Pair Programming on ENIAC

Jean Jennings Bartik was one of the first people to program ENIAC. Here is a fantastic interview with her on the occasion of becoming a Computer History Museum Fellow.

I feel that listening to the stories of the people who have been around is such a fundamental aspect of our profession (I suppose of any profession). One thing that I really got a lot from during my first tour was asking everyone how they got started in programming. I heard stories that spanned more years than I've been alive, and stories that are just at their beginning. Learning about people's histories, their attitudes, their way of living was one of the unexpected joys of my time on the road.

In her interview, too, Jean talks about how they pair-programmed while working on ENIAC, and how she thinks it is the best way to program. SWEET! Her comments on pairing start around 22 minutes.

[Thanks to Rachel Appel for the link to the video]