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We, Programmers: A Chronicle of Coders from Ada to AI
The Journey of Programming and Its From the Birth of Code to the Rise of AI
In We, Programmers , software legend Robert C. Martin--"Uncle Bob"--dives deep into the world of programming, exploring the lives of the groundbreaking pioneers who built the foundation of modern computing. From Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace to Alan Turing, Grace Hopper, and Dennis Ritchie, Martin shines a light on the figures whose brilliance and perseverance changed the world.
This memoir-infused narrative provides a rich human history filled with technical insights for developers, examining the coding breakthroughs that shaped computing at the bit and byte level. By connecting these technical achievements with the human stories behind them, Martin gives readers a rare glimpse into the struggles and triumphs of the people who made modern technology possible. Depression, failure, and ridicule--these pioneers faced it all, and their stories intertwine with the evolution of computing itself as the field evolved from its humble beginnings to the cloud-based AIs of today. With the rise of AI, Martin also explores how this technology is transforming the future of programming and the ethical challenges that come with it.
Notable topics include
Understanding programming's roots and how they shaped today's tech landscape The human side of coding pioneers--what drove them, and what they overcame Key programming breakthroughs, from the early days of assembly to the rise of object-oriented languages The pivotal role World War II played in advancing computer science Insights and predictions regarding the ethical considerations surrounding AI and the future of programming For programmers, coders, and anyone fascinated by the intersection of people and machines, this guide to the history, humanity, and technology behind the code that powers our world today is a fascinating and essential read.
Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.
In We, Programmers , software legend Robert C. Martin--"Uncle Bob"--dives deep into the world of programming, exploring the lives of the groundbreaking pioneers who built the foundation of modern computing. From Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace to Alan Turing, Grace Hopper, and Dennis Ritchie, Martin shines a light on the figures whose brilliance and perseverance changed the world.
This memoir-infused narrative provides a rich human history filled with technical insights for developers, examining the coding breakthroughs that shaped computing at the bit and byte level. By connecting these technical achievements with the human stories behind them, Martin gives readers a rare glimpse into the struggles and triumphs of the people who made modern technology possible. Depression, failure, and ridicule--these pioneers faced it all, and their stories intertwine with the evolution of computing itself as the field evolved from its humble beginnings to the cloud-based AIs of today. With the rise of AI, Martin also explores how this technology is transforming the future of programming and the ethical challenges that come with it.
Notable topics include
Understanding programming's roots and how they shaped today's tech landscape The human side of coding pioneers--what drove them, and what they overcame Key programming breakthroughs, from the early days of assembly to the rise of object-oriented languages The pivotal role World War II played in advancing computer science Insights and predictions regarding the ethical considerations surrounding AI and the future of programming For programmers, coders, and anyone fascinated by the intersection of people and machines, this guide to the history, humanity, and technology behind the code that powers our world today is a fascinating and essential read.
Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.
480 pages, Paperback
Published November 30, 2024
45 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 9, 2025
Great synopsis of the relatively short history of computer science and the people behind the field. Casts a wide enough net to go over the major turning points in the profession, while still leaving room to give some chapters to slightly lesser-known people and achievements. Probably most useful as a primer for the 21st century born computer programmers.
February 21, 2025
I read an early draft last year, and this review is based on what I read back then.
This is a departure for Robert C. Martin. While his other books are about code, processes for programming, or principles for software design and architecture, this one is part history, part memoir.
The first two-thirds of the book is a history of early computing, up to approximately the 1960s. Then comes a part which is Martin's own professional story, and lastly a shorter part the gives some perspective on the future.
Since the history lesson is the most comprehensive, I'll mostly focus on that part. I'm not an academic historian, but I'm interested in history in general, and tend to read a few non-fiction books on various historical topics every year. Granted, popular histories, nothing too academic. Still, this has made me expect a historical text to have a certain style to it, as well as a particular system of citations.
Martin is no historian, and it is of course a personal preference, but I did find his history a bit too 'loose' to my tastes. That said, the chapter about Grace Hopper was compelling. Some of the other chapters, surprisingly, I found too technical to my tastes. To be clear, I'm no stranger to technical texts, having read textbooks on compiler design, predicate logic, linear algebra, etc. Again, it's probably a personal preference, but some of the details about how how to format punch cards were too much information for my taste.
If you're interested in the early history of computing and software development, this book isn't a bad place to start. As Alan Kay said,
Some of the persons and stories, I was already aware of, while others were new to me. It's the history part of the book that, in my opinion, holds the greatest potential for being of lasting value.
Having followed Martin on the sidelines for decades, I found his personal journey compelling, too, but I could imagine that this might be of less interest to the general reader.
The look towards the future I didn't fancy much. In general, I tend to ignore most prophesies, regardless of who utters them, because they tend to always be wrong. To be fair to Martin, he explicitly only speculates. He's not being absolute about the future, but his biases clearly show here. Everyone has biases, so I don't blame him, but, contrary to him, I find it highly unlikely that the future of programming is some kind of LISP dialect.
All in all, as I'm quoted (with permission) in the book: "I can't think of any other book that provides such a sweeping overview of the history of programming." They misspelled my last name, though.
This is a departure for Robert C. Martin. While his other books are about code, processes for programming, or principles for software design and architecture, this one is part history, part memoir.
The first two-thirds of the book is a history of early computing, up to approximately the 1960s. Then comes a part which is Martin's own professional story, and lastly a shorter part the gives some perspective on the future.
Since the history lesson is the most comprehensive, I'll mostly focus on that part. I'm not an academic historian, but I'm interested in history in general, and tend to read a few non-fiction books on various historical topics every year. Granted, popular histories, nothing too academic. Still, this has made me expect a historical text to have a certain style to it, as well as a particular system of citations.
Martin is no historian, and it is of course a personal preference, but I did find his history a bit too 'loose' to my tastes. That said, the chapter about Grace Hopper was compelling. Some of the other chapters, surprisingly, I found too technical to my tastes. To be clear, I'm no stranger to technical texts, having read textbooks on compiler design, predicate logic, linear algebra, etc. Again, it's probably a personal preference, but some of the details about how how to format punch cards were too much information for my taste.
If you're interested in the early history of computing and software development, this book isn't a bad place to start. As Alan Kay said,
"But pop culture holds a disdain for history. Pop culture is all about identity and feeling like you’re participating. It has nothing to do with cooperation, the past or the future—it’s living in the present. I think the same is true of most people who write code for money. They have no idea where [their culture came from]"If, on the other hand, you're one of the rare and exalted people who do care, Martin's book gives you a good overview in one place.
Some of the persons and stories, I was already aware of, while others were new to me. It's the history part of the book that, in my opinion, holds the greatest potential for being of lasting value.
Having followed Martin on the sidelines for decades, I found his personal journey compelling, too, but I could imagine that this might be of less interest to the general reader.
The look towards the future I didn't fancy much. In general, I tend to ignore most prophesies, regardless of who utters them, because they tend to always be wrong. To be fair to Martin, he explicitly only speculates. He's not being absolute about the future, but his biases clearly show here. Everyone has biases, so I don't blame him, but, contrary to him, I find it highly unlikely that the future of programming is some kind of LISP dialect.
All in all, as I'm quoted (with permission) in the book: "I can't think of any other book that provides such a sweeping overview of the history of programming." They misspelled my last name, though.
July 28, 2025
I have picked this book mainly in order to know what a famous programmer and one of the biggest industry contributors thinks about the AI hype.
He gives a detailed historical analysis of hardware and software development that quite naturally completes his thoughts on our future that I fundamentally share. He has been in the industry for 50 years, so all these historical and industry detailes are basically his own experience.
LLM is a strong technology that may reshape the world. But LLM is not Skynet or AGI. Very far away. There are obvious limitations.
Moreover, hardware development would probably face the same situation as we have had with aviation - it has had no major technological shift, yet services and flying getting better. The current rate of 3b instructions per sec may stay with us for quite long time.
As he is a guru in software, he argues that software development as it is will be fundamentally the same in 50 years, yet, with smaller number of programming languages.
Will see.
Why not 5 stars? Almost each chapter he starts with a brief description of the world situation at that time, naming wars, terrorist attacks in different parts of the world etc. He writes book in December 2023 and does not say a word about the brutal war against Ukraine.
He gives a detailed historical analysis of hardware and software development that quite naturally completes his thoughts on our future that I fundamentally share. He has been in the industry for 50 years, so all these historical and industry detailes are basically his own experience.
LLM is a strong technology that may reshape the world. But LLM is not Skynet or AGI. Very far away. There are obvious limitations.
Moreover, hardware development would probably face the same situation as we have had with aviation - it has had no major technological shift, yet services and flying getting better. The current rate of 3b instructions per sec may stay with us for quite long time.
As he is a guru in software, he argues that software development as it is will be fundamentally the same in 50 years, yet, with smaller number of programming languages.
Will see.
Why not 5 stars? Almost each chapter he starts with a brief description of the world situation at that time, naming wars, terrorist attacks in different parts of the world etc. He writes book in December 2023 and does not say a word about the brutal war against Ukraine.
July 27, 2025
I am a software engineer with almost 10 years of experience.
Never got the chance to read a book on the evolution of this field and to consider the struggles that the pioneera endured to promote their brilliant ideas and to develop the study and science of computer science.
My taste is to have the material on the work of pioneera more detailed but I can jump to othervreferenc s for that given that the broad contributions and the context are given in this book
the book was engaging from the beginning up to and including the part on extreme programming. the finale was almost entirely made of commonalities which I could have missed without regretting the loss of information presented there
Never got the chance to read a book on the evolution of this field and to consider the struggles that the pioneera endured to promote their brilliant ideas and to develop the study and science of computer science.
My taste is to have the material on the work of pioneera more detailed but I can jump to othervreferenc s for that given that the broad contributions and the context are given in this book
the book was engaging from the beginning up to and including the part on extreme programming. the finale was almost entirely made of commonalities which I could have missed without regretting the loss of information presented there
March 5, 2025
Some interesting tidbits, but overall too familiar stuff in the first part-Babbage, Ada, Turing, Grace Hopper…
It seems it was more a “cover” for the second - author’ autobiography. Unfortunately, he dedicated too much time to his sysadmin/customer development experience which I’m not sure is interesting for anybody outside of his extended family.
And very few pages to the interesting stuff about Agile Manifesto, etc., from 90s and 00s.
His “future” predictions are funny…with Lisp ruling the world, lol.
It seems it was more a “cover” for the second - author’ autobiography. Unfortunately, he dedicated too much time to his sysadmin/customer development experience which I’m not sure is interesting for anybody outside of his extended family.
And very few pages to the interesting stuff about Agile Manifesto, etc., from 90s and 00s.
His “future” predictions are funny…with Lisp ruling the world, lol.
April 6, 2025
Nice book about programming history. Great stories, nice anegdotes and many references. I recommend watching the videos that the book references for better understanding and more in depth information.
March 18, 2025
Laden with facts, the first half is entertaining. I don't think the second half is worth reading. It's a history lesson overall.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews