"You Are Not Expected to Understand This"
by Torie Bosch · first published 2022
5mentions
1recommended by
5HN commenters
2019–2026first – last mentioned
20% recommend80% neutral
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And you can witness the glory of swtch() and the original "You are not expected to understand this" comment. Highly recommended.
on “Ask HN: Recommended resources to learn the Linux kernel and OS theory?” ↗Book: You Are Not Expected to Understand This: How 26 Lines of Code Changed the World by Torie Bosch [1] Came across this book randomly on Twitter and picked it up. The book is broken into 26 essays about significant pieces of code (defined vaguely),…
on “Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?” ↗It's the title of the book, too. *You Are Not Expected to Understand This: How 26 Lines of Code Changed the World." I agree, it's a terrible title, it sounds like a technical book about a single 26-line snippet of code, but it's actually a series of 26 unrelated essays about…
on “New Book Identifies 26 Lines of Code That Changed the World” ↗…the 286 version of MCW Coherent OS still only allowed a maximum program size of 64 kB of code -- plus 64 kB of data. Very limiting. OK for early-Unix-style (say up to UNIX V6, of Lions Book fame and "you are not expected to understand this" comment.) 386 protected mode gave you 4GB of space, and you could choose the segment size, which meant everyone chose a segment size of ALL THE RAM PLS KTHXBYE. That meant you got flat addressing: all…
on “The Late Arrival of 16-Bit CP/M – By Nemanja Trifunovic” ↗…those the chip was mapped to, and it never saw them. Adjusted the code to the (new) correct address range. Worked like a charm. But I feel bad for the next grad student who had to work on that robot. "You are not expected to understand this."
on “My Hardest Bug Ever” ↗