Playpens for Mind Children: Continuities in the Practice of Programming

Like most activities, the practice of computer programming involves real people trying to get their work done, and it has a complicated, if relatively short, history in its modern manifestation. This article addresses some of the early computer science discussions of programming and theories about how it should proceed. The article closes with a discussion of the more recent turn to so-called agile methods, demonstrating that some of the problems and practices of computer programming demonstrate a remarkable continuity over forty years in spite of much-promoted new approaches and changes in the computing environment.