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Konrad Zuse (1994)
- doener 3y agoMy brain needed some time to process the "Last updated 94/09/30" at the end. Oh, he means 1994!
- nottorp 3y agoY/M/D, the only sane way to spell dates. Too bad it's only a 2 digit year.
- Cu3PO42 3y agoI'd argue ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD) is superior still because it is much more difficult to confuse for etiher DD/MM/YYYY or MM/DD/YYYY.
- nottorp 3y agoI can stomach any separator as long as the order is right ;)
- Kamq 3y ago1994009030
- t-3 3y agoThat's padding strings of known length at the demarcation points, not inserting a separator to demarcate strings of unknown length.
- Kamq 3y agoStrings of unknown length were never in play. The comment was specifically about a separator in a date, which has only 2 potential conventional lengths depending on if you're using a 2 or 4 digit year.
- t-3 3y agoLength can to 2 or 4, month can be 1 or 2, day can be 1 or 2. Using separators makes that easily parseable by both humans and machines, whereas using 0s is just redundant when used on fixed-width strings or potentially confusing when used on variable-width strings.
- Kamq 3y agoThe comment I replied to was about the slashes in 94/09/30 vs iso 8601. Zero padding was already present in both of these
- nottorp 3y agoBit hard to digest for me. But if you have a column of dates in this format it will suddenly become more legible. 1994009030 1994010021 1995002011 1995006002 The zero separators align now.
- moritzruth 3y agoMore info on Plankalkül: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalkül https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalkül
- drannex 3y agoAny reason for the strange submitted url if it redirects to http://www.plankalkül.de/ http://www.xn--plankalkl-x9a.de/? Edit: Looks like HN auto changes it to that. http:// http:// www. plankalkül .de/ Is it because of the ü?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- sgt 3y agoIf you have a modern OS or browser it should show "http://www.plankalkül.de http://www.xn--plankalkl-x9a.de" in the URL field.
- drannex 3y agoWindows 11, Firefox. Doing the same on my NixOS install with Firefox (showing the proper url). Seems like a regression if "modern" systems are supposed to be showing that eyesore of a URL, which I get could be a phishing safety thing, but annoying to say the least.
- nottorp 3y agoI get http://www.plankalkül.de/ http://www.xn--plankalkl-x9a.de/ in my Firefox (Mac OS) address bar. I think it's modern? I mean I let it auto update. Tbh I like the xn-- spelling more, it makes it more mysterious.
- sgt 3y agoI guess it's a FF thing...
- nottorp 3y agoWaaaait. I'm pretty sure I pasted the correct spelling and HN changed it. Let's try again: http://www.plankalkül.de/ http://www.xn--plankalkl-x9a.de/ I see plankalkul with the umlaut as I'm writing. Let's see what's displayed when I post the comment...
- amatic 3y ago> I started in 1934, [... ] At that time, the computing industry was limited to mechanical calculators using the decimal system. That seems a bit biased toward discrete systems. Engineers and scientists of the time used mechanical and (later) electric analog computers, and they were more powerful than the new discrete systems, for most purposes. For example: Helmut Hoelzer’s Fully Electronic Analog Computer used in the German V2 (A4) rockets https://www.cdvandt.org/Hoelzer%20V4.pdf https://www.cdvandt.org/Hoelzer%20V4.pdf (text in German, but has some pictures and diagrams)
- 082349872349872 3y agoSee Abbildung 10 (p16) for an amazingly analog way to calculate f(y(t)) > Some have harsh words for this man of renown / But some think our attitude / Should be one of gratitude —TAL
- HPsquared 3y agoI guess base-10 is still "digital", in that it works with digits.
- jazzyjackson 3y agoremember bits are binary digits I guess a decimal digit would be a dit digital is simply discrete, as opposed to analog / continuous
- thesz 3y agodigit late Middle English: from Latin digitus ‘finger, toe’; digit (sense 1) arose from the practice of counting on the fingers. "Digit" is the decimal digit.
- LeanderK 3y agothis is the most astonishing thing I have read in a long time and I am CS not electrical engineering, so I have no idea what these drawings mean. I speak german, but I hope something works to translate this easily, as it is absolutely crazy. I did not know something like this was possible back then. It is astonishing how advanced the world was back then...if it wasn't for this use though
- dang 3y agoRelated. Others? User Manual for the Zuse Z4 Discovered (2020) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39124291 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39124291 - Jan 2024 (4 comments) Plankalkül - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35053402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35053402 - March 2023 (47 comments) Reconstruction of mechanical logic gates and memory element of the Zuse Z1 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32169178 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32169178 - July 2022 (2 comments) The “Plankalkül” of Konrad Zuse: The first high level programming language - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26593656 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26593656 - March 2021 (1 comment) Blocks Courtesy of Konrad Zuse (2014) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25712727 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25712727 - Jan 2021 (10 comments) The long lost manual for the Zuse Z4 has been found - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24605150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24605150 - Sept 2020 (61 comments) Discovery: User Manual of the Zuse Z4 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24573125 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24573125 - Sept 2020 (14 comments) Plankalkül: The First High-Level Programming Language and Its Implementation - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23364898 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23364898 - May 2020 (1 comment) Antedating “datatype” all the way to Plankalkül (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18975279 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18975279 - Jan 2019 (2 comments) Calculating Space by Konrad Zuse (1969) [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18325689 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18325689 - Oct 2018 (1 comment) Blocks Courtesy of Konrad Zuse (2014) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17724173 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17724173 - Aug 2018 (3 comments) Konrad Zuse and the digital revolution he started 75 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11682343 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11682343 - May 2016 (53 comments) Plankalkül - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10909784 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10909784 - Jan 2016 (14 comments) Konrad Zuse Internet Archive - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10377271 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10377271 - Oct 2015 (1 comment) The Z1: Architecture and Algorithms of Konrad Zuse's First Computer (2014) [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10107955 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10107955 - Aug 2015 (5 comments) Konrad Zuse: Nearly the German Turing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9199500 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9199500 - March 2015 (33 comments) Computers During World War Two: Konrad Zuse - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3282085 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3282085 - Nov 2011 (7 comments) 100th anniversary of Konrad Zuse: creator of the first programming language - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1451542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1451542 - June 2010 (21 comments)
- LAC-Tech 3y agoI found out about Zuse because I was tasked with giving a presentation about an important German, when I was taking German classes at the Goethe Institut. Probably bored the hell out of everyone listening, but it was a bit of an eye opener as he's not so commonly discussed.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- artemonster 3y agoShameless plug: if you are interested in relay processors, check out mine: https://github.com/artemonster/relay-cpu https://github.com/artemonster/relay-cpu
- helf 3y ago[dead]
- sneed_chucker 3y agoIf you speak German there are decent quality interviews of him from the 80s on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgLOV5H4d30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgLOV5H4d30
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- krajzeg 3y agoIf you find this interesting and find yourself in Berlin with a bit of free time, the Deutsche Techniksmuseum there has a great exhibit on Zuse, including replicas, actual units of later computers, design drawings, storage units... well worth your time (as is the rest of the museum).
- okl 3y agoPictures: https://technikmuseum.berlin/ausstellungen/dauerausstellungen/informatik/ https://technikmuseum.berlin/ausstellungen/dauerausstellunge...