The tears of Donald Knuth

Reviewer: Barrett Hazeltine

In a response to a lecture by Donald Knuth (available at http://kailathlecture.stanford.edu/2014KailathLecture.html), which was in turn a response to a paper by Martin Campbell-Kelly [1], Campbell-Kelly pointed out that the coder's approach to writing the history of software had been dominant in 1990, but dwindled and vanished in 1997. Campbell-Kelly characterized the change as an "evolution" of the field. This evolution is reflected in the major increase in the ratio of professional historians to computer scientists writing in the Annals of the History of Computing . Knuth worries that this trend "dumbs down" the history of computing, especially computer science. In fact, reading Campbell-Kelly's paper brought tears to Knuth's eyes. Haigh points out that the paper addressed the software industry, not the academic field of computer science. Haigh also points out that, in fact, few scholarly articles have been written about the history of computer science. He describes how conditions in the academic world combine to make a career in the history of computer science difficult for professional historians. A history of the kind desired by Knuth would have to be written by computer scientists attached to a computer science department. Such academicians are presently rare, although positive signs are emerging. This paper will be of the most interest to someone who wants to know about the background required to write about computer science, yet it is easily read by others. Online Computing Reviews Service