3003: Sandwich Helix

2024-10-25T14:26:55Z

Pazzaz: Add more explanation for alt text

{{comic
| number = 3003
| date = October 25, 2024
| title = Sandwich Helix
| image = sandwich_helix_2x.png
| imagesize = 257x376px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The number one rule of string manipulation is that youâ€™ve got to specify your encodings.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOTWICH HELIX - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic details an important issue in communication: even if the content of your message goes through, there might be important context that is necessary to correctly interpret it.

Communication is a way to convey ideas, and Cueball is explaining a concept of communication he calls a "Sandwich Helix", however when pressed on what that is, he says nobody knows -- indicating that over the years communication has failed to retain the meaning of this supposedly very important concept. The humor is that if this truly was the #1 rule of communication, communication should have been able to retain its meaning.

The fictitious "Sandwich Helix" plays on another concept in communication, the "Compliment Sandwich", wherein a statement of criticism is sandwiched between two complementary statements in order to make the negative statement easier to accept. The difference is that the Compliment Sandwich is a communication technique which is well known and which meaning has not been lost.

The title text contains several randomish characters where an apostrophe should be, as an example of a string that did NOT have its encoding handled properly. It is an example of {{w|Mojibake}}. Some special characters and symbols require a special encoding (such as Unicode, UTF-8, etc.) in order to be stored and displayed properly, and are encoded using the equivalent of multiple characters. If the code to display the text doesn't understand what encoding was used, you can get "garbage" similar to what is in the title text. In this case, the original character was probably <code>’</code>, which when encoded in UTF-8 and decoded in Windows-1252 becomes <code>â€™</code>. Similar garbage is seen in the [[title text]] under [[1683]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Cueball, with his palm out, is standing in front of a class and facing Ponytail and Hairy, who are sitting at their classroom desks.]
:Cueball: Always remember the #1 rule of communication:
:Cueball: ''Sandwich Helix.''
:Ponytail: What does that mean?
:Cueball: Unfortunately, the context has been lost.
:Cueball: But we know the message, and that's the important part.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

Talk:3003: Sandwich Helix

2024-10-25T14:17:28Z

Pazzaz: Remove duplicate

Talk:3003: Sandwich Helix

2024-10-25T14:16:06Z

Pazzaz: Comment: Helix = Helical Model of Communication?

Sandwich presumably refers to {{w|compliment sandwich}}, but I don’t know what the helix is. --[[User:Galaktos|Galaktos]] ([[User talk:Galaktos|talk]]) 14:03, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

: Maybe {{w|Models of communication#Dance}}? --[[User:Galaktos|Galaktos]] ([[User talk:Galaktos|talk]]) 14:12, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

: Maybe [https://www.communicationtheory.org/helical-model-of-communication/ Helical Model of Communication]? [[User:Pazzaz|Pazzaz]] ([[User talk:Pazzaz|talk]]) 14:16, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3003: Sandwich Helix

Talk:3003: Sandwich Helix

Talk:3003: Sandwich Helix