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| | ==Explanation== | | ==Explanation== |
| − | In this sequel to [[1755: Old Days]], which was released more than three and a half years earlier, the conversation continues, as if no time has passed, between (young) [[Cueball]] and (old) [[Hairbun]] about computer programming in the past. As in the first comic in [[:Category:Old Days|this series]], Cueball, having only a faint idea of just how difficult and byzantine programming was "in the old days", asks Hairbun to enlighten him on the specifics. Hairbun promptly seizes the opportunity to screw with his head.
| + | {{incomplete|Created by a GIT VAN. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} |
| | + | A sequel to [[1755: Old Days]], in this comic, a (young) [[Cueball]] is learning about the early days of the Internet from an (old) [[Hairbun]]. Most of her description is laughably fanciful but Cueball reacts with amazed belief. So either this is an alternate universe, or else Hairbun is wickedly pulling the leg of a naive Cueball. |
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| | + | The claims: |
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| − | The new claims:
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| | * The cloud was smaller and called a "Mainframe" and was near Sacramento. | | * The cloud was smaller and called a "Mainframe" and was near Sacramento. |
| − | ** This is a joke on many {{w|Cloud computing|cloud services}} replacing {{w|mainframe}}s. Both systems were or are used to provide an expansive quantity of computing capability by enabling users to use only some of the available resources, sharing with other users. In those early days, it is true that large mainframes would handle multiple people's jobs at once, using techniques like {{w|time-sharing}} (although they were not necessarily located near {{w|Sacramento}}, the capital of California.). What's more, the basic ideas behind how cloud computing used to go way back. {{w|Multics}} was an early time-sharing system designed to "support a computing utility similar to the telephone and electricity utilities". The idea was similar to the cloud, where anybody could just hook up and get computing service, as well as other services built into the mainframe. For this reason, many of the computer security concepts we have today - such as {{w|Kernel_(operating_system)|kernelized operating systems}} - come from early systems like Multics. | + | **This is false even accepting the premise that Hairbun is describing the early Internet, and not instead how computing was before the Internet. There was no cloud for remote storage in the early Internet. Yes, there were multiple {{w|mainframe computer}}s connected together. |
| | * It was on the state landline. | | * It was on the state landline. |
| − | ** In the days of mainframes, remote users often used {{w|landline}}s (i.e. hard-wired telephone connections) to communicate, via {{w|dial-up modem}}s, and so users would have to disconnect for making phone calls. Even in the age of all landlines, there was never such a thing as "the state landline", imagined as an immense shared {{w|Party line (telephony)|party line}} to which the governor would have priority access for making calls. | + | ** This is probably meant to astonish Cueball, who in this context may associate {{w|landline}}s (i.e. hard wired telephone connections) with an imagined stone age technology, and which nobody today uses for anything at all. And of course even in the age of all landlines, there was never such a thing as "the state landline", imagined as an immense shared party line to which the governor would have priority access for making calls. This could be a reference to early {{w|dial-up modem}}s, which ''did'' use landlines, and so users would have to disconnect from the Internet for making phone calls. |
| − | * No memory protection; instead, people would call around to ask whether anyone else using an address and Microsoft's early foothold in computing was because of {{w|Bill Gates}} lying about his usage of addresses. | + | * No memory protection; call around to ask whether anyone else using it; Bill Gates would lie and say he was; Microsoft early foothold. |
| − | ** {{w|Memory protection}} protects storage from access by other programs or users. Many computer systems provide hardware and operating systems to support this. Hairbun is correct in that this sort of code was not well-developed early on. She claims that management of the memory was all done manually by agreement of the developers, and the only way to check if editing a particular address in the Mainframe was safe was physically asking all the other developers if they were already using it. In early PCs it was common to use specific memory locations, defined by the operating system or the hardware itself, to communicate with the operating system or perform particular functions such as direct graphical memory addressing rather than code compiling to pass through multiple Hardware Abstraction Layers. Her implication is that Bill Gates took advantage of this honor system to restrict people not working for {{w|Microsoft}} from making changes, allowing the company to take ownership of a lot of code - another fib with a grain of truth in it, based on Microsoft's excessive usage of limited standard-mandated pools. For example, out of 256 possible identifiers for {{w|partition type}} shared between all operating systems running on IBM PC compatible hardware, 65 entries are allocated to miscellaneous variants of FAT and NTFS systems, 38 of them originating from Microsoft itself - including esoteric variants like "Corrupted fault-tolerant FAT16B mirrored master volume." | + | **Hoo hah. |
| − | * "Git" was a van that drove around gathering tapes to copy, and the term "pull request" came from the van physically pulling over when signaled with an air horn. | + | * "Git" was a van that circled gathering tapes to copy. |
| − | ** {{w|Git}} is a {{w|distributed version control system}}, which manages copies of a coding project to prevent and resolve conflicts from multiple people editing the project at once. It works by having individual contributors {{w|Pull request|pull}} the project onto their device, make their changes, and then push those changes back to be integrated into the master copy. The term "pull request" is primarily used after a user has pushed their new code and is requesting that those changes be integrated into the primary codebase, i.e. that the primary developer would pull those changes into the main branch. Bulk data used to be stored on {{w|magnetic tape}}; in order for version control to exist at this time, there would have to be a master tape that was copied and physically distributed to each contributor, and then the edited tapes would be gathered afterward and conflicts resolved. Hairbun claims that Git provided this service back then using vans. In reality, Git did not exist until 2005, long after digital computers and networked servers became widely accessible and the "early internet" was history. Other systems for providing the same functionality existed for decades before this, with {{w|Source Code Control System}} (SCCS) having been released in 1972. Even this software was implemented primarily for multiple users accessing the same system, rather than users on separate, unconnected ones. Physically carrying storage devices around ({{w|sneakernet}}) has sometimes been used where electronic communication or bandwidth was not available. For example, motorcycle drivers on a regular route, carrying flash drives to remote communities (see {{w|delay-tolerant networking}}). This form of file transfer was also the subject of comic [[949: File Transfer]]. | + | **{{w|Git}} is a {{w|version control system}} for managing computer source code, and it allows multiple developers to contribute to a project, typically from remote locations. So in a metaphorical sense a truck collecting and distributing programs could be considered an early Git. But no. |
| − | * Before terminals we all used punch cards, which were originally developed to control looms, and so the Mainframe would produce sweaters when code was run. | + | * Blow an air horn to request that the truck pull over; that's where "Pull Request" came from. |
| − | ** Another initial truth going into complete nonsense. It is true that some looms were controlled by {{w|punch card}}s (dating back to 1745), and so were early computer precursors. At the same time {{w|Charles Babbage}} used them around 1830 to control his {{w|Analytical Engine}}. However, Hairbun's statement is that because of this, the ''same'' punch card machines would run both ''simultaneously'', such that feeding a set of cards to compile code would necessarily cause a sweater to be produced by the connected loom, which was then sent to the developer. For one: industrial looms don't produce sweaters, but fabrics (which is often patterned if punch cards are involved). And it's not likely that any punch patterns used in computer coding would be interpretable as a suitable pattern for a sweater. However, there is loom knitting which does produce patterns for sweaters. | + | ** Well, a {{w|pull request}} is a real thing, but it's not blowing an air horn. It's an administrative request from a user of a Git system to "pull" the user's private modifications of the shared project into the mainline version. |
| − | * (From the title text) You can still hand in a floppy disk to an ice cream truck and get an invite to a git repo a few hours later. | + | * Before terminals we all used punch cards, which were originally developed to control looms. |
| − | ** Git repo is short for Git {{w|Repository (version control)|repository}}, the place where all the files associated with a project are stored. Hairbun tries to convince Cueball that modern ice cream truck drivers service Git in the same way she says the vans did before and that it's still possible to give them a {{w|floppy disk}} (a magnetic storage device) in order to gain access to a repo. The ice cream industry has no connection to computing.{{Citation needed}} | + | ** This statement is completely true, {{w|punch card}} driven looms date back to 1745. {{w|Charles Babbage}} used them around 1830 to control his Analytical Engine, and {{w|Herman Hollerith}} adopted them for tabulating the 1890 USA census. |
| | + | * Early mainframes would produce a sweater each time you ran your code. |
| | + | ** OK, sure, why not. This is the origin of the ugly Christmas sweater contest. |
| | + | * (From the title text) Hand in a floppy disk, get an invite to a git repo. |
| | + | ** Git repo is short for git {{w|Repository (version control)|repository}}, the place where all the files associated with a project are stored. |
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| | ==Transcript== | | ==Transcript== |
| | + | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} |
| | :[In a slim panel, Cueball and Hairbun are walking together to the right. Hairbun has her palm raised.] | | :[In a slim panel, Cueball and Hairbun are walking together to the right. Hairbun has her palm raised.] |
| | :Cueball: What was the Internet like in the olden days, for a developer? | | :Cueball: What was the Internet like in the olden days, for a developer? |
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| | [[Category:Old Days]] | | [[Category:Old Days]] |
| | [[Category:Comics sharing name|Old Days]] | | [[Category:Comics sharing name|Old Days]] |
| − | [[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
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| | [[Category:Programming]] | | [[Category:Programming]] |
| | [[Category:Computers]] | | [[Category:Computers]] |
| − | [[Category:Version Control]]
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