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The Computer - My Life
Konrad Zuse is one of the great pioneers of the computer age. He created the first stored-program computer in 1941 and continued to build machines for a quarter-century, as well as writing books and articles. This is his autobiography - lively, witty, full of fascinating asides.
260 pages, Hardcover
First published November 30, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 12, 2020
A unique book, a story from the birth of the computer era, written by one of his major actors. Unfortunately, the English version suffers from the translation. There are several references that are really hard to understand without some knowledge about the German language and Germany.
As an example, Zuse talks about the computing needs of Hamburg's "Hochbahn Gesellschaft", but there is no information in the text that helps the reader figure out that it's the national railway company, nor why the needs of Hamburg in the middle of last century were particular.
And this happens all through the text, lots of German names for various companies and administrations, and no context to help figure out what they are. Expect to spend a lot of time on Google while reading this book.
Another issue is that the chronology is all over the place, Zuse constantly goes from one model to another, from one trip to another, going back and forth through his career. It is almost impossible to keep track of which era he's talking about at any given time. Was that bit in the 50s? The 60s? The 70s? On one page he's completely broke and sheltering in a small village during the war without the ability to place a phone call, on the next he's a successful businessman running a multinational company, and even after reading the whole book I still don't have a clear understanding of what happened between the two.
Finally, the fact that all Zuse computers where numbered (in a non-sequential way), makes it also pretty hard to keep track of what's happening. There is at least one obvious error where he's talking about one model but mixes it up with another one.
Still a fantastic book, but it's a bit rough.
As an example, Zuse talks about the computing needs of Hamburg's "Hochbahn Gesellschaft", but there is no information in the text that helps the reader figure out that it's the national railway company, nor why the needs of Hamburg in the middle of last century were particular.
And this happens all through the text, lots of German names for various companies and administrations, and no context to help figure out what they are. Expect to spend a lot of time on Google while reading this book.
Another issue is that the chronology is all over the place, Zuse constantly goes from one model to another, from one trip to another, going back and forth through his career. It is almost impossible to keep track of which era he's talking about at any given time. Was that bit in the 50s? The 60s? The 70s? On one page he's completely broke and sheltering in a small village during the war without the ability to place a phone call, on the next he's a successful businessman running a multinational company, and even after reading the whole book I still don't have a clear understanding of what happened between the two.
Finally, the fact that all Zuse computers where numbered (in a non-sequential way), makes it also pretty hard to keep track of what's happening. There is at least one obvious error where he's talking about one model but mixes it up with another one.
Still a fantastic book, but it's a bit rough.
May 23, 2007
Konrad Zuse was a german civil engineer who, during WWII, essentially invented the computer & some programming theory in parallel with similar inventions from the Allied nations.
He gives some focus to the effects of the war on his work; especially the prototypes destroyed due to it. He also spent a good amount of time talking about a theory of programming languages. He designed a language called the "plan calculus" that is more thoroughly grounded in boolean algebra (instead of numeric operations).
Overall, the book is a fascinating look at Zuse. It's both amazing (in the 1930's, he theorized that one day his computing machines would be able to play chess, and win!) and sad (even up to his death in 1995, some of his ideas received short thrift).
He gives some focus to the effects of the war on his work; especially the prototypes destroyed due to it. He also spent a good amount of time talking about a theory of programming languages. He designed a language called the "plan calculus" that is more thoroughly grounded in boolean algebra (instead of numeric operations).
Overall, the book is a fascinating look at Zuse. It's both amazing (in the 1930's, he theorized that one day his computing machines would be able to play chess, and win!) and sad (even up to his death in 1995, some of his ideas received short thrift).
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews