[SPG_Active_Members] Ensmenger's "The Computer Boys Take Over" MIT Press 2010

[Tim Shoppa]

Al Kossow <kossow at computerhistory.org> wrote:
> FINALLY someone has published a book that clearly explains that "Software"
> is more than programming, and that the history of software is more than
> "heroic programmers" and programs created by computer manufacturers.
>
> I hope we have the chance to have Prof. Ensmenger give a CHM evening talk
> some time.

I read the book in the past week, and I think Prof. Ensmenger goes much
beyond the "heroic programmer" model and gives a very scholarly treatment
of the labor economics of the programming profession through at least the
50's and 60's. It seems at the beginning to be written largely to explain software
engineering to labor economists (maybe this is left over from the
original PhD thesis), but he goes way beyond that by then
actually applying the two to each other. 

It's heavily driven by the popular themes of the "software crisis"
identified in those times, but instead of just signing up to the themes
he actually treats the declaration of crisis critically, and is especially
critical of those who sold solutions or based entire academic industries
around the crisis. Some of the solution sold seem to have only made the
crisis more real, ironically!

There is a deep and critical look at the academic computer science
as it arose, my impression being that Knuth's definition won big in the
end but that many programs initially had different concepts of their
own existence and purpose. He
also briefly (and I think this is very important) points out the
anti-computer-science academic programs and their relevance.

He doesn't go very much past the 60's, but he astutely shows how several
more recent mini-crisis/solutions (e.g. OOP, Y2K, certification programs)
are again cashing in on the same old definition of a crisis.

Overall I don't think it's nearly as fun reading as, say, Brooks's _Mythical
Man Month_ (which he does quote heavily), Weinberg's books (again quoted
heavily)  or Yourdon's books about the
software professionals in relation to big business, and I think I
would recommend those to others first. But my efforts to
go beyond both the witty and scholarly citations and get to Ensmenger's
critiques did pay off.

Tim.