As a programmer, what does the programming world look like in your eyes?
What do you think has shaped the programming world today?
A couple of programmers, Xiqiao Huoju, answered the question with the comic "What Shapes Today's Programming World" .
Xi Qiao, comic author, entrepreneur, UI and product designer... In 2009, he created the first Chinese comic "The Mysterious Programmers" with the theme of programmer culture, technology, project management and Internet entrepreneurship, which has been serialized for 10 years. Over the years, it has covered millions of readers.
Cicho
Huo Ju, the author of "Mysterious Programmers" and the official account "Cheat and Heresy", has many years of experience in development, architecture and entrepreneurship, and is currently the CTO of the RumSystem project. Years of uninterrupted writing in the field of technology and the Internet, early blogs and the existing public account "Here of False Reasons " have great influence.
Huo Ju
The two have co-created the comic "Mysterious Programmers" for many years, expressing the aspirations of many programmers in work and entrepreneurship with their witty style of writing and paintings.
In order to help everyone understand important events in the history of programming, they decided to create the "What Shaped the Programming World Today" comic A Brief History of Programming, presenting people and things that have had a major impact on the programming world today.
OSCHINA took this opportunity to interview Xiqiao Huoju to explore the story behind the creation of "What Shapes Today's Programming World", and also chatted with them about topics such as the programming world, open source and freedom.
"What Shapes Today's Programming World"
Leave a message and say what you think has shaped today's programming world. We will find a total of 5 small partners from the article comment area of the website and the "OSC Open Source Community" official account to give a new book to Xiqiao Huoju~
The event ends on the evening of November 23rd, and on November 24th, we will contact the winning partners to give away books
Today's programming world
Q: How did you come up with the idea of creating a brief history of programming in the comic book "What Shapes Today's Programming World"?
Si Qiao: The influence of today's digital world is expanding, and the number of programmers is also increasing rapidly. But whether it is users or workers in the industry, many people are not familiar with the historical changes in this industry. But what is interesting is that many historical ideas cannot be applied due to the hardware conditions in the past. Today, these ideas can still be used to solve problems. It would be a pity if you don’t know the historical changes. We will use this opportunity to help you understand some important events in history.
Human Post Publishing House happened to make an appointment with us to create a cultural and creative product belonging to the programmer group with the theme of technology culture. We discussed several times about the binding and content form, and decided to make it a volume per quarter, with two sides having different functions in the form of an organ folded long scroll, which is very suitable for expressing the sense of time.
Q: Can you sum it up in a few words or a sentence, what is shaping the programming world today?
Si Qiao: It was engineering change and scientific research driven by practical needs that eventually became what it is today.
Q: In your opinion, what is the most fascinating aspect of today's programming world?
Xiqiao: It is a rare industry where you can learn the biggest secrets in this field without spending a penny. Everything can be obtained for free or at a very low cost. Anyone can learn everything without barriers and see how various systems work. , disassemble and study them. Of course, this is thanks to the development of free software, otherwise the industry would not be like this.
Q: In "What Shapes Today's Programming World", there is almost no involvement in the development of AI, why?
Xiqiao: Due to space limitations, AI itself has a very long history and changes. In the future, I may do a separate history of AI.
Q: Have you been trying something new recently?
Ciqiao: Create some products outside the digital world, such as this week's calendar and its related peripherals.
Software and the world, open source and freedom
Q: Huo Ju had an opinion in 2015: software redefines the rules and defines the real world. Is there a new understanding of the relationship between software and the world now?
Huo Ju: Generally speaking, my views in this regard have not changed. Today, it seems that my views in 2015 have come true. The only difference is that I was optimistic about this change in 2015, and a little pessimistic today. Whether digital and software empower society, or restrict the rights of more people, turning people into mere profit contributors, is now at a point where it is about to fork.
Q: What do you think about open source software and free software? Do you consider yourself a staunch free software or open source software supporter?
Huo Ju: Considering the increasing importance of the digital world, the importance of open source software and free software is also increasing day by day. Over the years, people have come to think that the network should be a kind of infrastructure like hydropower, and I think software should also be included in it.
I don't consider myself a strong supporter, and in the early years I underestimated the importance of free software to the point that I wasn't too invested in getting my hands on some important projects. As a programmer, I think it's hard to call yourself a staunch supporter if you only use and donate without contributing enough to the code. However, I am also gradually investing in this area, and I hope that in a few years, I can answer "yes" to this question.
Q: In addition to donating to Wikipedia every year, do you also donate to open source projects?
Huo Ju: Yes, I am a member of FSF, and I will donate to some special projects. Sometimes it is some small software, such as the open-keychain of Android (a PGP tool) that I recently discovered, and I feel satisfied and donate a little money.
Q: Huo Ju recently posted on the top of the social networking site that he could help others migrate from the Apple ecosystem to other ecosystems. Why would such a post be pinned? How was the feedback received?
Huo Ju: Apple has become more and more exaggerated in the closed system, from restricting users to use software, to forcing software developers to review the text and content in software according to Apple's standards. Given that Apple started making its own chips, there could be more serious consequences in the future if its ecosystem continues to expand. Now is still an opportunity to break away from it. I hope to do my best to help more people break away from this ecology.
I also liked Apple products 10 years ago, bought a lot, wrote iOS/Mac software, translated development documentation and even a publication. But today and then are completely different. On the one hand, Apple is becoming more and more closed and influential. It is particularly important to note that among all operating systems today, the Apple ecosystem is the only platform that violates the definition of Article 0 in the definition of free software.
On the other hand, Microsoft is becoming more and more friendly to open source software (although its attitude towards free software is still doubtful), and it is very convenient to use wsl development on Windows. Also pure Linux desktop availability is a world away from 10 years ago, I've been using Arch Linux+sway as my main work system for several years myself. Overall I feel like now is a time to get out of it.
The overall feedback is good. Recently, I have directly met many friends who have left the Apple ecosystem.
Q: The topics covered in heresy are very wide. Can you summarize what characteristics of these topics attracted you to write?
Huo Ju: Generally, it has a certain historical or future significance. Like how the key software you listed above defines the world, it still makes sense to read a few years from now. This topic makes me think it's worth writing about.
Q: You created the "BetaCat" series of comics in 2016. The comics depict the story of the artificial intelligence BetaCat if it was created and ruled the human world step by step. Do you believe the world depicted in BetaCat will come? Why?
Huo Ju: I don’t think that kind of overly powerful AI will happen, see ( no matter whether strong AI can appear, the future of mankind is doomed to gloom ), but weaker AI and software have taken over a lot of rules, making the real world tossing and turning The space gets smaller, which is bound to happen. That's why the importance of free software today is greater and clearer than it was in the past.
Q: If you really saw that day was coming, what would you most like to do?
Huo Ju: If you really come, go to the north of Canada and find a woodland with a river/lake to hide in.
Q: One last little question, how old are your two cats and how did they come to your house~
Huo Ju: 11 years old.
When I was working in Shanda Innovation Institute, I left the company a little later than usual one day. When I went out and turned the corner, I met a local uncle guarding a litter of kittens that climbed from the woods to the side of the road. The mother cat was probably gone. He was begging people on the roadside to take a few if they could pick them up. When I squatted down to watch, two cats grabbed my pants, so I picked them up.
Introduction to the new book:
In 2009, a couple of programmers had a very embarrassing and fun conversation after their wedding. They wanted to share the experience, lessons and knowledge of the mysterious programmers through comics.
It is the first domestic cartoon "Mysterious Programmers " created by Xi Qiao and Huo Ju with the theme of programmer culture, technology, project management and Internet entrepreneurship .
Later, this comic began a 5-year serialization in "Programmer" magazine. And the dialogue that day became the first issue of this comic.
Later, Xiqiao moved this comic to the WeChat public platform, and retyped, colored, and adapted the dialogue . New serializations were launched continuously . So far, it has nearly 300,000 readers and enriched millions of programs. members' lives.
For Chinese programmers, chasing "Mysterious Programmers" is one of the few joys in daily life.
This year, the author Xi Qiao x Huo Ju created a new creation for millions of programmers, and for the first time launched an exclusive gift that cannot be missed in 2022 - "What Shapes Today's Programming World: Big Events in Comic Programming History" 2022 Weekly Calendar .
The content of this week's calendar has selected 56 key node events that have changed the programming world in 200 years .
- From the comic "Mysterious Programmers" that swept the IT circle
- 4 volumes of organ-style chronicles are novel and unique
- 56 original comics of Xiqiao are witty and humorous
- 100 computer keywords are magnificent
- 180g special paper, portable and practical for arbitrary writing
- Exclusive gifts: bookmarks + stickers around "Mysterious Programmers"
As an exclusive gift for yourself in 2022, it is enough to prepare this book!
Direct link: https://item.jd.com/10037052386459.html