7 ms·

Call the compiler, fax it your code [video]

150 points by ayoreis 2y ago

throwway120385 2y ago
I don't understand. Is this not how everyone browses the web?
- ruined 2y ago
  no it's more typical to fax a complete browsing service
- jzombie 2y ago
  FaxGPT
  - hasmanean 2y ago
    The length of common LLM responses is perfectly able to fit on a sheet of paper.
davidkunz 2y ago
Nothing new, we've been doing it like that for ages here in Germany. But it's a cool Hamburger phone.
kazinator 2y ago
With Common Lisp, we don't need an infinite roll of paper to prank the faxed compiler. Just (progn . #1=((print 'foo) . #1#))
khaki54 2y ago
Have fun troubleshooting when the OCR keeps mis-identifying one of the semi-colons as a greek question mark!
- M4v3R 2y ago
  I wonder if this is a perfect use case for an LLM. I bet that if you did submit he code to Claude/ChatGPT with a prompt to „fix any typos in the code that was read using OCR” it would have a pretty high rate of success.
  - joebob42 2y ago
    The past meets the future
faxmeyourcode 2y ago
So my username is a little less ridiculous than I originally thought? :) The fact that this can introduce OCR bugs into your C code is hilarious, and this is diabolical: #define one ( 4 - 3 ) #define eleven ( 3 + 4 + 4 ) Source code is here https://github.com/lexbailey/compilerfax https://github.com/lexbailey/compilerfax
- lupire 2y ago
  Need a proper preprocessor to take a code file and make it OCR-safe by substituting for dangerously glyphs.
  - simcop2387 2y ago
    This might be a good reason to support trigraphs again! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digraphs_and_trigraphs_(programming)#C++ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digraphs_and_trigraphs_(progra... edit: fixed link, copy paste fail dropped the ++
- deepspace 2y ago
  > OCR bugs Especially if your fax machine uses JBIG2 compression. See: https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-into-nso-zero-click.html https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-i...
  - skitter 2y ago
    I think it's appropriate linking directly to Kriesel's blog¹ or his talk, as that's about the scanner creating fake data and not about rce. Though technically it too is not an OCR bug as there's no ocr in JBIG2. ¹: http://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0802_xerox-workcentres_are_switching_written_numbers_when_scanning http://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0802_xerox-workcentres_...
- OnlyMortal 2y ago
  Amateur! Use a barcode font!
l0rn 2y ago
it would be a cool competition who makes the nicest program using the fax compiler
nehal3m 2y ago
Computer floop noises. Nice.
JoshTriplett 2y ago
This is awesome. Using computers for what they're best at: fax and figures. I'm curious why this requires a reply number in the program, rather than relying on something like Caller ID and sending the reply back to the number that sent the fax.
- Denvercoder9 2y ago
  It was probably just easier to implement. The build script[1] already has the source code, extracting the number from a comment is trivial, while retrieving out-of-band data like Caller ID from the fax server is likely more complicated. For a joke it's not compelling to do that, especially if you've already been fighting the fax server...[2] [1] https://github.com/lexbailey/compilerfax/blob/main/build_and_run https://github.com/lexbailey/compilerfax/blob/main/build_and... [2] https://github.com/lexbailey/compilerfax/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file#setup https://github.com/lexbailey/compilerfax/tree/main?tab=readm...
ManWith2Plans 2y ago
Possibly inspired by this stack overflow question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5508110/why-is-this-program-erroneously-rejected-by-three-c-compilers https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5508110/why-is-this-prog...
- dang 2y ago
  Related: Why is this program erroneously rejected by three C++ compilers? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22798602 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22798602 - April 2020 (1 comment) Why is this program erroneously rejected by three C++ compilers? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6504442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6504442 - Oct 2013 (1 comment) Why is this program erroneously rejected by three C++ compilers? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3727717 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3727717 - March 2012 (7 comments)
odo1242 2y ago
It would honestly be even funnier if the compiler just sent back your code in x86 assembly.
- fanf2 2y ago
  If godbolt.org had a fax number…
jabbany 2y ago
So, as someone who has lived in regions with pretty severe internet censorship in the past and built circumvention software back in the day, I've always pondered the idea of whether one could build a fax-based thing like this for browsing the web. Kind of as like a "last resort" system.^ Could have a form that you fax in with, like a URL and session info (cookies and stuff), and then it faxes back the page, and you can circle stuff and fax the page back to interact and "click on" things. Plus, since computers can ingest faxes, you wouldn't need to waste paper printing everything out, and could just do everything digitally. But you still had the option to use paper and a fax machine if you really need to. ^: Yes, I know faxes are unencrypted and phone lines can be tapped. But I've always found the idea intriguing. Plus having some emergency point-to-point communication to bootstrap things like key exchange could still be neat.
- reaperducer 2y ago
  Slightly related: There was a time when web browsing was crazy slow and expensive, but there were e-mail services that were also crazy slow, but free. There were mail to web gateways that you could e-mail a URL to, which would then reply with the contents of the web page. You'd then send another URL from that page, and get another reply, and so on. Free slow-motion web browsing. I say "slow-motion" because this was back when getting a response to an e-mail took hours or days, not seconds. So you were lucky to get through three or four links in a day. But it was free, and we had other things to do than surf the web anyway.
  - skissane 2y ago
    RMS was still doing that this century https://lwn.net/Articles/262570/ https://lwn.net/Articles/262570/ I wonder if he still is today
  - Dutchie987 2y ago
    There where even mail-to-ftp gateways. I vaguely remember using bitftp (?) to get a copy of the Utah Raster Toolkit that way. Long time ago...
- hasmanean 2y ago
rickreynoldssf 2y ago
That's got to be actually useful. I can't think how but there's got to be some situation where that is the best solution.
fortran77 2y ago
This is similar to the workflow for my CS101 class at college in the 70s. I submitted my deck of cards to a person in the computer center at one of the times the PL/C compiler was scheduled to run (10 AM and 2 PM), I sat and waited, and then my output would be handed to me after it was compiled and run.
xyst 2y ago
Can it also compile rust ;)

150 points by ayoreis 2y ago

throwway120385 2y ago

I don't understand. Is this not how everyone browses the web?

ruined 2y ago
no it's more typical to fax a complete browsing service
jzombie 2y ago
FaxGPT
- hasmanean 2y ago
  The length of common LLM responses is perfectly able to fit on a sheet of paper.

davidkunz 2y ago

Nothing new, we've been doing it like that for ages here in Germany. But it's a cool Hamburger phone.

kazinator 2y ago

With Common Lisp, we don't need an infinite roll of paper to prank the faxed compiler. Just (progn . #1=((print 'foo) . #1#))

khaki54 2y ago

Have fun troubleshooting when the OCR keeps mis-identifying one of the semi-colons as a greek question mark!

M4v3R 2y ago
I wonder if this is a perfect use case for an LLM. I bet that if you did submit he code to Claude/ChatGPT with a prompt to „fix any typos in the code that was read using OCR” it would have a pretty high rate of success.
- joebob42 2y ago
  The past meets the future

faxmeyourcode 2y ago

So my username is a little less ridiculous than I originally thought? :) The fact that this can introduce OCR bugs into your C code is hilarious, and this is diabolical: #define one ( 4 - 3 ) #define eleven ( 3 + 4 + 4 ) Source code is here https://github.com/lexbailey/compilerfax https://github.com/lexbailey/compilerfax

lupire 2y ago
Need a proper preprocessor to take a code file and make it OCR-safe by substituting for dangerously glyphs.
- simcop2387 2y ago
  This might be a good reason to support trigraphs again! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digraphs_and_trigraphs_(programming)#C++ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digraphs_and_trigraphs_(progra... edit: fixed link, copy paste fail dropped the ++
deepspace 2y ago
> OCR bugs Especially if your fax machine uses JBIG2 compression. See: https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-into-nso-zero-click.html https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-i...
- skitter 2y ago
  I think it's appropriate linking directly to Kriesel's blog¹ or his talk, as that's about the scanner creating fake data and not about rce. Though technically it too is not an OCR bug as there's no ocr in JBIG2. ¹: http://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0802_xerox-workcentres_are_switching_written_numbers_when_scanning http://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0802_xerox-workcentres_...
OnlyMortal 2y ago
Amateur! Use a barcode font!

l0rn 2y ago

it would be a cool competition who makes the nicest program using the fax compiler

nehal3m 2y ago

Computer floop noises. Nice.

JoshTriplett 2y ago

This is awesome. Using computers for what they're best at: fax and figures. I'm curious why this requires a reply number in the program, rather than relying on something like Caller ID and sending the reply back to the number that sent the fax.

Denvercoder9 2y ago
It was probably just easier to implement. The build script[1] already has the source code, extracting the number from a comment is trivial, while retrieving out-of-band data like Caller ID from the fax server is likely more complicated. For a joke it's not compelling to do that, especially if you've already been fighting the fax server...[2] [1] https://github.com/lexbailey/compilerfax/blob/main/build_and_run https://github.com/lexbailey/compilerfax/blob/main/build_and... [2] https://github.com/lexbailey/compilerfax/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file#setup https://github.com/lexbailey/compilerfax/tree/main?tab=readm...

ManWith2Plans 2y ago

Possibly inspired by this stack overflow question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5508110/why-is-this-program-erroneously-rejected-by-three-c-compilers https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5508110/why-is-this-prog...

dang 2y ago
Related: Why is this program erroneously rejected by three C++ compilers? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22798602 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22798602 - April 2020 (1 comment) Why is this program erroneously rejected by three C++ compilers? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6504442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6504442 - Oct 2013 (1 comment) Why is this program erroneously rejected by three C++ compilers? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3727717 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3727717 - March 2012 (7 comments)

odo1242 2y ago

It would honestly be even funnier if the compiler just sent back your code in x86 assembly.

fanf2 2y ago
If godbolt.org had a fax number…

jabbany 2y ago

So, as someone who has lived in regions with pretty severe internet censorship in the past and built circumvention software back in the day, I've always pondered the idea of whether one could build a fax-based thing like this for browsing the web. Kind of as like a "last resort" system.^ Could have a form that you fax in with, like a URL and session info (cookies and stuff), and then it faxes back the page, and you can circle stuff and fax the page back to interact and "click on" things. Plus, since computers can ingest faxes, you wouldn't need to waste paper printing everything out, and could just do everything digitally. But you still had the option to use paper and a fax machine if you really need to. ^: Yes, I know faxes are unencrypted and phone lines can be tapped. But I've always found the idea intriguing. Plus having some emergency point-to-point communication to bootstrap things like key exchange could still be neat.

reaperducer 2y ago
Slightly related: There was a time when web browsing was crazy slow and expensive, but there were e-mail services that were also crazy slow, but free. There were mail to web gateways that you could e-mail a URL to, which would then reply with the contents of the web page. You'd then send another URL from that page, and get another reply, and so on. Free slow-motion web browsing. I say "slow-motion" because this was back when getting a response to an e-mail took hours or days, not seconds. So you were lucky to get through three or four links in a day. But it was free, and we had other things to do than surf the web anyway.
- skissane 2y ago
  RMS was still doing that this century https://lwn.net/Articles/262570/ https://lwn.net/Articles/262570/ I wonder if he still is today
- Dutchie987 2y ago
  There where even mail-to-ftp gateways. I vaguely remember using bitftp (?) to get a copy of the Utah Raster Toolkit that way. Long time ago...
hasmanean 2y ago

rickreynoldssf 2y ago

That's got to be actually useful. I can't think how but there's got to be some situation where that is the best solution.

fortran77 2y ago

This is similar to the workflow for my CS101 class at college in the 70s. I submitted my deck of cards to a person in the computer center at one of the times the PL/C compiler was scheduled to run (10 AM and 2 PM), I sat and waited, and then my output would be handed to me after it was compiled and run.

xyst 2y ago

Can it also compile rust ;)