5 ms·

> codes Scientist/engineer detected. In the standard programming dialect, "code" is a mass noun. "Program" or "library" is countable.

by wnoise 11y ago

gh02t 11y ago
Mathematician actually, though I have a degree in nuclear engineering as well. I'm familiar with the terminology, but thanks for the lesson. I spend the vast majority of my time as a developer, actually.
mch82 11y ago
Referring to Fortran programs as "codes" seems to be a common, possibly generational, way of talking about old software in the aerospace industry. I used to hear it around the office a lot. Some of "codes" date back to the late 1950s. It would be interesting to know more about how the language we use to speak about software has changed over time if anyone feels like sharing.
- gh02t 11y ago
  Not sure it's generational as I'm under 30 so I'm not that old :\. As far as I hear it used, "code(s)" is the standard term for what is loosely any large simulation package amongst people in the numerical community (which includes mathematicians and computer scientists alike, so it's not just an engineering thing).
  - ms013 11y ago
    The other fun one is people who refer to the input files for the simulation packages as "input decks" (aka, punched card decks). I occasionally get a funny look when talking to someone from outside the computational science community use that term. And I'm in my 30s - punched cards were history by the time I started using computers myself, so this kind of terminology isn't really generational - it seems to come from specific communities.
    - dalke 11y ago
      And "tty" = "teletype terminal". We use "glass ttys", which emulate the older mechanical ones. My favorite old term, which is still used at times, is 'false drop'. (Eg, see http://www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?feature_id=528 http://www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?fea... .) The term comes from the days of manual punched cards, using edge-notched cards, where you would stick a needle through a given position deck of cards and lift. The cards with the notch at that position would fall out. Those with a hole would stay. Hence, the cards you want "fall out". But if you used multi-punch encoding (eg, encode two rare terms to a single location) in order to decrease the number of holes required, then you might get some "false drops". Nowadays we mostly say 'false positives' for this case.
      - gh02t 11y ago
        I once heard one of the guys from Cray give a presentation where he told a story about playing a prank on one of the Army research guys. He said it was right after they had installed a shiny new (washing machine sized) hard drive. They had already duplicated his (many thousands of punch cards long) program onto the drive. They had a glass room overlooking the actual computer room where you'd go after handing one of the techs your cards to be entered. They brought the guy up there and he was waiting after handing off his cards and they had pre-arranged with the technician to trip and dump the cards everywhere. He said the Army guy turned white as a sheet of paper and looked like he was going to cry (this would have necessitated many hours putting the cards back in order). Then he told the guy that it was fine and they already had a copy loaded in on the drive.
        dalke 11y ago
        Cruel! The usual solution was to take a marker and swipe the deck along the top side, in a diagonal, so they are much easier to sort. You might recall that Fortran ignored everything beyond column 72. This was where you put the 'sequence number', aka line number, so when you drop the deck you stick the cards the sorting machine and voila, it's ordered again. Ahh, I see Wikipedia covers this bit of arcana, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_programming_in_the_punched_card_era#Columns_73-80 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_programming_in_the_pu... . But there are many stories of the heartbreak of those who didn't take one of these precautions. Ha! In looking for one I came across http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/sorter.html http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/sorter.html : > You may have heard the story of the operator who dropped a whole box of cards. Wanting to put things right as quickly as possible, he sorted the cards, without consulting the user. As it turned out, that was the worst possible response. Up until that point, the box had contained a sample of random numbers. –Ted Powell, Dec 2006
- wnoise 11y ago
  It's community, not generational, IME. I know old hackers that don't use it, and relatively young physicists and aerospace people that do.
- greglindahl 11y ago
  You will be happy to learn that many HPC people refer to non-Fortran programs as codes, too.

> codes Scientist/engineer detected. In the standard programming dialect, "code" is a mass noun. "Program" or "library" is countable.

by wnoise 11y ago

> codes Scientist/engineer detected. In the standard programming dialect, "code" is a mass noun. "Program" or "library" is countable.

gh02t 11y ago

Mathematician actually, though I have a degree in nuclear engineering as well. I'm familiar with the terminology, but thanks for the lesson. I spend the vast majority of my time as a developer, actually.

mch82 11y ago

Referring to Fortran programs as "codes" seems to be a common, possibly generational, way of talking about old software in the aerospace industry. I used to hear it around the office a lot. Some of "codes" date back to the late 1950s. It would be interesting to know more about how the language we use to speak about software has changed over time if anyone feels like sharing.

gh02t 11y ago
Not sure it's generational as I'm under 30 so I'm not that old :\. As far as I hear it used, "code(s)" is the standard term for what is loosely any large simulation package amongst people in the numerical community (which includes mathematicians and computer scientists alike, so it's not just an engineering thing).
- ms013 11y ago
  The other fun one is people who refer to the input files for the simulation packages as "input decks" (aka, punched card decks). I occasionally get a funny look when talking to someone from outside the computational science community use that term. And I'm in my 30s - punched cards were history by the time I started using computers myself, so this kind of terminology isn't really generational - it seems to come from specific communities.
  - dalke 11y ago
    And "tty" = "teletype terminal". We use "glass ttys", which emulate the older mechanical ones. My favorite old term, which is still used at times, is 'false drop'. (Eg, see http://www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?feature_id=528 http://www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?fea... .) The term comes from the days of manual punched cards, using edge-notched cards, where you would stick a needle through a given position deck of cards and lift. The cards with the notch at that position would fall out. Those with a hole would stay. Hence, the cards you want "fall out". But if you used multi-punch encoding (eg, encode two rare terms to a single location) in order to decrease the number of holes required, then you might get some "false drops". Nowadays we mostly say 'false positives' for this case.
    - gh02t 11y ago
      I once heard one of the guys from Cray give a presentation where he told a story about playing a prank on one of the Army research guys. He said it was right after they had installed a shiny new (washing machine sized) hard drive. They had already duplicated his (many thousands of punch cards long) program onto the drive. They had a glass room overlooking the actual computer room where you'd go after handing one of the techs your cards to be entered. They brought the guy up there and he was waiting after handing off his cards and they had pre-arranged with the technician to trip and dump the cards everywhere. He said the Army guy turned white as a sheet of paper and looked like he was going to cry (this would have necessitated many hours putting the cards back in order). Then he told the guy that it was fine and they already had a copy loaded in on the drive.
      - dalke 11y ago
        Cruel! The usual solution was to take a marker and swipe the deck along the top side, in a diagonal, so they are much easier to sort. You might recall that Fortran ignored everything beyond column 72. This was where you put the 'sequence number', aka line number, so when you drop the deck you stick the cards the sorting machine and voila, it's ordered again. Ahh, I see Wikipedia covers this bit of arcana, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_programming_in_the_punched_card_era#Columns_73-80 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_programming_in_the_pu... . But there are many stories of the heartbreak of those who didn't take one of these precautions. Ha! In looking for one I came across http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/sorter.html http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/sorter.html : > You may have heard the story of the operator who dropped a whole box of cards. Wanting to put things right as quickly as possible, he sorted the cards, without consulting the user. As it turned out, that was the worst possible response. Up until that point, the box had contained a sample of random numbers. –Ted Powell, Dec 2006
wnoise 11y ago
It's community, not generational, IME. I know old hackers that don't use it, and relatively young physicists and aerospace people that do.
greglindahl 11y ago
You will be happy to learn that many HPC people refer to non-Fortran programs as codes, too.