5 ms·

The Many Meanings of “Stack”

22 points by kurinikku 5y ago

vmception 5y ago
and also "the combination of software packages being used"
- bgun 5y ago
  and also "a thousand dollars", but I think we're both straying from the computer science purpose of the article.
  - vmception 5y ago
    a stack of dollars versus a heap of dollars
- dehrmann 5y ago
  There's also a "networking stack" or "bluetooth stack," but I can't name a single component of the BSD network stack (unlike LAMP).
- bitwize 5y ago
  When I first heard the term "TCP/IP stack", I thought it referred to some kind of state machine that used a stack (data structure) to process packets. Nope, it's just jargon for the layers of software that handle networking.
qsort 5y ago
Ironically, "heap" (cited in the article) also has a double meaning: "heap" as in "priority queue", and "heap" as in "dynamic storage duration".
- kurinikku 5y ago
  In an earlier version I had this in parenthesis "there’s also heap like in heap sort, but perhaps that’s for a different post" :)
gumby 5y ago
Classic annoyance of a page published on Notion: you can't read the article by just pressing the space bar. Eventually I gave up reading it.
- whoisburbansky 5y ago
  I hadn't even realized how frustrating I found this until I saw this comment and you verbalizing it.
  - gumby 5y ago
    I want to like notion but I'm on a Mac and the experience is so crappy and alien that it's simply too hard to use. It's clear that Mac is just a checkoff box item for them so they just phone it in.
dr_dshiv 5y ago
Damn, I could have sworn this was gonna be an article about Benjamin Bratton's book "The Stack." https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/stack https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/stack
Optimal_Persona 5y ago
As a musician, the first thing that comes to mind is "Marshall Stack". In 1965, British guitar amplifier designer Jim Marshall created the Marshall Stack, consisting of a 50 or 100 watt tube amp head on two 4x12" speaker cabinets. The bottom cabinet is straight-front, and the angled top cabinet aims the top 2 speakers at the player's ears. The Who, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix (among others) helped make the Marshall Stack as iconic as musical instruments like the Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul guitars. https://marshall.com/live-for-music/history/the-story-behind-the-infamous-marshall-stack https://marshall.com/live-for-music/history/the-story-behind...
auntienomen 5y ago
And that's only in CS. Mathematicians use the term 'stack' for a whole different idea.

22 points by kurinikku 5y ago

vmception 5y ago

and also "the combination of software packages being used"

bgun 5y ago
and also "a thousand dollars", but I think we're both straying from the computer science purpose of the article.
- vmception 5y ago
  a stack of dollars versus a heap of dollars
dehrmann 5y ago
There's also a "networking stack" or "bluetooth stack," but I can't name a single component of the BSD network stack (unlike LAMP).
bitwize 5y ago
When I first heard the term "TCP/IP stack", I thought it referred to some kind of state machine that used a stack (data structure) to process packets. Nope, it's just jargon for the layers of software that handle networking.

qsort 5y ago

Ironically, "heap" (cited in the article) also has a double meaning: "heap" as in "priority queue", and "heap" as in "dynamic storage duration".

kurinikku 5y ago
In an earlier version I had this in parenthesis "there’s also heap like in heap sort, but perhaps that’s for a different post" :)

gumby 5y ago

Classic annoyance of a page published on Notion: you can't read the article by just pressing the space bar. Eventually I gave up reading it.

whoisburbansky 5y ago
I hadn't even realized how frustrating I found this until I saw this comment and you verbalizing it.
- gumby 5y ago
  I want to like notion but I'm on a Mac and the experience is so crappy and alien that it's simply too hard to use. It's clear that Mac is just a checkoff box item for them so they just phone it in.

dr_dshiv 5y ago

Damn, I could have sworn this was gonna be an article about Benjamin Bratton's book "The Stack." https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/stack https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/stack

Optimal_Persona 5y ago

As a musician, the first thing that comes to mind is "Marshall Stack". In 1965, British guitar amplifier designer Jim Marshall created the Marshall Stack, consisting of a 50 or 100 watt tube amp head on two 4x12" speaker cabinets. The bottom cabinet is straight-front, and the angled top cabinet aims the top 2 speakers at the player's ears. The Who, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix (among others) helped make the Marshall Stack as iconic as musical instruments like the Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul guitars. https://marshall.com/live-for-music/history/the-story-behind-the-infamous-marshall-stack https://marshall.com/live-for-music/history/the-story-behind...

auntienomen 5y ago

And that's only in CS. Mathematicians use the term 'stack' for a whole different idea.