7 ms·

She invented Assembler language! This one really deserves a HN "black header" imho.

math-dev 4y ago
I hope to see it. RIP
mdp2021 4y ago
(Typo. 'Assembly', "contracted notation", is a language. Made to make human readable the elements of those pieces of binary information that the 'Assembler', executed code, assembles.)
- nonrandomstring 4y ago
  It is a very significant step worthy of note in computing history. The difference between raw machine op codes and a nicely formatted asm with whitespace/columns is quite a leap, if you've ever programmed that way.
  - AnimalMuppet 4y ago
    My mother did. She programmed in octal. She told me, more than once, how nice it was when she got an assembler.
- morelisp 4y ago
  Not a typo. Both the process and the notation has been called "assembler" and "assembly".
  - mdp2021 4y ago
    > has been called For that matter, language in use has a "descriptive" side overwhelmingly larger than the "prescriptive" side. Now, the "assembler" is that thing which takes program components - say, a loop, an array of data and a subroutine - and concatenates them, e.g. fixing addressing (see Wilkes, Wheeler and Gill 1951) - you have to compute, for specification e.g. in the loop, at which address the data and the subroutine will start. The result is hence an "assembly". Assembling was a clerical work. And famously (or notably), when Donald Gilles wrote an automated assembler, John von Neumann protested that "to have computers perform clerical work is a waste of precious resources". But since at some point you got a piece of software to assemble the chunks, you can then think of adding an interpreter to translate machine operation mnemonics into machine code. So its syntax becomes "the language for the assembler", and "assembly language" would be "the language to obtain an assembly". Both expressions are weak, and I do not know historical details in their use. Some adopted the use of 'assembly' for the language to reserve 'assembler' for the processing program.
rvz 4y ago
Exactly. Very surprising that there is no black bar for her. There should be.
unnouinceput 4y ago
+1. Hey @dang, care to do it?
- detaro 4y ago
  "@dang" doesnt do anything. email him if you want his attention.
  - MarcellusDrum 4y ago
    Honestly at this point, it should, as it is widely used. Maybe a page where be can see all the mentions so he can check them if he has time, not something disruptive like an email notification for every mention obviously.
    - biohax2015 4y ago
      Yes, no way that can go wrong
    - boredtofears 4y ago
      There's a lot of things that are standard features that aren't here - the lack of @'ing, notifications, followers, etc are all things I like about HN.
  - KMnO4 4y ago
    While there’s probably no backend functionality, I would bet he has a feed set up to find comments containing the phrase “dang”. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=dang&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
  - LinuxBender 4y ago
    Emailed and it appears the site was updated.
highwaylights 4y ago
100% behind this, if ever the header was warranted for a post I believe this to be it.
aaron695 4y ago
divbzero 4y ago
For future record, HN admins added a black bar to the header shortly after the comments in this subthread.
- math-dev 4y ago
  Thanks for noting this. We are so accustomed to reading comments as of a point in time, but their meaning is also impacted by when they are made. In this case, a future historian may draw a different conclusion had they not seen your clarifying post. Whereas now it confirms that the community viewed it as a good thing, and HN also agreed steadfastly.

I hope to see it. RIP

mdp2021 4y ago

(Typo. 'Assembly', "contracted notation", is a language. Made to make human readable the elements of those pieces of binary information that the 'Assembler', executed code, assembles.)

nonrandomstring 4y ago
It is a very significant step worthy of note in computing history. The difference between raw machine op codes and a nicely formatted asm with whitespace/columns is quite a leap, if you've ever programmed that way.
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  My mother did. She programmed in octal. She told me, more than once, how nice it was when she got an assembler.
morelisp 4y ago
Not a typo. Both the process and the notation has been called "assembler" and "assembly".
- mdp2021 4y ago
  > has been called For that matter, language in use has a "descriptive" side overwhelmingly larger than the "prescriptive" side. Now, the "assembler" is that thing which takes program components - say, a loop, an array of data and a subroutine - and concatenates them, e.g. fixing addressing (see Wilkes, Wheeler and Gill 1951) - you have to compute, for specification e.g. in the loop, at which address the data and the subroutine will start. The result is hence an "assembly". Assembling was a clerical work. And famously (or notably), when Donald Gilles wrote an automated assembler, John von Neumann protested that "to have computers perform clerical work is a waste of precious resources". But since at some point you got a piece of software to assemble the chunks, you can then think of adding an interpreter to translate machine operation mnemonics into machine code. So its syntax becomes "the language for the assembler", and "assembly language" would be "the language to obtain an assembly". Both expressions are weak, and I do not know historical details in their use. Some adopted the use of 'assembly' for the language to reserve 'assembler' for the processing program.

rvz 4y ago

Exactly. Very surprising that there is no black bar for her. There should be.

unnouinceput 4y ago

+1. Hey @dang, care to do it?

detaro 4y ago
"@dang" doesnt do anything. email him if you want his attention.
- MarcellusDrum 4y ago
  Honestly at this point, it should, as it is widely used. Maybe a page where be can see all the mentions so he can check them if he has time, not something disruptive like an email notification for every mention obviously.
  - biohax2015 4y ago
    Yes, no way that can go wrong
  - boredtofears 4y ago
    There's a lot of things that are standard features that aren't here - the lack of @'ing, notifications, followers, etc are all things I like about HN.
- KMnO4 4y ago
  While there’s probably no backend functionality, I would bet he has a feed set up to find comments containing the phrase “dang”. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=dang&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
- LinuxBender 4y ago
  Emailed and it appears the site was updated.

highwaylights 4y ago

100% behind this, if ever the header was warranted for a post I believe this to be it.

aaron695 4y ago

divbzero 4y ago

For future record, HN admins added a black bar to the header shortly after the comments in this subthread.

math-dev 4y ago
Thanks for noting this. We are so accustomed to reading comments as of a point in time, but their meaning is also impacted by when they are made. In this case, a future historian may draw a different conclusion had they not seen your clarifying post. Whereas now it confirms that the community viewed it as a good thing, and HN also agreed steadfastly.