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12 Thats So Metal - Mechanical Words Through The Ages.md

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That's So Metal! – Mechanical Words Through the Ages

Mariko Kosaka (@kosamari)

  • visceral programming: understand concepts by mapping them to real things
    • map/reduce is like knitting
    • quicksort is like knitting
    • computers are like knitting machines controlled by punchcards
    • web worker is like the international space station
  • typesetting history
    • linotype typesetting machine: keypress adds type to line, after writing type is sorted back (invented 1886, used until 1978)
    • coldtype: type burnt into paper, then cut by graphics designers, then photocopied
    • industrial type setting system: font family + size + weight
    • linux type setting system (Bell Lab): document preparation system, troff programming language for typesetting
      • preprocessors (tbl for tables, eqn for equations)
      • code set in helvetica (not monospaced) – b/c AT&T did not have a monospace font (2nd edition had -> code set in Courier)
    • linotron 202 cathode ray tube: typesetting free of font (can draw arbitrary vector graphics)
      • linotron 202 reverse engineered by Bell Lab (original software was crap)
    • laser printers (Xerox PARC): bitmap instead of vector graphics
      • font hinting (PostScript, Adobe): metadata for font -> bitmap
      • PostScript -> PDF (code inlined for performance: 2m44s to 22s)
    • world wide web
      • CSS to allow graphics designers to express what they are doing on paper
      • 1999: Emojis in Japan, b/c image on mobile only as gif (with multiple requests => slow)
      • JIS X 4051: standard for japanese type setting => CSS writing modes, CSS text decoration
      • html5: <ruby></ruby> phonetic guide for asian characters