The Philosophical Programmer: Reflections on the Moth in the Machine - Hardcover

Kohanski, Daniel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312186509 ISBN 13: 9780312186500

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1998

Synopsis

A work for programmers and the computer illiterate alike first teaches the reader about the general nature of programming before tackling such philosophical and ethical issues as privacy and piracy. 20,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Meditative and yet authoritative, The Philosophical Programmer celebrates the creative possibilities of programming while reminding the reader of technology's ethical conundrums. Daniel Kohanski keeps this slim volume rooted in valid examples, providing a rich exploration of the thought process involved in machine code. He treats programming as a language, detailing its elegance and efficiency from the earliest computer inventions to the present day. Because of the book's clear, conversational tone, The Philosophical Programmer can be read cover to cover by nonprogrammers and still be fascinating to knowledgeable veterans.

In the preface to The Philosophical Programmer, Kohanski writes, "In the last five years books have flooded the marketplace describing in detail what some computer product does, or how to write programs in some particular language. Yet there has been very little discussion about what programming is and about the meaning of programs for our lives." Kohanski fills that void with The Philosophical Programmer--a rich and engaging history interwoven with well-constructed commentary. --Jennifer Buckendorff

From Kirkus Reviews:

A lucid primer on the philosophy of computer programming from a systems engineer in San Francisco. With the phrase ``moth in the machine'' Kohanski refers to an engineering anomaly experienced on a pioneering wartime computer, the Mark I. Circuitry began behaving erratically; after running exhaustive tests, the engineers discovered why: a moth had crawled into a relay, preventing contact. Thus was born the bug in the computer and the necessity to debug, which, Kohanski points out, programmers spend more time doing than they spend programming. Juxtaposing the human capacity for ambivalence with the machine's complete incapacity for it, Kohanski argues for ever more intuitive programs: ones that will announce ``radiation overdose,'' for instance, rather than ``Malfunction 54.'' (Kohanski describes an actual case in which several patients were killed because the computer operator didnt know what ``Malfunction 54'' meant.) Kohanski explains clearly the differences between analog and digital computers by using cuckoo clocks (primitive analog computers) as a metaphor; explains the binary code and demonstrates how memory accretes in machines; and is at pains to explain the necessity for precise, elegant, and even esthetically pleasing programming. He then discusses the moths in the machine that challenge programmers: ever more complex programs, demanding an almost inhuman precision; the failure of programmers to translate their own mathematical shorthand into real-world terms (``Malfunction 54''); and, perhaps most important, the failure to design programs that really do the job, that wont create more problems than they solve. The greatest challenge to programmers, he says, lies in unlocking their imaginations. Good reading for anyone interested in how programs come into existence, and particularly good reading for those thinking of entering the programming profession. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0312186509
• ISBN 13: 9780312186500
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 234