How PHP Got Its Semicolons

The talk ran really long, but I didn't want it to end! Great talk!

The [nearly] complete history of programming. Fascinating subject, and Sam is both knowledgeable and passionate on the subject. She could have easily talked about any given phase of history for the entire time.

As a veteran unix user I really enjoyed this concise history lesson. It's great to see the links from the distant past connected to the here and now of today's computing environment. Excellent presentation

Even as a non technical person for the most part, this presentation was engaging and full of historical tidbits of interesting knowledge of the history of tech, how far it has come and the possibilities that may exist in the future. Learned a lot of perspective.

If Samantha wanted to do a 3 hour presentation on the History of computing, I would be just as enthralled and engaged with the content as I was in her 60 minute talk!

She did a phenomenal job of engaging the audience, and gave really great insight into the history of computing and programming languages.

I wish it was a longer talk!

Samantha nailed it. Sam herself exemplifies what a principal software engineer *is* whilst drawing all of us into a greater awareness of our own heritage. For example I'd forgotten why C came easily to me. I'd already written a lot of code in ALGOL-60. Semicolons. BNF (at least the Backus part). I was unaware of what Ada Lovelace's contributions truly were, only that a failed/mandated (same thing) language was named in her honor. The tragedy of Alan Turing who gave us so much. Sam stated she loves talking about computing history, but this talk was very much a part of helping build our community, in the sense of showing us our compass.

WOW, That was a cool talk! After a couple days of heavy topics, it was nice to finish up with some "story time". Samantha's enthusiasm and passion for the topic made her an amazing story teller.

Samantha is one of my favorite speakers. It's always so engaging and so exciting to watch. The way she moves on stage demonstrates she knows her topic and is very passionate about educating the audience. I would love to see this presentation at more conferences. It's a very important part of history people should be aware of!

I could have listened to Samantha talk about CS / programming history for a a few more hours easily. You can tell she is passionate about the topic and it translates to a compelling talk. Reminded me of things I knew but had forgotten. Made we want to go back and read up more on a number of topics I've forgot about or just scratched the surface on.