Hacker News Reader

Comment by DanBC | Hacker News Reader

I agree.

We expect English Students to study classic texts. It is hard to impossible (especially with legal considerations) for programmers to play the classics, let alone investigate the source code.

It is a very great shame that so much is effectively locked away and going to be lost.

View on HN

The original SimCity Classic source code is open source, and instructors like Chaim Gingold and Mark Sample are actually having their students study (and deconstruct) the source code:

Chaim Gingold, Simulation for Games: http://classes.soe.ucsc.edu/cmps179/Spring13/

Mark Sample, Criminal Code: The Procedural Logic of Crime in Videogames: http://www.samplereality.com/2011/01/14/criminal-code-the-pr...

Prince of Persia's source is also available... https://github.com/jmechner/Prince-of-Persia-Apple-II

When the culmination of the post-labour economy arrives, we'll realize we have no need for the notion of intellectual property either. Star Trek has set the example for us to follow!

We need a heckuva lot of robotics and AI for that to happen. There's no post-labour as long as human labour is still mandatory for survival. It needs to become entirely optional first.

It doesn't have to happen completely. As it is right now, we are facing a growing crisis of unemployment and underemployment. This has been termed "the Great Decoupling":

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/opinion/global/jobs-produc...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com