Kopec Explains Softwar‪e‬ David Kopec, Rebecca Kopec

Last week the Supreme Court of the United States made a decision in the case known as Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc. The case centers on whether the use of certain Java technology in Android infringed on Oracle's copyright. In particular, it's concerned with whether Google's reimplementation of Java is legitimate in copying much of the Java standard library's APIs. The legal battle between these tech giants actually began in 2010. For 11 years, the battle has raged back in forth in lower courts over billions of dollars of potential damages. The case also has far-reaching implications for the software industry. Is it "fair use" to reimplement a copyrighted API? If it's not, many software products would be in violation.

Show Notes

Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc. Opinion via supremecourt.gov

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Lisp is the second oldest programming language still in wide use. Designed by John McCarthy in 1958, it introduced several new ideas to the field of programming languages, including but not limited to homoiconicity (code is data), the centrality of the list data structure, and automatic memory management. However, its parentheses heavy syntax and use of prefix notation have proved controversial amongst some programmers. For many decades it was the mainstay of AI research, and it even had entire hardware platforms designed around its efficient execution. Today, Lisp's legacy lives on through its influence on other languages and its modern dialects like Scheme and Clojure.

Show Notes

Episode 11: What is a Programming Language
Lisp via Wikipedia
Scheme via Wikipedia
Clojure via Wikipedia
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs via Wikipedia

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Microsoft became the dominant player in personal computer operating systems through the release of MS-DOS for the IBM PC. Microsoft would go on to license DOS to the many manufacturers building PC clones, eventually reaching a market share upwards of 90% in the personal computer operating system space. MS-DOS was the dominant personal computer operating system of the 1980s and early 1990s. All early versions of Windows were built on top of it. Yet, today, young computer users are often not even aware it existed. What was MS-DOS? Where did it come from? What is its legacy? All of that and some good stories in this episode of Kopec Explains Software.

Show Notes

Episode 16: The Personal Computer Revolution
Episode 22: Why was the IBM PC a Big Deal?
Episode 21: How have UIs Evolved?
CP/M via Wikipedia
MS-DOS via Wikipedia
PCJS Emulator Running DOS in your Browser

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Selecting an Internet Service Provider (ISP) can be difficult if you don't know the terminology. How is connection speed measured? How does download speed differ from upload speed? What is latency? What's a data cap? We talk about all of this and more. Plus, we compare in general terms the different kinds of connection modalities, including dial-up, cable, fiber, satellite, and DSL.

Show Notes

Episode 3: What is a Byte?
Episode 5: How does the Internet work?

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A modern computer doesn't just have one type of memory. It has disk, RAM, CPU caches, CPU registers, and much more. In this episode we dive into the different types of memory and how they work together. We delineate each type by capacity, latency, and permanence. The memory hierarchy is a classic trade-off between space and time. We also discuss other types of memory within our computing systems.

Show Notes

Episode 3: What is a Byte?

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Bugs in computing systems cost billions of dollars and millions of hours of lost productivity each year. In this episode we break down bugs. What are they? What causes them? How can they be prevented? And how are they fixed? We talk about the different types of bugs including hardware bugs, design bugs, and software bugs. We discuss software engineering methodologies to prevent them, safer programming languages, testing, and more.

Show Notes

Episode 30: Cybersecurity with Duane Dunston
Episode 12: Open Source Software
Episode 34: Video Game Distribution and GameStop
Dave and Rebecca's iPhone Police Incident Twitter Thread

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