theorywatch

Excellent article by Diomidis Spinellis in this month’s IEEE Computer magazine on “The Antikythera Mechanism: A Computer Science Perspective”, an ancient astronomical calculator, first studied by Derek de Solla Price some decades ago (which is why I happen to know about something so esoteric!) What is especially intriguing about this particular article is its suggested use of the Squeak Etoys open source software multimedia authoring environment to illustrate the possible invention and use of the mechanism. Dr. Spinellis also wrote Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective and Code Quality: The Open Source Perspective, both great books for anyone interested in a little less-than-light summer reading!