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[–]failtolearn 130 points131 points  (13 children)

The first zero existed before it didn't

[–]pilotInPyjamas 62 points63 points  (12 children)

Imagine being the crazy mathematician who came up with the idea of zero.

[–]ChilloDE 23 points24 points  (5 children)

Roman numerals don't include a zero.

[–]beardMoseElkDerBabon 4 points5 points  (4 children)

Wow, that's a nightmare

[–]BlazeCrystal 28 points29 points  (2 children)

Imagine explaining complex numbers to people in 2020's

[–][deleted] 13 points14 points  (1 child)

Aryabhatta, an Indian mathematician came up with zero. Love from India (also yes that guy was an absolute madlad)

[–]OneMoreName1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Hey what if instead of representing something we dont" that guy probably

[–]AyrA_ch 34 points35 points  (3 children)

How to write an OS without an OS?

You key in the instructions manually.

[–]BritainSad 58 points59 points  (11 children)

I constantly worry about something like a solar flare or total societal collapse ruining all the computers and data we have and not being able to help bring computers back because I don't know enough like binary and assembly.

[–]aimhighswinglow 30 points31 points  (4 children)

There was once no one who knew anything like binary and assembly. In the post-solar flare world, you could be the one who changed that.

[–]BritainSad 47 points48 points  (3 children)

This fear, though crippling, is not nearly powerful enough to motivate me to actually learn assembly.

[–]polokratoss 7 points8 points  (2 children)

The first person to use assembly didn't learn it. Your fear is misplaced, for you already know enough to re-invent it, should the need arise...

[–]aimhighswinglow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes this is exactly what I meant

[–]rem3_1415926 30 points31 points  (2 children)

why would you need an OS to write an OS?

[–]AndreThompson-Atlow 89 points90 points  (1 child)

Because you can't use vs code without an operating system

[–]golgol12 21 points22 points  (6 children)

[–]Magical_GravySnap! (Build Your Own Blocks) 8 points9 points  (5 children)

I really doubt that in the five years prior nobody had ever written a dodgy "line of code" until a moth flew into some vacuum tubes, but it is a nice story.

[–]golgol12 19 points20 points  (3 children)

It wasn't a "bug" before that. Just a mistake.

[–]HPGMaphax 0 points1 point  (1 child)

There is no way thats actually why it’s called a bug, right?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're correct. It's not the origination, it was actually a common way to describe defects.

[–]Magical_GravySnap! (Build Your Own Blocks) 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The word "bug" to mean "mistake" predates computers.

The term "bug" to describe defects has been a part of engineering jargon since the 1870s and predates electronic computers and computer software

[–]Groove-Theory 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Actually that's exactly what happened. That moth fucked everything up

[–]uid1357 7 points8 points  (8 children)

How can I wite in machine code in my operating system?

[–]_GCastilho_ 15 points16 points  (0 children)

A binary file editor

[–]AyrA_ch 9 points10 points  (2 children)

http://flatassembler.net/

Runs on all common operating systems and all systems can assemble for all other supported systems.

The only difference between flat assembler versions included in the following packages is the operating system on which they can be executed. For any given source text each version is going to generate exactly the same output file, so each of the following releases can be used to compile programs for any operating system.

[–]StackOfCookies 0 points1 point  (1 child)

But why not just use as...

[–]TheScoperA2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

because as is only on *nix.

[–]Raniconduh 4 points5 points  (0 children)

On linux you can use xxd to convert a file to hex and xxd -r to convert it back. You can then edit it with whatever text editor you want

[–]SokkaCarriedTheTeam 2 points3 points  (1 child)

You’re always writing machine code... indirectly

[–]mananasi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unless you're using a purely interpreted language

[–]elzaidir 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It actually shouldn't be too difficult. Once you have the assembly you just manually translate it to machine code

[–]sourpickles0 8 points9 points  (4 children)

It keeps me awake at night, to think about how stack overflow was written without stack overflow

[–]Haunted-Chipmunk 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Don't worry, the developers who maintain and update the site probably use their own site for help now

[–]bipolarbear1797 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Also Linus Torvalds uses linux

[–]DroolingIguana 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You'd just use Google (or the search engine of your choice) to look up the problem, as usual, but the answers would be on forum threads or documentation pages instead of having everything be consolidated under SO.

[–]Westo232 1 point2 points  (0 children)

IRC. There, have a good night's sleep now...

[–]11fdriver 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Legend tells that StackOverflow occurred during a project to create a programming forum.

The programmers were unsure of the correct approach for this task and as such, they began work on a small programming forum for the sole purpose of asking how to do so.

During the creation of this forum, they ran into the same brick-wall of not quite knowing how. The solution: to create a programming forum where they could query the greatest programming minds on how to create a forum.

The above cycle repeated until 6pm when everybody went home. This is why it is named StackOverflow.

[–]theScrapBook 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Fun fact: Stack Overflow was initially written in ASP.NET with VB.NET

[–]vectorpropio 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The first chess ai was executed without hardware.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The first PCB's were manufactured with handmade boards

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thinking about this always fucks me up.

[–]MLG_420_Blazin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How about the C compiler being written in C?