
And that, kids, is why we call it a “Patch” - redknight666
https://twitter.com/Codealike/status/819990490774904833
======
arnarbi
My favorite is "log", named after logbooks. Logbooks have maritime origins,
where the ships speed is recorded. Even today, speedometer on ships are in
many languages called "a log" since the original method consists of throwing
an actual log overboard with a string attached to it. The string would have
knots with regular intervals. To determine the speed, you count how many knots
pass through your hand in a certain time.

~~~
logicallee
> To determine the speed, you count how many knots pass through your hand in a
> certain time.

But how did they count "a certain time"? (Before stopwatches).

~~~
lazyant
The origins of precise clocks is because ships needed to calculate how far
they had travelled in terms of longitude (eastwast/westward. How far you've
travel north/south is easy to calculate by how high the sun goes).

The British crown established an award for whoever could come up with a
precise clock of this reason, it's a fascinating story, I recommend the book
"Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific
Problem of His Time" by Dava Sobel.

~~~
Fuzzwah
Also if you're interested in inventors from the late 17th Century, I highly
recommend: "The Man Who Knew Too Much: The inventive life of Robert Hooke"

------
grymoire1
This is why the DEL key is all ones. It was used to overpunch the wrong letter
on a paper tape and replace it with a character that meant ignore (delete) it.

As done on an ASR-33
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletype_Model_33](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletype_Model_33)

~~~
muterad_murilax
I'm sorry, "all ones"?

~~~
ufo
The ASCII code for DEL is 127, which is 1111111 in binary.

~~~
muterad_murilax
Ah, of course. :) Thanks for the clarification!

------
jzwinck
Things like this are great to remind ourselves of some of the rationale for
the ways things are.

When I worked at a company which used a lot of Fortran, I kept a punch card at
my desk. Among other things this made it easier to explain to new people why
there was a column limit for code.

Eventually an HR person came around and told me to remove the card because the
top management was coming to visit soon. Among other things this made it
easier to understand the role of HR in a large company.

~~~
scrollaway
> _Eventually an HR person came around and told me to remove the card because
> the top management was coming to visit soon. Among other things this made it
> easier to understand the role of HR in a large company._

What on earth?

~~~
ptasci67
Yeah I am with you here. Why would you not want management to know you have an
educational punch card?

~~~
MrBuddyCasino
Maybe just to make the desks look clean? But yeah, HR... everyone's favourite
department, it seems.

~~~
iainmerrick
HR's function at a large company is to defend the company against you.

~~~
hoorayimhelping
Oooooh and also, if you're not paying for the product, you -are- the product.

Leave these glib platitudes at Reddit.

~~~
pjkundert
Actually, it's a testable hypothesis. This is the inverse of what you believe,
I presume?

It seems trivial to find a counter example to your claim...

It seems difficult to support even the weaker claim, that there exists an HR
department at a large company that defends your interests against that
company.

I wonder why you seem so convinced of your position?

------
garrettr_
My favorite is "monkey-patch," which came from engineers incorrectly
reproducing an earlier term, "guerilla patch", as "gorilla patch":
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120730014107/http://wiki.zope....](https://web.archive.org/web/20120730014107/http://wiki.zope.org/zope2/MonkeyPatch).

------
kweinber
There were patches to machines, cables, memory modules, dresses, etc etc
before punch cards. They are all better metaphors than that picture because
they offer functionality and aren't just binarily subtractive like the
picture.

~~~
saycheese
First punch card control system was made in 1725, so it's not exactly a new
technology.

Source:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card)

------
kayamon
<sigh> no it isn't. The word 'patch' was used to mean 'a small fix' hundreds
of years before computers were even invented. e.g. patching a hole in a
sweater.

~~~
j2kun
Is there an old use of the word patch that doesn't directly relate to physical
holes (eg., would someone call fixing a tear a "patch"?). If no, then the line
of reasoning still makes sense, because without punch cards there would be no
physical holes to patch.

~~~
derefr
I would wonder what term has been used historically for "a small fix to a
large conceptual design after flaws have been pointed out." In the modern day,
that's almost always "a patch": mathematical theorems get patches,
architectural plans get patches, etc. When did this usage start, and what came
before it?

------
ajross
That's amusing, but the linguistics sounds wrong to me. The "patch" tool was
written by Larry Wall (of Perl fame) in the early 80's based on the
preexisting diff format. Neither had much ancestry in common with paper tape
storage, which was never really a Unix thing.

~~~
bboreham
You think Larry Wall chose the name with no reference to existing terminology?

~~~
ajross
I'm saying there's no evidence that this terminology has anything to do with
paper tape

------
kgdinesh
What about "Monkey Patch"?

------
tomrod
That's wonderful!

------
z3t4
bugs also used to be real _bugs_

~~~
valarauca1
For those interested Grace Hopper helped popularize this term

    
    
        In 1946, when Hopper was released from active duty,
        she joined the Harvard Faculty at the Computation
        Laboratory where she continued her work on the Mark II
        and Mark III. Operators traced an error in the Mark II
        to a moth trapped in a relay, coining the term bug.
        This bug was carefully removed and taped to the log
        book. Stemming from the first bug, today we call
        errors or glitches in a program a bug.
    

Reference (wikipedia)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug)

Reference (which wikipedia cites)
[http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Hopper.Danis.html](http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Hopper.Danis.html)

~~~
haylem
Grace Hopper (grasshopper) popularizing bugs... Can't make this stuff up.

------
saycheese
Here's a photo of the first computer "bug" from 1947:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13404211](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13404211)

~~~
grymoire1
Incorrect. It was the first case of a software bug being an actual bug. In
other words - a true pun. The first computer bug was found in 1843 by Ada
Lovelace.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug#History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug#History)
Thomas Edison used the term bug to indicate a flaw in 1873
[http://theinstitute.ieee.org/tech-history/technology-
history...](http://theinstitute.ieee.org/tech-history/technology-history/did-
you-know-edison-coined-the-term-bug)

~~~
Retric
Punch card's date back to 1725 so the term may relate to literal bugs. Though,
not in what we think of as computers.

~~~
coldpie
Language nit-pick: in English, we just use "s" to make words plural, no
apostrophe is needed. The correct way to make "card" plural is "cards."

~~~
dep_b
Like oxen, geese or sheep?

