Drink Me, Eat Me, README: What Programmers Learned from Alice in Wonderland

Listeners, please note that this episode was recorded before the show’s name changed to Found in the Machine, so you’ll hear the old name in this episode. 

Every software project has one. It's easy to scroll past. Most of the time it's just a manual telling you system requirements, installation steps, and known bugs. 

But the README file owes a debt to Lewis Carroll, and a quiet trick built into its name that has been manipulating computers for decades. 

In this episode, we follow the README from its earliest appearances through the conventions that made it a standard, and to the programmers who decided it could be much more than documentation.

In this episode

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland- the literary origin programmers point to as inspiration
• The ASCII trick - the quiet reason README is written in all capitals
• The printer in the woods - a README that went somewhere unexpected

Episode Music

• James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0
  • "Dasein" 
  • "Scarecrow" by James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0
  • "Found Poetry" by James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0

Additional Reading

Raymond, E. S. (Ed.). (2003). README file. In The Jargon File (Version 4.4.7). http://catb.org/jargon/html/R/README-file.html

[ADG]. (ca. 1981). README.TXT [Software documentation, DECUS program 20-0079]. DECUS. https://pdp-10.trailing-edge.com/decus_20tap3_198111/01/decus/20-0079/readme.txt.html

Yokota, E. [eed3si9n]. (2012, October 19). README [GitHub Gist]. https://gist.github.com/eed3si9n/3920236

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Found in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin, each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world. 

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