Episode

Episode 173 - Hybrid Programming

Podcast
Advent of Computing
Published
Dec 29, 2025
Duration seconds
3779
Processing state
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https://adventofcomputing.libsyn.com/episode-173-hybrid-programming
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Markdown
/podcast/advent-of-computing-497186/episode-173-hybrid-programming.md

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Summary

Hybrid computers are composed of a digital computer linked to an analog computer. That leads to an interesting challenge: how do you write software for one of these things? The analog side actively resists programming, while the digital side can't comprehend of continuous values. In the 1960s specialized languages appeared that tried to bridge this divide. And, I assure you, they are not at all like what you would expect.