4 ms·

How long has _ existed?

34 points by zdw 5y ago

mtVessel 5y ago
As of when?
- xenomachina 5y ago
  I haven't looked through all of the code, but since they store the (approximate) release date of each technology (https://github.com/jsrn/howoldisit/blob/master/src/technologies.js https://github.com/jsrn/howoldisit/blob/master/src/technolog...) my guess is that it's "as of the instant you viewed the page".
  - mtVessel 5y ago
    That's such a pet peeve of mine. They don't know when I'm viewing the page. They only know when the request to render arrives. On longer timescales it's not as important, but still.
xg15 5y ago
Disappointed this wasn't an article about the typographical history of the underscore.
- o_m 5y ago
  Me too. Wikipedia has a pretty good article about it though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underscore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underscore
  - gnat 5y ago
    Relevant part: As early output devices (Teleprinters, CRTs and line printers) could not produce more than one character at a location, it was not possible to underscore text, so early encodings such as ITA2 and the first versions of ASCII had no underscore. IBM's EBCDIC character-coding system, introduced in 1964, added the underscore, which IBM referred to as the "break character". ASCII added it in 1967.
- Koshkin 5y ago
  I hate having to use the underscore instead of the minus sign in code. (I believe I have seen languages that allow using the minus sign to separate words in an identifier, but that might have been in pseudocode.)
  - klyrs 5y ago
    It's common in lisp, where -,*,+,/ are names of functions.
knubie 5y ago
Warning: Every keystroke entered into the search field creates a new browser history item.
euroderf 5y ago
And SQLite ?
mrlonglong 5y ago
Interesting to see that employers are looking for brainfuck experience!
mikewarot 5y ago
Lots of things missing, Forth, Emacs, VIM, Teco Plus the browser history spam pointed out by knubie
Supermancho 5y ago
Notice how theres quite a gap in listings from the 80s to 90s. The rise of the PC coincided with a dark age of innovation in software.
- bzzzt 5y ago
  Hard to see there's a gap when it's not really clear what the qualifying criteria are for 'technologies' to be put in that list...

34 points by zdw 5y ago

mtVessel 5y ago

As of when?

xenomachina 5y ago
I haven't looked through all of the code, but since they store the (approximate) release date of each technology (https://github.com/jsrn/howoldisit/blob/master/src/technologies.js https://github.com/jsrn/howoldisit/blob/master/src/technolog...) my guess is that it's "as of the instant you viewed the page".
- mtVessel 5y ago
  That's such a pet peeve of mine. They don't know when I'm viewing the page. They only know when the request to render arrives. On longer timescales it's not as important, but still.

xg15 5y ago

Disappointed this wasn't an article about the typographical history of the underscore.

o_m 5y ago
Me too. Wikipedia has a pretty good article about it though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underscore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underscore
- gnat 5y ago
  Relevant part: As early output devices (Teleprinters, CRTs and line printers) could not produce more than one character at a location, it was not possible to underscore text, so early encodings such as ITA2 and the first versions of ASCII had no underscore. IBM's EBCDIC character-coding system, introduced in 1964, added the underscore, which IBM referred to as the "break character". ASCII added it in 1967.
Koshkin 5y ago
I hate having to use the underscore instead of the minus sign in code. (I believe I have seen languages that allow using the minus sign to separate words in an identifier, but that might have been in pseudocode.)
- klyrs 5y ago
  It's common in lisp, where -,*,+,/ are names of functions.

knubie 5y ago

Warning: Every keystroke entered into the search field creates a new browser history item.

euroderf 5y ago

And SQLite ?

mrlonglong 5y ago

Interesting to see that employers are looking for brainfuck experience!

mikewarot 5y ago

Lots of things missing, Forth, Emacs, VIM, Teco Plus the browser history spam pointed out by knubie

Supermancho 5y ago

Notice how theres quite a gap in listings from the 80s to 90s. The rise of the PC coincided with a dark age of innovation in software.

bzzzt 5y ago
Hard to see there's a gap when it's not really clear what the qualifying criteria are for 'technologies' to be put in that list...