https://github.com/fare/evo2017

From Software Creationism to Software Evolutionism
https://github.com/fare/evo2017

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From Software Creationism to Software Evolutionism

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/fare/evo2017
• Owner: fare
• Created: 2017-01-25T13:42:21.000Z (about 8 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2021-12-28T23:48:44.000Z (about 3 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-01-09T16:51:34.829Z (20 days ago)
• Language: CSS
• Size: 10.8 MB
• Stars: 8
• Watchers: 2
• Forks: 1
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

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README

        
From Software Creationism to Software Evolutionism

==================================================

Abstract

--------

The lives we live are weaved around the stories we tell.

This is true of programmers as of all humans.

And the greatest of all stories are *origin stories*.

I will examine the origin stories of software,

from simple tales of software creation to elaborate theories of software evolution.

And I will relate these stories to the tools they explain

and the technological realities we bring about by following them.

I will conclude by reflecting on storytelling,

on the progression of the above stories, and on what lies beyond

Stories are fun! And they subtly inform us. Let me tell you a good story…

Background

----------

I gave [this talk (video)](https://youtu.be/wpkHSi_gXSM)

at the [Salon des Refusés 2017](https://refuses.github.io/)

(a.k.a. SDR2017, with the conference subtitle

"Dialectics for new computer science", at the margins of Programming 2017).

I reused it at the [LambdaConf 2017 Unconference](https://youtu.be/sTTg3XgJAJg),

and then at the

[NYC N-Languages Meetup](https://www.meetup.com/nlanguages/events/238264966/).

I gave previous versions of this talk

at [ENS in 2005](http://fare.livejournal.com/95576.html),

at [MSLUG in 2009](https://webmail.iro.umontreal.ca/pipermail/mslug/2009-January/000348.html) and

at [LispNYC in 2014](https://www.meetup.com/LispNYC/events/171997342/)

([video](https://vimeo.com/152109286));

proposals to give other versions of this talk got rejected

by Onward! 2009 and Onward! 2014.

Viewing the article

-------------------

I rewrote and cut down a

[previous writeup](http://fare.tunes.org/computing/evolutionism.html)

to fit the 9000 words limit alloted by SDR:

I added a big disclaimer in the introduction;

I expanded slightly the theory of evolutionism while shortening the text;

I substantially rewrote the latter parts, both adding and removing material.

Here are an HTML and a PDF version of this essay:

  * http://fare.tunes.org/files/evolutionism/evo2017.html

  * http://fare.tunes.org/files/evolutionism/evo2017.pdf

Talk

----

Here is the [video of the talk at SDR 2017](https://youtu.be/wpkHSi_gXSM) and

a [video of the slightly longer talk at λC2017](https://youtu.be/sTTg3XgJAJg).

The slides are in

[refuses2017-slides.html](https://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://github.com/fare/evo2017/blob/master/refuses2017-slides.html).

Commentary that gives meaning to these slides is in the source code at

[refuses2017-slides.rkt](refuses2017-slides.rkt).

Notes

-----

The article can be compiled using PLT Racket's Scribble, from

[evo2017.scrbl](https://github.com/fare/evo2017/blob/master/evo2017.scrbl).

See the various [Makefile](https://github.com/fare/evo2017/blob/master/Makefile) targets.