Ask HN: Why were lengthy type‑in programs legal in the '80s? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why were lengthy type‑in programs legal in the '80s?

2 pointsamichail20 comments

Couldn’t governments have mandated that computer magazines include a disk with every program so readers wouldn’t have to type them in?

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That's a strange issue to have a government mandate. No one was compelled to type those programs in if they didn't want to. I came from the time of seeing those in magazines, and most I never bothered to type in because it wasn't that interested in what they did. Some I did type in because it's a good learning experience especially when you have to go back and debug where you mistype something.

If governments try and restrict this, which is effectively a manual instruction method for achieving an outcome how many other manual instruction methods for achieving an outcome would also get inadvertently restricted? I am quite curious at the basis for the question around the legality of it because that strikes me as very odd, and I'd really like to know the thought process.

The EU already regulates the charging port on your mobile phone. Typing in a lengthy program is far more inconvenient than dealing with a less‑than‑ideal port.

That's comparing two quite dissimilar things. The charging port on your phone is about standardization and interoperability between devices and with external devices. Governments typically have to do this because the industry fails utterly to do this even though it always benefits the industries to have standardization. You can simply look back at a plain telephone, those interfaces have been standardized and regulated. Electricity is also another thing that has been standardized and regulated. This breaks up monopolistic ecosystems and encourages innovation by having this standard in which many things can operate on. In some cases the industry comes together and forms a working group and agrees upon standards and everything is great in some cases, like Apple and they're charging port, they staunchly refuse to come together in a common agreement and this is really where governments need to step in because it makes it better for everyone. It always boggles my mind that companies actively work at harming their own future business growth.

I am really not sure how typing in a program that has been written on paper relates to any of those things that require standardization for interoperability.

My question was less about could they do it because governments can regulate all kinds of crazy things. It was more about why this would even come up as a thought and a proposal in your mind. Because the marketplace would actually solve for this problem all by itself. Distributing a program on media has an increased cost to it as opposed to just printing it out on some paper. Back in the day when these things were popular, if a given program was popular enough someone would write it down save it to a disk and distribute it for a nominal fee.

That software is under copyright and distributing it after you type it in would be illegal.

You still haven't answered my question. You're just kind of avoiding it at this point. Maybe because you don't have an answer or maybe because as you logically think through it it becomes kind of a strange position to even think about.

We didn't have to type them in; we got to type them in. We paid for those magazines because we wanted those programs (along with the rest of the content). It was just a way to distribute them, especially when many computer owners didn't own a disk drive and there were different incompatible sizes.

Should magazines also have to send someone to read the magazine to you if you have poor eyesight or don't know the language? What an odd question.

It was a sort of way to learn code. What does this asm opcode do or this basic function do. As you typed it in. In a way it was like long form watching gif images stream in during the early internet.

Modems we expensive and compuserve or the source charged an hourly rate. If you lived in a city with a node it wasn’t horrible but with long distance it was obscene.

I remember when analog computing came up with a checksum program to check the listing. Game changer. You could be assured your work wasn’t in vein. Pretty soon all the magazines had one and typing in the code was a way to get a cheap game compared to $30-40 for a rom game or disk. All it cost was some time at night playing with your computer. Typing in code to see your machine do something you’d never seen before. A technique or trick. A magical time.

Typing in machine code via MLX wasn't educational though.

Why are cookbooks legal? Shouldn't they just include the food so that you don't have to cook it?

Well, first, there's no way that such a mandate could work. In that day, there were no standardized forms of media storage for the consumer. Disks themselves were very, very rare (and expensive) and most disk systems couldn't read disks written by a different one. Most consumer software was distributed on cassette tape or in the form of printed listings.

Second, why would this sort of mandate even be desirable?

It's a health issue. Having people spend hours typing in programs is not good for their health.

First, who says it's not good for their health? Second, again, no one was "having" people type them in. People chose to do it because they wanted to.

I guess there's no interaction so small and unimportant that you can't find someone somewhere who wants to make a law regulating it.

Why is this an issue in 2025? Are you someone whose health was negatively affected by typing in programs back in the 80s?

It didn't affect my health, and not that of anyone else that I knew of back in the day.

Besides, nobody was forced to type anything in. People did it because they wanted to and enjoyed it. For many people, it was a large part of how they learned to program. If anyone had health concerns, they could easily just not type the programs in.

I would have strongly objected to the notion of regulation about this because it would have effectively makes publishing source code in printed form illegal. Aside from ethical considerations, that would have been a tremendous loss to society in general.

Why would any '80's government have bothered paying attention to this issue?

How many problems would there be disks that got damaged or lost in the mail?

How often were those type-in programs available for download (on a BBS, or similar system) for those who cared about this issue?

Governments didn't care about that in those days (just as they don't care now). Anyway, the cost for doing that would have bumped up the price of the magazines. Would readers have paid that? Some, maybe.

As for including a disk with the magazines, not every computer in those days had a disk drive and not everyone owned an external drive. The people I knew with computers used a cassette tape deck to load and store programs or they'd buy plug-in cartridges.

It was a very different time. Some people bought early computers without disk drives, or even tape drives. You are now mandating people buy extra equipment they may not be able to afford.

Why even ask this question? The 1980s were a long time ago. Something like this isn't a problem these days.

The OP has a history of posting nonsensical and illogical questions like this on Hacker News. Wondering if they're doing this just to try to bump up their karma or if they're actually spending their time thinking about this sort of silliness.

I kinda like his questions. Yes, they're very often nonsensical and/or a bit silly, but sometimes they inspire lateral thinking or the questioning of unconscious assumptions. I appreciate that. I just ignore the ones that don't make me think.

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