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Advent of Computing

Advent of Computing

By: Sean Haas
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Welcome to Advent of Computing, the show that talks about the shocking, intriguing, and all too often relevant history of computing. A lot of little things we take for granted today have rich stories behind their creation, in each episode we will learn how older tech has lead to our modern world.Sean Haas 2019 World
Episodes
  • Episode 184 - What Is A Programming Language?

    Episode 184 - What Is A Programming Language?
    Jun 21 2026

    I mean that both in the specific and the abstract. This episode we are looking at APL, which stands for A Programming Language. APL was developed in the mid 50s, but didn't see a working implementation until 1965. It's a language that truly looks like no others, but has some odd parallels to everything from BASIC to LISP to linear algebra.

    Learn APL at: tryapl.org

    https://www.jsoftware.com/papers/APL.htm - A Programming Language
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Dale Biagio - Hello, World!

    Dale Biagio - Hello, World!
    Jun 14 2026

    Dale Biagio(author of Hello, World!) got in touch with me recently. He said he had a book full of short histories of programming languages. Better still, it has sources! How could I resist! In this episode I sit down with Dale to talk about the intersection of technical and human histories.

    You can find more about Hello, World! at Dale's website:

    https://helloworldthebook.com/
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    32 mins
  • Episode 183 - A Digital Gap?

    Episode 183 - A Digital Gap?
    May 31 2026

    I've been browsing old compur surveys and trying to build up a comprehensive data set. What I've found is a little surprising: between late 1945 and 1949 only 10 new computers entered service. Once we get to the 50s that number explodes. What's going on here? What caused the gap between the first digital machines and the explosion of computers in the 50s? In this episode I try to answer that question by finding out just what was going on during this digital gap.

    Like Advent of Computing? Then check out the after show! Adjunct of Computing is now LIVE: YouTube Spotify Apple Podcasts
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    55 mins
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A couple of gripes.
End if
End program_name
End loop Outer_Loop

actually works better than }

It isn't old but just not C-like. Also I use Ada for embedded and desktop and intend to include it in Flutter. Some may want very simple languages and in that sense I agree but Ada could do it all. I disagree with niche languages being anything but languages having faults. The extra effort of learning multiple string types and packages is easier than learning and keeping polished on multiple languages.

Very well researched on Ada

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