Prefer primary evidence.
Use original papers, manuals, code, interviews, archives and contemporaneous records whenever they exist. Institutional secondary sources remain valuable and are labeled honestly.
READMEAbout / Editorial protocol
About CodeHistory.org:
A Living, Versioned Archive.
CodeHistory documents programming as a living human practice. Sources, revisions, contested claims and corrections are part of the product—not footnotes to it.
01 / Principles
Version the story.
Mark contested claims.
“First,” “invented,” and “pioneer” are often more complex than a plaque suggests. Priority claims should state scope, evidence type and uncertainty.
Separate entities.
People, organizations, methods, milestones and publications receive distinct records so relationships can be represented without collapsing identities.
Keep the present provisional.
The closer we are to an event, the less historical distance we have. Contemporary entries show their evidence and remain open to revision.
02 / Research method
Evidence has a type.
CodeHistory distinguishes contemporaneous primary records, later first-person recollections, institutional histories, independent retrospective reporting and editorial interpretation. A strong source is not automatically a primary source.
PRIMARYOriginal paper, code, manual, patent, transcript, contemporary announcement or artifact.
RECOLLECTIONLater first-person account by a participant. Valuable, but shaped by memory and hindsight.
INSTITUTIONALMuseum, university, standards body or project history synthesizing records.
INDEPENDENTReporting or scholarship produced outside the organization making the claim.
03 / Accountability
Every research page should say who stands behind it.
Named authors write under the CodeHistory editorial system, while the CodeHistory Research Desk is responsible for research standards, source discipline, review, revision notes and corrections. Articles expose publication date, research review, sources and revision history, and the archive invites stronger evidence when it appears.