing to "'mathematical models' of for change?(Hurni 1955, p.49)
specific processes, products, or situations, [by
which] man today can predetermine probable Even at this early stage, the computer had
results, minimize risks and costs." In less vivid acquired symbolic force in the business
terms, Cyril C. Herrmann of MIT and John F. community and in society at large. We need to
Magee of Arthur D. Little introduced readers know the sources of that force and how it
of HBR to "'Operations Research' for worked to weave the computer into the
Management" (1953), and John Diebold economic and social fabric.16
(1953) proclaimed "Automation - The New
Technology". As Herbert Simon (1960, p.14) The government has played a
later pointed out, operations research was determining role in at least four areas of
both old and new, with roots going back to computing: microelectronics; interactive,
Charles Babbage and Frederick W. Taylor. Its real-time systems; artificial intelligence; and
novelty lay precisely in its claim to provide software engineering. None of these stories
'mathematical models' of business operations has been told by an historian, although each
as a basis for rational decision-making. promises deep insight into the issues raised
Depending for t heir se nsit ivity on above. Modern weapons systems and the
computationallyintensive algorithms and large space program placed a premium on
volumes of data, those models required the miniaturization of circuits. Given the costs of
power of the computer. research, development, and tooling for
production, it is hard t o imagine that the
It seems crucial for the development
of the computer industry that t he business 16Along these lines, historians of computing would do
community accepted the joint claims of OR well to remember that a line of writings on the nat ure,
and the computer long before either could impact, and even histor y of computing stretch ing from
validate them by, say, cost-benefit analysis. Edmund C. Berkeley's (1949) Giant Brains through
The decision to adopt the new methods of John Diebold's several volumes to Edward
"rationaldecision-making" seems itself to have Feigenbaum's and Pamela McCorduck's (1983) The
been less than fully rational: Fifth Generation stems from people with a product to
sell, whether management consulting or expert
As business managers we are systems.

Mahon ey History of Comput ing in the History of Techn ology page 10

integrated circuit and the microprocessor software is an artifact of computing in the
would have emerged --at least as quickly as business and government sectors during the
they did-- without government support. As '50s. Onlywhen the computer left the research
Frank Rose (1984) put it in Into the Heart of laboratory and the hands of the scientists and
the Mind, "The computerization of society ... engineers did the writing of programs become
has essentially been a side effect of the a question of production. It is in that light that
computerization of war.(p.36)" More is we may most fruitfully view the development
involved than smaller computers. Architecture of programming languages, programming
and software change in response to speed of systems, operating systems, database and file
processor and size of memory. As a result, the management systems, and communications and
rapid pace of miniaturization tended to place networks, all of them aimed at facilitating the
already inadequate methods of software work of programmers, maintaining managerial
production under the pressure of rising control over them, and assuring the reliability
expectations. By the early 1970s the of their programs. The Babel of programming
Department of Defense, as the nation's single languages inthe '60s tends to distract attention
largest procurer of software, had declared a from the fact that three of the most commonly
major stake in the development of software used languages today are also among the
engineering as a body ofmethods and tools for oldest: FORTRAN for scientific computing,
reducing the costs and increasing the reliability COBOL for data processing, and LISP for
of large programs. artificial intelligence. ALGOL might have
remained a laboratory language had it and its
As Howard Rheingold (1985) has offspring not becomethe vehicles ofstructured
described in Tools for Thought the programming, a movement addressed directly
government was quick to seize on the interest to the problems of programming as a form of
of computer scientists at MIT in developing pro duct ion.17
the computer as an enhancement and extension
of human intellectual capabilities. In general, Central to the history of software is
that interest coincided with the needs of the sense of "crisis" that emerged in the late
national defense in the form of interactive '60s as one large project after another ran
computing, visual displays of both text and behind schedule, over budget, and below
graphics, mult i-user systems, and specifications. Though pervasive throughout
inter-computer networks. The Advanced the industry, it posed enough of a strategic
Research Projects Agency (later DARPA), threat for the NATO Science Committee to
soon became a source of almost unlimited convene an international conference in 1968
funding for research in these areas, a source
that bypassed the usual procedures ofscientific 17An effort at internation al cooper ation in establishing
funding, in particular peer review. Much of the a standard progr ammin g langu age, ALGOL from its
early research in artificial intelligence derived inception in 1956 to its final (and, some argued,
its funding from the same source, and its over-refined) form in 1968 provides a multileveled
development as a field of computer science view of computing in the '60s. While contributing
surely reflects that independence from the richly to the conceptual development of programming
agenda of the discipline as a whole. languages, it also has a political history which car ries
down to the present in differing directions of research,
Although we commonly speak of both in computer science and, perh aps most clearly, in
hardware and soft ware in tandem, it is worth software engineering.
noting that in a strict sense the notion of

Mahon ey History of Comput ing in the History of Techn ology page 11

to address it. To emphasize the need fo r a extent it has created its own.
concerted effort along new lines, the The question of sources illustrates
committee coined the term "software
engineering", reflecting the view that the particularly well how recent work in the
problem required the combination of science history of technology may provide important
and management thought characteristic of guidance to the history of computing, at the
engineering. Efforts to define that combination same time that the latter adds new perspectives
and to develop the corresponding methods to that work. As noted above, historians of
constitute much of the history of computing technology have focused new attention on the
during the 1970s, at least in the realm of large non-verbalexpressions of engineering practice.
systems, and it is the essential background to Of the three main strands of computing, only
the story of Ada in the 1980s. It also reveals theoretical computer science is essentially
apparently fundamental differences between verbal in nature. Its sources come in the form
the formal, mathematical orientation of most familiar to historians of science, namely
European comput er scientists and t he books, articles, and other less formalpieces of
practical, industrial focus of their American writing, which by and large encompass the
counterparts. Historians of science and thinking behind them. We know pretty well
technology have seen those differences in the how to read them, even for what they do not
past and have sought to explain them. Can say explicitly. Similarly, at the level of
historians of computing use those explanations institutional and social history, we seem to be
and in turn help to articulate them? on familiar ground, suffering largely from an
embarrassment of wealth unwinnowed by time.
The effort to give meaning to
"software engineering" as a discipline and to But the computers themselves and the
define a place for it in the training of computer programs that were written for themconstitute
professionals should call the historian's a quite different range of sources and thus
attention to the constellation of questions pose the challenge of det ermining how to read
contained under the heading of "discipline them. As artifacts, computers present the
formation and professionalization". In 1950 problemof all electrical and electronic devices.
computing consisted of a handful of specially Theyare machines without moving parts. Even
designed machines and a handful of specially when they are running, they displayno internal
trained programmers. By 1955 some 1000 action to explain their outward behavior. Yet,
general-purpose computers required the Tracy Kidder's (1981) portrait of Tom West
services of some 10,000 programmers. By sneaking a look at the boards of the new Vax
1960, the number of devices had increased to see how DEC had gone about its work
fivefold, the number of programmers sixfold. reminds us that the actual machines may hold
And so t he growth continued. With it came tales untold by manuals, technical reports, and
associations, societies, journals, magazines, engineering drawings. Those sources too
and claims t o professional and academic demand our attention. When imaginatively
standing. The development of these read, they promise to throw light not only on
institut ions is an essentialpart of the the social the designers but also on those for whom they
history of computing as a technological were designing. Through the hardware and its
enterprise. Again, one may ask to what extent attendant sources one can follow t he changing
that development has followed historical physiognomy of computers as they made their
patterns of institutionalization and to what way from the laboratories and large
installations to the office and the home.

Mahon ey History of Comput ing in the History of Techn ology page 12

Today's prototypical computer iconically links who invented and improved the computer,
television to typewriter. How that form those who determined how to program it,
emerged froma roomfulof tubes and switches those who defined its scientific foundations,
is a matter of both technical and cultural those who established it as an industryin itself
history. and introduced it into business and industry all
came to computing from some other
Though hard to interpret, the background. With no inherent precedents for
hardware is at least tangible. Software by their work, they had to find their own
contrast is elusivelyintangible. In essence, it is precedents. Much of the historyof computing,
the behavior of the machines when running. It certainly for the first generation, but probably
is what converts their architecture to action, also for the second and third, derives from the
and it is constructed with action in mind; the precedents these people drew from their past
programmer aims to make something happen. experience. In that sense, the history of
What, then, captures softwarefor the historical technology shaped the history of computing,
record? How do we document and preserve an and the history of computing must turn to the
historically significant compiler, operating history of technology for initial bearings.
sysem, or database? Computer scientists have
pointed to the limitations ofthe static program A specific example may help to
text as a basis for determining the program's illustrate the point. Daniels (1970) stated as
dynamic behavior, and a provocative article one of the really big questions the
(DeMillo et al. 1979) has questioned how development of the 'American System' and its
much the written record of programming can culmination in mass production. It is perhaps
tell us about the behavior of programmers. the central fact of technology in 19th-century
Yet, Gerald M. Weinberg (1971, Chapter 1) America, and every historian of the subject
has given an example of how programs may must grapple with it. So too, though Daniels
be read to reveal the machines and people did not make the point, must historians of
behind them. In a sense, historians of 20th-centurytechnology. For mass production
computing encounter from the opposite has become an historical touchstone for
direction the problem faced by the software modern engineers, in the area of software as
industry: what constitutes an adequate and well as elsewhere.
reliable surrogate for an actually running
program? How, in particular, does the For instance, in one of the major
historianrecapture, or the producer anticipate, invited papers at the NATO Software
the component that is always missing from the Engineering Conference of 1968, M.D.
static record of software, namely the user for McIlroy of Bell Telephone Laboratories
whom it is written and whose behavior is an looked forward to the end of a "preindustrial
essential part of it? era" in programming. His metaphors and
similes harked back to the machine-tool
Placing the history of computing in the industry and its methods of production.
context of the history of technology promises
a peculiarly recursive benefit. Although We undoubtedly produce
computation by machines has a long history, software by backward
computing in the sense I have been using here techniques. We undoubtedly
did not exist before the late 1940s. There were get the short end of the stick in
no computers, no programmers, no computer confrontations with hardware
scientists, no computer managers. Hence those people because they are the

Mahon ey History of Comput ing in the History of Techn ology page 13

industrialists and we are the history of the activity. McIlroy was not
crofters. Software production describing the state or even the direction of
today appears in the scale of software in 1968. Rather, he was proposing
industrialization somewhere an historical precedent on which to base its
below the more backward future development. What is of interest to the
construction industries. I think historian of computing is why McIlroy chose
its proper place is considerably the model of mass production as that
higher, and would like to precedent. Precisely what model of mass
investigate the prospects for production did he have in mind, why did he
mass-production techniques in think it appropriate or applicable to software,
software.(McIlroy, 1969) why did he think his audience would respond
well to the proposal, and so on? The history
What McIlroy had in mind was not replication of technology provides a critical context for
in large numbers, which is trivial for the evaluating the answers, indeed for shaping the
computer, but rather programmed modules questions. For historians, too, the evolving
that might serve as standardized, techniques of mass production in the 19th
interchangeable parts to be drawn from the century constitute a model, or prototype, of
library shelf and inserted in larger production technologicaldevelopment. Whether it is one
programs. A quotation from McIlroy's paper model or a set of closely related models is a
served as leitmotiv to the first part of Peter matter of current scholarly debate, but some
Wegner's series on "CapitalIntensiveSoftware features seem clear. As a system it rested on
Technology" in the July 1984 number of IEEE foundat ions established in the early and
Software, which was richly illustrated by mid-19th century, among them in particular
photographs of capital industry in the 1930s the development of the machine-toolindustry,
and included insets on the history of which, as Nathan Rosenberg (1963) has
technology.18 By then McIlroy's equivalent to shown, itself followed a characteristic and
interchangeable parts had become "reusable revealing pattern of innovation and diffusionof
software" and software engineers had new techniques. Even with the requisite
developed more sophisticated tools for precision machinery, methods of mass
producing it. Whether they were (or now are) production did not transfer directly or easily
any closer to the goal is less important to the from one industry to another, and its
historian than the continuing strength of the introduction oftentook place in stages peculiar
model. It reveals historicalself-consciousness. to production process involved (Hounshell
1984). Software production may prove t o be
We should appreciate t hat the latest variation of the model, or critical
self-consciousness at the same time that we history of technology may show how it has not
view it critically, resisting the temptation to fit.
accept the comparisons as valid. An activity's
choice of historical models is itself part of the Conclusion: The Real Computer
Revolution

18One has to wonder about an article on software We can take this example a step farther. From
engineering that envisions progress on an industrial various perspectives, people have been drawn
model and uses photographs taken from the Great to compare the computer to the automobile.
Depression.

Mahon ey History of Comput ing in the History of Techn ology page 14

Apple, Atari, and others have boasted of compare technological societies? That is one
creating the Model T of microcomputers, of the "big questions" for historians of
clearly intending to convey the image of a car technology, and it is only in the context of the
in every garage, an automobile that everyone history of technology that it will be answered
could drive, a machine that reshaped American for the computer.
life. The software engineers who invoke the
image of mass production have it inseparably From the very beginning, the
linked in their minds to the automobile and its computer has borne the label "revolutionary".
interchangeable variations on a standard Even as the first commercial machines were
theme. being delivered, commentators were extolling
or fretting over the radical changes the
The two analogies serve different aims widespreaduse ofcomputers would entail, and
within the computer industry, the first looking few doubted their use would be widespread.
to the microcomputer as an object of mass The computer directed people's eyes toward
consumption, the second to software systems the future, and a few thousand bytes of
as objects of mass production. But they share memory seemed space enough for the solution
the vision of a society radically altered by a of almost any problem. On that both
new technology. Beneath the comparison lies enthusiasts and critics could agree. Computing
the conviction that the computer is bringing meant unprecedented power for science,
about a revolution as profound as that industry, and business, and with the power
triggered by the automobile. The comparison came difficulties and dangers that seemed
between the machines is fascinating in itself. equally unprecedented. By its nature as wellas
Just how does one weigh the PC against the by its youth, the computer appeared to have
PT (personal transporter)?19 For that matter, no history.
which PC is the Model T: the Apple ][, the
IBM, the Atari ST, the Macintosh? Yet the Yet, "revolution" is an essentially
question is deeper than that. What would it historical concept (Cohen 1986). Even when
mean for a microcomputer to play the role of turning things on their head, one can only
the Model T in determining new social, define what is new by what is old, and
economic, and political patt erns? The innovation, however imaginative, can only
historical term in that comparison is not the proceed from what exists. The computer had
Model T, but Middletown (Lynd and Lynd a history out of which it emerged as a new
1929), where in less than forty years device, and computing took shape from other,
"high-speed steel and Ford cars" had continuing activities, each with its own
fundamentally changed the nature ofwork and historical momentum. As the world of the
the lives of the workers. Where is the computer acquired its own form, it remained
Middletown of today, similarly transformed by embedded in the worlds of science,
the presence of the microcomputer? Where technology, industry, and business which
would one look? How would one identify the structured computing even as they changed in
changes? What patterns of social and response to it. In doing so they linked the
i nt e ll ec t ua l b e h a v io r m a r k such history of computing to their own histories,
transformation? In short, how does one which in turn reflected the presence of a
fundamentally new resource.
19The latter designation stems from Frand (1983).
What is truly revolutionary about the
computer will become clear only when
computing acquires a proper history, one that

Mahon ey History of Comput ing in the History of Techn ology page 15

ties it to other technologies and thus uncovers Boehm, Barry. 1981. Sof tware Engineering
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