Ask HN: Good books / resources about the history of computing and comp sci?

6 points by adpirz 10y ago ↗ HN

Just read about the Antikythera mechanism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism) and was curious if there was some canonical pieces regarding the history of computing and computer science as far back as we can trace.

3 comments

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brudgers 10y ago ↗

Knuth covers a fair amount of history with references in Art of Computer Programming.

DanBC 10y ago ↗

These sites may be of interest. They're much more recent than Antikythera.

https://calculating.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/calculators-for...

http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/calculators/1/44

http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/staff/saj/arithmometer/

http://history-computer.com/MechanicalCalculators/Pioneers/L...

http://history-computer.com/CalculatingTools/gadgets.html

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/09/stunningly-intricate...

http://www.vcalc.net/cu.htm

BWStearns 10y ago ↗

Turnings cathedral is a pretty great look at the early development of computers and the Internet and the Princeton/Los alamos groups involved. Also really well written.