Programmers at Work - by Susan Lammers (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Programmers at Work... does for budding software writers what the Paris Review interviews did for would-be fiction writers. It provides comfort, inspiration, and a sense of community with those who have already succeeded in the field...it is not to be missed." - Erik Sandberg-Diment, The New York Times

They had 64 kilobytes. They built the world.

At the outset of personal computing, the engineers who invented it had almost nothing to work with -- and used that nothing to create everything. Programmers at Work 40th Anniversary Edition brings together landmark interviews with nineteen of the most influential software architects who ever lived: Charles Simonyi, who shaped modern productivity software at Microsoft; Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston, who invented the spreadsheet; Andy Hertzfeld, who conjured the original Macintosh and fifteen more who wrote the code that changed how humanity thinks, works, and creates.

These interviews are not just retrospectives. They are primary sources -- candid, technical, alive -- capturing how these minds actually worked: how they designed under pressure, wrote code in memory-starved machines, and solved problems that no one had ever encountered before. Their insights are both a history of a revolutionary era and a masterclass in constraint-driven engineering.

As edge computing, IoT, and robotics once again demand that developers do more with radically less, the discipline forged in the 64KB era turns out to be exactly the discipline the future requires. Complete with original program diagrams, algorithms, and code samples, Programmers at Work is the rare technical book that is also a remarkable story -- and the rare history book that is also a working manual.

List of software architects included: Charles Simonyi, Butler Lampson, John Warnock, Gary Kildall, Bill Gates, John Page, C. Wayne Ratliff, Dan Bricklin, Bob Frankston, Jonathan Sachs, Ray Ozzie, Peter Roizen, Bob Carr, Jef Raskin, Andy Hertzfeld, Toru Iwatani, Scott Kim, Jaron Lanier, Michael Hawley

Review Quotes

"Absolutely fascinating collection of interviews....Anyone seriously involved in programming will find the insights riveting." --- Computer Book Review

"Each of the 19 interviews...is like a kind of Crackerjack box--the Utterly Disarming, Frequently Astonishing Insight is the prize."--- Steven Levy, Whole Earth Review

"For anyone who's wondered how (and more interestingly, why) personal-computer software tools are crafted and whether the people who do the work are anything like those cartoon-character nerds of song and story, this is a delightful, insightful book....You'll learn a great deal about the world of dangerous ideas and intellectual challenges, intense commitment and breaking out of the constraints of how-it's-done-here." --- Jim Seymour, syndicated columnist

"Programmers at Work... does for budding software writers what the Paris Review interviews did for would-be fiction writers. It provides comfort, inspiration, and a sense of community with those who have already succeeded in the field...it is not to be missed." --- Erik Sandberg-Diment, The New York Times

"Programmers will enjoy this book for obvious reasons, but sections of the book would be...fascinating to those people who love music, visual arts, writing, and finance." --- Pace Magazine

"Susan Lammers has allowed her subjects to shape the interviews as they like, and their personalities and obsessions pour off every page....For budding programmers, this book is an invaluable tutorial on work habits....For the rest of us, it's a good chance to meet the faces behind the interfaces." --- Macworld

"Susan Lammers has attempted, and brought off in great style, one of these risky but rewarding world of ideas books: a series of gentle, insightful 'let the subject speak' interviews with 19 star programmers....This book is highly recommended--and as interesting a read for the computerphobe as for the computerphile." --- PC Week

About the Author

Susan Lammers is an award-winning writer and entrepreneur. Previously, she has held leadership roles at Microsoft, Corbis, and other startup companies. She currently lives in Seattle.