4 ms·
> ... but those of any complexity presumably ought to be in a library — that is, a set of magnetic tapes in which previously coded problems of permanent value a
by skaushik92 1y ago
> ... but those of any complexity presumably ought to be in a library — that is, a set of magnetic tapes in which previously coded problems of permanent value are stored.
Oddly, I never thought of the term library as originating from a physical labelled and organized shelf of tapes, until now.
- zabzonk 1y agoI've never heard of a library being called anything else - look at the common file extension .lib, for example.
- eythian 1y agoI don't see .lib being all that common, but it might just be what I'm used to. `.so` or `.dll` or such sure (though to be fair, the latter does include the word library.)
- spacechild1 1y ago.lib is the traditional extension for static libraries and import libraries on Windows. Every .dll has an accompanying .lib. (Msys2 uses their own extensions, namely .a for static libraries and .dll.a for import libraries.)
- empath75 1y agoIt's not _that_ they are called libraries, but _why_ they are called libraries. I had assumed, like many others that it was purely by analogy (ie, a desktop), and not that the term originated with a physical library of tapes.
- leoc 1y agoAt https://youtu.be/DjhRRj6WYcs?t=338 https://youtu.be/DjhRRj6WYcs?t=338 you can see EDSAC's original linker, Margaret Hartrey, taking a library subroutine from the drawer of paper tapes. (But you should really watch the whole thing, of course!)