See that little X at the top right? There is a little piece of code way down deep in Windows’ bowels which says
“check every now and then, say every millisecond or so, and see IF the mouse cursor is over it, AND if it is, check and see IF the left mouse button is also pressed AND if that’s true too THEN shut that puppy down. IF not THEN carry on and check again later.”
You can make a computer do anything with just IF, AND, OR and THEN. Most programming languages have only a couple hundred words at most, as well as the standard mathematical operators, which are another form of the above (IF x=2 THEN 4x= 8).
But of course there is deeper code than that. Computers don’t speak English, you have to tell it what you mean by IF or AND. Now I’m getting out of my depth, but I believe we’re down to ASCII code which is above Machine Language which is above raw Binary. So most languages are themselves written in an even simpler language. Your mouse click is translated down the line from Windows, through Visual Basic or C++, then DOS, then ASCII, then Machine, until it’s a long string of ones and zeros which represent actual physical connections in the billions of transistors in your computer all of which simply either let electricity through or not, OFF or ON.
This fascinates me, the pure elegance of it. The most complex of systems derived from only two possible states. Not even two, really it’s just ONE or the absence of it (zero). Surely the universe works like this. I think everything we experience is because physics allows curves, which are infinitely smooth (pi)…
Have you pressed the little X yet?
** as I said, I’m a little fuzzy on computer architecture and I’d be happy to post any corrections offered by those more knowledgeable. But the point of the post was elegance as applied to complex systems.
“check every now and then, say every millisecond or so, and see IF the mouse cursor is over it, AND if it is, check and see IF the left mouse button is also pressed AND if that’s true too THEN shut that puppy down. IF not THEN carry on and check again later.”
You can make a computer do anything with just IF, AND, OR and THEN. Most programming languages have only a couple hundred words at most, as well as the standard mathematical operators, which are another form of the above (IF x=2 THEN 4x= 8).
But of course there is deeper code than that. Computers don’t speak English, you have to tell it what you mean by IF or AND. Now I’m getting out of my depth, but I believe we’re down to ASCII code which is above Machine Language which is above raw Binary. So most languages are themselves written in an even simpler language. Your mouse click is translated down the line from Windows, through Visual Basic or C++, then DOS, then ASCII, then Machine, until it’s a long string of ones and zeros which represent actual physical connections in the billions of transistors in your computer all of which simply either let electricity through or not, OFF or ON.
This fascinates me, the pure elegance of it. The most complex of systems derived from only two possible states. Not even two, really it’s just ONE or the absence of it (zero). Surely the universe works like this. I think everything we experience is because physics allows curves, which are infinitely smooth (pi)…
Have you pressed the little X yet?
** as I said, I’m a little fuzzy on computer architecture and I’d be happy to post any corrections offered by those more knowledgeable. But the point of the post was elegance as applied to complex systems.
4 comments:
so let me see if i got this
IF skookumjoe continues jabbering about code
AND single handedly makes blogging nerdier
THEN Exile will send Baboon X-2 to stop these posts from happening
OR just will click on the X
code is awsome!
My niece's birthdate is 111001. What does that mean in Nerd?
once again the point was about elegance.
Exo I think Amanda knows binary, me got no clue
amanda knows bi
nary?
hehehe
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