[TUHS] Book: "You Are Not Expected to Understand This"

[Rob Pike]

I find it fascinating how, just a few years after the difficulty of stack
switching required a commented challenge in the Unix source, we were using
setjmp and longjmp to do this with no fuss at all. Once the problem is
solved, the solution can simplify dramatically.

See https://github.com/plan9foundation/plan9/blob/main/sys/src/9/port/proc.c
for instance - almost all of sched is bookkeeping and a comment about
locks. The little burst at the bottom, starting around line 163, that does
the work is so compact. (setlabel and gotolabel are setjmp and longjmp.)

Insight.

-rob


On Sun, Nov 13, 2022 at 11:26 AM Kenneth Goodwin <kennethgoodwin56 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Maybe it is just me, but I don't recognize any of the contributors listed
> either at the bottom
>
> On Sat, Nov 12, 2022, 7:20 PM Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org> wrote:
>
>> I spotted this when glancing through a book catalogue; well, with a title
>> like that how could I miss it?
>>
>> Subtitled "How 26 Lines of Code Changed the World", edited by Torie Bosch
>> and illustrated by Kelly Chudler (can't say that I've heard of them).
>>
>> Summary:
>>
>> ``Programming is behind so much of life today, and this book draws
>> together
>>   a group of distinguished thinkers and technologists to reveal the
>>   stories and people behind the computer coding that shapes our
>>   world.  From how university's [sic] databases were set up to
>>   recognise only two genders to the first computer worm and the
>>   first pop-up ad, the diverse topics reveal the consequences of
>>   historical decisions and their long-lasting, profound implications.
>>   Pb $34.99''
>>
>> Lines of code, eh? :-)
>>
>> Abbey's Bookshop: www.abbeys.com.au
>>
>> Disclaimer: I have no connection with them, but I'll likely buy it.
>>
>> -- Dave
>>
>
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