Thank you, Hooman. [BTW, some of you may want to note the spelling of Hooman....] Part 1 was great! I especially appreciated the Pre-history section in Tabriz. As you know the Iranian Autobiography as a genre is very rare so what you're giving us is a real treat. I know it's difficult to expose yourself like this, but I can only encourage you to keep providing the whole story and not hold back any details. In fact, I may have to keep a copy for my virtual Persian Computing Museum. (I just received my first printed Arabic Yeh exhibit this morning as a matter of fact.) In a few years, kiddies will sit down to type Persian and not realize how lucky they are. I've also all along been noting the painful story of those who brought printing and the press to Iran in their day. Please do continue the story as you have time and inclination. And thank you for getting after the other old-timers as well. I've been trying to tell them how important it is to document every detail for years! This is truly one of THE MOST IMPORTANT threads on this list. Thank you again and again for sharing your story! -Connie
On Mon, 7 Jun 2004, Hooman Mehr wrote: > Hi everybody, especially Connie, > > First of all, apologies for not being around for a while. I was kind of > busy with miscellaneous obligations... > > I promised Connie to write something about the history of my > involvement with Persian computing. This is the first part in a series > of posts. It acts as an introduction to establish the context and > background. As such, it is not fully about Persian computing per se. > > OK, here begins my story as a life in the history of Persian computing: > > 1. Pre-history > > In the early eighties, during my high school days in Tabriz, I was > obsessed with thinking about the meaning of life and my mission in > life, playing with cats, studying geometry and modern physics > (Einstein, Heisenberg, etc.), shooting with my air rifle, throwing > knives at any wooden target, touring the city on my bicycle, building > shelves and cabinets for the family and friends, building and tweaking > hand-made Hi-Fi for my sister, building small steam engines with my > cousin, trying to build gunpowder-propelled model rockets with my best > friend, and other weird stuff. Those days I was totally unaware of > girls, my appearance and my (lack of) social behavior. Back then, I > barely knew computers existed, they where completely absent from my > world. This period of my life coincides with the period of war, > full-scale embargo, terrorist attacks, and the government treating > anybody who wasn't an insider like the enemy. > > I barely thought about what career I would like to pursue, but was > inclined to become a mechanical engineer. Then I graduated high school > in 1984 and immediately took the university entrance exam and landed in > Sharif University of Technology as a student of civil engineering. It > was quite a surprise and disappointment for me. I disliked civil > engineering, but I did a foolish thing and put it as my first choice > because of the pressure from teachers, friends and family. I was quite > confident that I wouldn’t be accepted in Sharif University. I was > really surprised when I learned that I had the 14th grade for the > position. I expected the others to do far better than me. > > So, when I arrived at my dorm room, I wasn't very enthusiastic. What I > found there didn't help either. I found a stinky mess in the room with > three depressed guys who were hit by the Cultural Revolution and > closing of the universities for almost two years, not to mention mostly > arbitrary changes to the course syllabus and the fact that the room was > designed for two students not four. I was dragging my foot when it came > to studying civil engineering and was in the verge of dropping out of > school and going to the war front when I discovered the joy of > programming and computers. > > It was the second semester and we had a basic programming course on > FORTRAN 66. We were punching cards and putting our deck of cards in the > queue to be batch processed by Control Data CDC-6000 mainframe > remaining from the seventies. We would get the printout of the program > source and its output a few hours later. All of my programs ran > correctly in the first try and my teacher kept all of my projects as > outstanding examples of good solutions and stylish programming. He kept > asking me whether I had prior experience with computers and refused to > believe that I didn't. > > After that course, my life was changed forever. I started spending most > of my time in the computer science department, computer lab, and its > library. I continued the rest of my days in the university barely > passing my courses in civil engineering and focusing my energy on > programming and computer science instead. For those who don't know: I > didn't have the choice of changing my study, because of the very > limited capacities and the sheer resistance of the authorities thinking > they are saving me from ruining my career... > > I was introduced to home and personal computers in this period. The > first personal computer I used was NCR Decision Mate 5. It was a wonder > in its time: A generic MS-DOS machine with two 360K 5 1/4" floppy disk > drives and an astonishing 256KB of main memory with high resolution > eight color 640x400 pixel display (some of them with bilingual keyboard > and Persian character set). I felt like the master of the universe > sitting at DM5 and programming with Turbo Pascal 2.0. After a while, it > was overshadowed by IBM PC AT clones assembled by Iran System with high > resolution monochrome displays and a different built-in Persian > character set -- yes, the same infamous Iran-System character set [2]. > > It was in 1986 when the cover of a magazine in the library grabbed my > attention. The title was "The Mac Is Back" with a picture of Mac Plus > and LaserWriter on its cover. I read about Mac and its graphical user > interface and WYSIWYG display and got hooked without even seeing a Mac > in person. It took two more years until I finally started working on a > Mac. > > During the above period I wasn't aware of Persian computing and didn't > realize its importance. It took me working part time in a business > environment, namely Sabir Co., [1] to realize the issue. It was 1988 in > Sabir that I got introduced to Pishkar and Sayeh of Sina Soft [3]. Read > their history in Shabakeh Monthly issue 39 [4] to get the outlook of > Persian computing from an even older and different perspective. > > My involvement with Persian Computing as an influencer began with my > career in Sibestan, the first independent marketing company of Apple > Computer Inc. in Iran. The story of Sibestan is the subject of the next > part. I can't promise when I'll write it, but I hope it will be soon. > > Endnotes: > > [1] Sabir is a government owned company specialized in dam construction. > > [2] What I am referring to as a "character set" is actually a "glyph > set". I am using the wrong term to emphasize how it was perceived then. > The concept of glyph vs. character was unknown to most people at that > time, including myself. > > [3] Pishkar was a basic word processor with support for a limited set > of dot-matrix printers and was bundled with a hardware (an 8-bit ISA > card) that would hack into the display ROM of the computer and replace > the native character set with Pishkar character set -- or more > accurately glyph set. A special hardware was needed for Persian > support, because the commonly used graphics cards at that time (CGA, > MDA, Hercules Mono.) couldn't handle downloaded display fonts. EGA > cards were very expensive and usually implied a CRT upgrade. The card > also doubled as the copy protection scheme for the software. So, they > continued to bundle the card after EGA or even VGA cards became the > norm. > > Sayeh was a later derivative that provided services for > semi-transparent simple Persian input into existing DOS applications. > The funny thing is that the glyph set in Sayeh was not fully compatible > with that of Pishkar because of some limitations in the existing > applications that couldn't deal with a couple of code points used in > Pishkar's glyph set. > > The main difference between Pishkar/Sayeh glyph set and Iran System > gyph set was that Iran System was strictly mono-spaced and one byte per > glyph but Pishkar/Sayeh used special tail glyphs to better display wide > glyphs (using two glyph parts). The reason that ultimately Iran System > prevailed was its relative simplicity from a programmer's point of > view. From a user's perspective, Pishkar/Sayeh solution was preferable > because it was much more readable. > > [4] From a historical perspective, the articles in that issue are very > interesting. I found out about them on the list (there was a post by > Saber Soleimani). The articles are not officially online, and I am not > aware of any other online options for obtaining it. If you are > interested and don't have access to the articles, please let me know. > > - Hooman Mehr > > P.S.: Am I too far off topic? Too self centered? Please provide > feedback. > > P.S. 2: Roozbeh, and other old-timers: How about starting to write down > your own memories concerning history of Persian Computing as well? > > > _______________________________________________ > PersianComputing mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.sharif.edu/mailman/listinfo/persiancomputing > _______________________________________________ PersianComputing mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.sharif.edu/mailman/listinfo/persiancomputing
