New BBC history of computer programming podcasts

buglawton

entertaining little series on the history of coding/programming languages
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/r4codes

John_Gray

After listening to the episode on Fortran, I despaired of the others.
Are you saying that Cobol, etc, were worth listening to?

buglawton

I suppose it's possible to be either too clever or too stupid to enjoy the level these short podcasts are aimed at.
Hope your comment doesn't discourage others from dipping in.

poppy10_2

The one on BASIC was excellent. Brought back memories of me programming on the BBC Micro back in the 80s/90s. Entertaining and informative, worth a listen

andydiysaver

10 CLS


20 REM Showing off.... or was that showing my AGE??


30 *FX 200,3


40 REM The dreaded and cool *FX CALL!, Sandwich between VDU21 and VDU6 et voila your prehistoric trojan horses to become feared king of the school networks...


50 PRINT CHR$141 "cool !!! I am so wathing this!!"

60 PRINT CHR$141 "cool !!! I am so wathing this!!"


70 A = GET


80 IF A = 13 THEN PRINT "DO IT ALL AGAIN WE DON'T HAVE TEXT EDITORS IN THE 80S BOYO..."


90 REM The feared nuke call overused by superior software to protect mucho producto...


100 IF A= 13 THEN CALL !-4

amugofjava

Thanks for this - I've listened to them whilst working. All very interesting

John_Gray

The Register had an article on these programmes...

buglawton

Yeah I read it, I thought the article a bit whingey, it seemed to critique the podcasts based on tech depth. Well what can you expect in 25 min podcasts aimed at casual listening? I think the series was aimed at describing the historical/social impact of these programming languages and (sort of) succeeded in that.

John_Gray

Well, The Register is a publication for techies, so it's not too surprising that they adopted a techie viewpoint. People put their own perspective on Radio 4 programmes, and the fact that we got something vaguely scientific (rather than endless Arts programmes) for a change is clearly a Good Thing.

buglawton

Yes for 2015 BBC has this Make It Digital initiative, see the "A season of BBC programmes and online content" section here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2015/make-it-digital

What I'd like is a BBC page where I can see all Make It Digital content listed in one place, especially upcoming and catch-up stuff.