The next generation of Python programmers

Posted Apr 27, 2014 8:28 UTC (Sun) by wmfa (guest, #37197)
In reply to: The next generation of Python programmers by pizza
Parent article: The next generation of Python programmers

It sounds like I got really lucky. The computer classes I took were taught in the Math department. It was all about the science, with absolutely zero focus on administrative uses (word processing, spreadsheets, etc.). Most likely, this is because there really were no administrative uses yet. Electric typewriters were still being marketed for home use. Seeing your responses to my comment, it seems important to me that we educate educators about the differences between administrative computing (office tools), and computer science.

Back to the reply on which I based my comment, I'd like to reinforce again that the science of computer science is the kind of academic regimen that will support our children throughout their lives. Given the importance of computing to all our futures, computer science is *exactly* what we should be seeing taught alongside math, chemistry, biology, and physics.

The next generation of Python programmers

Posted May 23, 2021 7:10 UTC (Sun) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (2 responses)

> It sounds like I got really lucky. The computer classes I took were taught in the Math department. It was all about the science, with absolutely zero focus on administrative uses (word processing, spreadsheets, etc.) Most likely, this is because there really were no administrative uses yet.

Classic mathematician. You need to learn some history!

The VERY FIRST electronic computers were all business machines - used for stuff like accounts. Computers like LEO, etc.

(Yes, the very first computers - Antithikera, Babbage, stuff like that, were more scientific eg astronomy, log tables ...)

Cheers,
Wol

The next generation of Python programmers

Posted May 23, 2021 7:55 UTC (Sun) by mjg59 (subscriber, #23239) [Link] (1 responses)

> The VERY FIRST electronic computers were all business machines - used for stuff like accounts. Computers like LEO, etc.

? EDSAC was a product of the Mathematical Laboratory at Cambridge, the Manchester Baby only existed because of the leadership of Max Newman, who held the pure mathematics chair. Both predate LEO.

The next generation of Python programmers

Posted May 23, 2021 22:35 UTC (Sun) by excors (subscriber, #95769) [Link]

>> The VERY FIRST electronic computers were all business machines - used for stuff like accounts. Computers like LEO, etc.
>
> ? EDSAC was a product of the Mathematical Laboratory at Cambridge, the Manchester Baby only existed because of the leadership of Max Newman, who held the pure mathematics chair. Both predate LEO.

As far as I can tell, the Mathematical Laboratory had little to do with mathematics, and they only called it that because they hadn't invented the term "computer" yet. (Nowadays it's the Computer Laboratory). Per https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/events/EDSAC99/history.html the early years were largely about providing calculating machines as a service to other science departments in the university (e.g. the Lab's founder was Professor of Theoretical Chemistry, and that group later made use of EDSAC 1), as well as doing research into what we'd call computer science (seemingly with emphasis on the practical side - building EDSAC, developing programming language concepts, etc, rather than working on the mathematics of computation).

Definitely wasn't for business though, it seems clear they were focused on scientific research.