TheMatrix
July 25th, 2011, 02:38 AM
So I was looking through some really old mailing lists for a computer problem a while ago, and I stumbled upon this (http://www.textfiles.com/humor/COMPUTER/figure_1.txt).
It will only make sense in the US, though.
I originally thought of putting this in TJP, but I decided that didn't fit there. But move if necessary. :)
So for you people who aren't familiar with these '80s computer terms, I'll define a couple here:
PEC: Some kind of product/part number
nroff: An early text editor for Unix machines
3B2: A not-so-mini minicomputer, originally developed by AT&T. (Image (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c7/3b15.jpg/320px-3b15.jpg))
Terminal: The standard way of communicating with your computer. Back then it was only text. Believe it or not, your Desktop is nothing but an enhanced Terminal.
Unix: The Operating System that AT&T started developing in 1969. BSD(and Mac, which is based on BSD) are examples of this. Linux is not Unix; rather it is the reverse-engineered version of Unix
VAX: An old computer system developed in the mid '60s.
Shell: The command set used by the operating System. You access it by going to your terminal or "Command Prompt" as you DOS-or-later people would know it.
Bourne shell: (codenamed "bash")The improved version of the original shell
Korn Shell: Never heard of it
C Programming language: The language that many computer programs are written in.
Floating point: The way that you can write a number such as 1.23. Otherwise, it would just be integers(1, 2, 3 ...)
Compiler: A program used to make a piece of code(such as a program written in C) usable by a machine. It will make a another file that any machine with the same/similar specifications can run.
Interpreter: A program that takes a piece of code, but only runs it. It does not make a new file. In the 1980s, interpreters were slower. These days, the difference may be only a few milliseconds(that depends on how big the program is, though).
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Anyways, I thought this was pretty funny. There are more of these stories here (http://www.textfiles.com/humor/COMPUTER/), if you're interested.
I'm sorry if you didn't understand it. Don't hesitate to ask :)
But enjoy the "story" and have a very nice day. Cheers!
It will only make sense in the US, though.
I originally thought of putting this in TJP, but I decided that didn't fit there. But move if necessary. :)
So for you people who aren't familiar with these '80s computer terms, I'll define a couple here:
PEC: Some kind of product/part number
nroff: An early text editor for Unix machines
3B2: A not-so-mini minicomputer, originally developed by AT&T. (Image (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c7/3b15.jpg/320px-3b15.jpg))
Terminal: The standard way of communicating with your computer. Back then it was only text. Believe it or not, your Desktop is nothing but an enhanced Terminal.
Unix: The Operating System that AT&T started developing in 1969. BSD(and Mac, which is based on BSD) are examples of this. Linux is not Unix; rather it is the reverse-engineered version of Unix
VAX: An old computer system developed in the mid '60s.
Shell: The command set used by the operating System. You access it by going to your terminal or "Command Prompt" as you DOS-or-later people would know it.
Bourne shell: (codenamed "bash")The improved version of the original shell
Korn Shell: Never heard of it
C Programming language: The language that many computer programs are written in.
Floating point: The way that you can write a number such as 1.23. Otherwise, it would just be integers(1, 2, 3 ...)
Compiler: A program used to make a piece of code(such as a program written in C) usable by a machine. It will make a another file that any machine with the same/similar specifications can run.
Interpreter: A program that takes a piece of code, but only runs it. It does not make a new file. In the 1980s, interpreters were slower. These days, the difference may be only a few milliseconds(that depends on how big the program is, though).
---------
Anyways, I thought this was pretty funny. There are more of these stories here (http://www.textfiles.com/humor/COMPUTER/), if you're interested.
I'm sorry if you didn't understand it. Don't hesitate to ask :)
But enjoy the "story" and have a very nice day. Cheers!