The train driver in the courtyard

Calculation speed: 5 operations per second.

Memory: 72K full word length magnetic core, one magnetic core memory array.

Hardware scale: The entire machine uses 12200 electron tubes and 80000 crystal diodes.

Holding the world's most advanced vacuum tube computer, Li Aiguo feels like he is at the forefront of world science and technology.

It feels really good.

just
In order to use the 103 vacuum tube computer to automate railway signals, there is still one key factor missing.

That is. The program.

These days, programs cannot be executed automatically. It all depends on the operator Chen Jing using her slender hands to operate the hard keys at a speed of 300APM.

A vacuum tube computer would do the job.

But our Li Aiguo is engaged in the great cause of the entire railway industry.

In the future, most of the country's railways will have signal automation, a process that will require thousands of vacuum tube computers.

At that time, perhaps thousands of young girls will be needed to serve as human program inputters.

However, the railways operate 24 hours a day.

These girls can only sit in the dim computer room for a long time and continue to input programs.

In such an environment, their youth can only be wasted quietly in the dark little house... This situation seems very inhumane.

Our Li Aiguo is a good man, so naturally I cannot persecute these young girls.

So what to do?
Operator Chen Jing entered the program. During the break in the program execution, she saw Li Aiguo staring at her and her face immediately turned red with embarrassment.

The train driver is indeed married, but it's not impossible for something to happen between them, such as studying computers together.

Chen Jing bit her lip and asked, "Driver Li, is there anything wrong with the code I just entered?"

Thinking about the experiences of the past two days, Chen Jing found it a little unbelievable.

After the successful development of the 103 vacuum tube computer, this valuable scientific research instrument was not placed in the Institute of Computing Technology, but was transported to the railway laboratory and became a productivity tool for controlling railway signal output.

Vacuum tube computers require operators.

There were five professional operators in the Computing Institute. When those operators learned that they had to leave the Institute and work for the railway department, they all backed off.

After all, the railway department was still considered a rough and uncouth department in those days, and the impression it left on people was of rough and uncouth men with untidy beards, black coal dust on their bodies, and a habit of swearing when speaking.

The Institute of Computing Technology is the most advanced scientific research unit in the country. The researchers are dressed in neat grey Mao suits, speak politely and are all highly educated.

Only Chen Jing agreed.

As an operator, she was packaged up and taken to the Railway Research Institute by Li Aiguo as a tool.

It was here that Chen Jing discovered that there was a research institute on the railway, and it was very rich. You could even eat meat in the cafeteria!
"That's not the case." Li Aiguo looked at Chen Jing and pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Has your computing department never thought of writing a program that can run automatically?"

"Automatically run the program?" Chen Jing was a little confused.

Aren't all programs entered manually?
When Li Aiguo saw Chen Jing's expression, he realized his negligence.

There were no high-level computer languages ​​in those days, and all programs ran directly on the bottom layer of the computer, making it impossible to achieve real-time loops.

"If we don't have guns or cannons, we can't just rely on the enemy to make them! We need to pry open the enemy's rails to make artillery shells and scrape saltpeter to make explosives!"

Li Aiguo hummed a popular railway tune and walked out of the machine room with his hands behind his back.

Chen Jing looked at Li Aiguo's back and always felt that this train driver was a little weird.

She turned around and began to simulate input by hovering on the control keys. Only in this way could she maintain the input speed.

The emergence of each high-level programming language requires enormous manpower and material resources, and must also adapt to the development of the times and the market.

To independently create a high-level programming language is something that only programming masters can do.

Our Li Aiguo is indeed not a great god.

But he calculated that in a few years, a high-level programming language called BCPL would appear in the United States.

BCPL is the famous B language in later generations and is also the basis of C language.

It’s not that Li Aiguo doesn’t want to use the C language, the key is that the thing is too complicated and it can blow up the vacuum tube computer when it runs.

The B language is different. It has a simple structure, but can directly manipulate machine characters and can also be used to write games.

Ahem, the game is just a side effect. Our Li Aiguo is here for railway signal automation.

Master Lu said: "If I can see farther, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants."

After Li Aiguo returned to the office, he stood on top of the giant and quickly developed the B language.

Of course, compared with the later B language, Li Aiguo felt that some content needed to be changed so that each object in the B language had a type and a value.

The type determines the meaning of the operations that can be used on the value, as well as the amount of storage space the object occupies.

In this way, the B language changed from a language that could only manipulate machines to a half-C language with the ability to compile operating systems.

This kind of work is too tedious for one person to do.

Li Aiguo found Zong Xianfeng and Chen Zisan.

"Today we are going to study a little gadget."

Li Aiguo talked about the concept and design of B language.

Although computer language is particularly obscure, its foundation is mathematics, and Chen Zilan, the big boss, quickly understood it.

"Using the interaction between 0 and 1 to perform calculations is indeed a new way of thinking. Maybe I should find a way to do it."

Li Aiguo quickly interrupted Chen Zihua: "Brother Chen, there is a severe shortage of computers in China right now, so don't think about computer science calculations. Your task is to help me come up with this language."

Just kidding, there is indeed a branch of mathematics in later generations that uses computers for calculations.

However, Chen Ziliao wants to become the man who cracks 1+1 and cannot waste his energy on this.

Zong Xianfeng is an excellent student majoring in electrical engineering and has a sharp mind.

Li Aiguo is responsible for the overall architecture, Zong Xianfeng is responsible for code compilation, and Chen Ziluan is responsible for mathematical logic.

It took the team less than two days to complete the design of the B language.

Now that we have the computer language, the next step is to train people who can use it.

In the machine room.

Chen Jing had just finished trying her hand speed and was rubbing her sore fingers and sucking her lips.

Ever since she became an operator, she has been experiencing dull pain in her finger joints, sometimes so severe that she cannot sleep at night.

However, for the development of computers, Chen Jing and the operators concealed this situation.

"Team Leader Li, the program has been entered and is running normally!" Seeing Li Aiguo coming in, Chen Jing quickly stood up.

"Don't be in a hurry. I came to you today to ask you, do you want to be a programmer?" Li Aiguo said with a smile.

"Programmer?" Chen Jing looked confused.

"I designed a high-level computer language, and the compiled programs can run automatically. Programmers are people who are responsible for compiling programs."

The program runs automatically, which means that no operator is required.

Responsible for compiling programs, which means she will be a programmer.

In just one sentence, Chen Jing experienced the two extremes of unemployment and re-employment. She nodded hurriedly: "Yes, I do!"

The operator needs to have a good memory and good logical thinking. Chen Jing is a college graduate with a strong learning ability. It only took her two days to master the B language.

Li Aiguo worked with Chen Jing and Chen Ziyuan to develop a program called pulse signal.

After the program is put into operation, it can stably control the railway automatic signals and also has a self-checking function.

When this news reached the Institute of Computing Technology, the director and Professor Xia Zhongsu were instantly shocked.

"What? A program that can run automatically, and this kind of program can be compiled?"

"Something big has happened. Something big has happened in our computer field again!"

"But why did such a big thing happen in the railway department? It shouldn't happen."

"No matter which department it is, they are all for the construction of the country. Let's go and take a look."

Realizing the importance of high-level programming languages, the director and Professor Xia Zhongsu prepared to rush to the Railway Research Institute with a group of researchers.

But there were dozens of people, and there were only three cars in the computing institute, which was not enough to accommodate them all.

In order not to dampen the enthusiasm of the comrades, the director temporarily dispatched a GAZ truck.

A convoy consisting of a sedan and a GAZ truck drove out of the computing institute in a mighty manner.

Professor Lebedev, who was about to leave the Institute of Computing Technology, saw this scene and narrowed his eyes slightly.

He asked the driver to roll down the window and handed a cigarette to the guard: "Young comrade, where did these comrades from your computing institute go?"

The guard took the cigarette with a smile, and his face straightened: "He must be catching mice."

Two days ago, he reported the situation questioned by Professor Lebedev to the Security Department, and the head of the department severely criticized him.

And remind him to keep confidentiality and be careful when dealing with Russian experts.

Catching rats? So many people driving big trucks to catch rats? I don't believe you.

Professor Lebedev looked at the guard and fell silent.

Professor Lebedev felt that when he visited the flower-growing family this time, the people there seemed to have become cunning and even dared to bully a small security guard.

But Professor Lebedev didn't pay much attention to the guard.

He felt that he should find a way to figure out what the Institute of Computing Technology was doing.

Seeing that his younger brother was about to surpass him, Professor Lebedev, the older brother, felt very uncomfortable.

the other side.

The convoy drove to the gate of the Railway Research Institute in a mighty manner.

The security officers at the door were frightened when they saw dozens of people coming into the Computing Institute, and they immediately called to report to Liu Guozhang.

"Report to the Director, someone is here to snatch our tail!"

Professor Xia heard it clearly and explained hurriedly: "We are from the Institute of Computing Technology. You are mistaken."

The security officer looked at Professor Xia and shouted into the microphone, "Director, the people from the Institute of Computing Technology are here to grab our tail!"

Professor Xia: “.”

When Liu Guozhang received the call from the security guard, his mind was filled with question marks.

"What? Are these computer guys really targeting the little rat in our institute?"

Liu Guozhang was not worrying for no reason.

As the competition for eliminating the four rats reached its climax, the rats became more and more difficult to catch, and the competition between the units also reached its climax.

Some leaders of some units have started to have evil thoughts.

If you can't catch it yourself, you can steal it from others.

Besides, can you call it snatching a mouse’s tail?
Then do the active elimination of four!

They took their comrades from the Security Department and the Armed Forces Department, fully armed themselves, and while the neighboring unit was not paying attention, they rushed into the other party's warehouse and snatched away the rat's tail.

This incident caused panic among the people in the capital.

In order to protect the rat's tail, the security officers at the gate of some units even set up machine guns.

The Railway Research Institute was well-known in Beijing for catching rats because of Li Aiguo's rat-catching boards, and others had long been jealous.

You should be more cautious at this time.

"Let's go, tell the security officer to bring his rifle and follow me to take a look!"

Liu Guozhang came to the gate with a dozen security officers. After asking carefully, he almost laughed out loud.

"Comrade Director, you brought so many people to our institute. According to the rules, you should have greeted them in advance over the phone."

"I'm sorry, Director Liu. I was so anxious that I neglected it."

Seeing that the Institute of Computing Technology had brought so many people with it and the director was in a hurry, Liu Guozhang was moved and asked, "Is that thing Li Aiguo came up with so important?"

"It's not Bo, it's Bo language!"

Although Liu Guozhang was considered a semi-technical person, he was still considered a rough guy by the director.

As he walked, he took a class with Liu Guozhang: "Computer language is a tool for people to communicate with computers."

Seeing Liu Guozhang's confused face, the director felt that domestic computer education still had a long way to go.

He sighed and said, "Let's put it this way. With this language, our country will be at the forefront of the world in the field of computers."

"Wouldn't it have been better if you had said this earlier?" Liu Guozhang's eyes widened.

He doesn't understand computers, but he knows what it means to be at the forefront of the world. That means glory!
Although I don’t understand how Li Aiguo did it, Li Aiguo is a railway man.

If Li Aiguo is honored, then the railway will be honored, and so will Liu Guozhang.

"Ahem, Comrade Director, it seems that our railway technology is more complicated than your computer technology."

"How to say?"

"Just think about what our train drivers have developed."

Director: “.”

He felt as if he was being looked down upon by the roughnecks in the railway department.

But the director didn't care about these at the moment.

After he followed Liu Guozhang to the laboratory, he immediately pulled out Li Aiguo who was conducting a railway signal stability test.

"Comrade Patriot, have you really compiled a complete set of high-level programming languages?"

Seeing the old professor's anxious look, Li Aiguo didn't say much and told him the details of the ㄅㄛ (啵) language.

"What! You have compiled the program and it has been running stably for five days?"

“You also trained a female programmer?”

The director did not listen to one side of the story.

He took Professor Xia to personally test the program compiled by Li Aiguo using the ㄅㄛ language, and only after confirming that the program was capable of running automatically did he completely believe it.

"Is Li Aiguo really just a train driver?"

The director's head was buzzing at this moment.

He felt that the Railway Research Institute was more like a place to study computers than the Computing Technology Institute.

He didn't feel relieved until he saw Chen Jing, wearing the dark gray uniform of the Institute of Computing Technology, walking out of the computer room.

At least the programmer is from the Institute of Computing Technology.

"Comrade Chen Jing, congratulations on becoming the first female programmer in China. You work very hard, and it's time for you to make progress!"

The director had a vague feeling that Li Aiguo chose Chen Jing in order to comply with the policy proposed by his superiors that "women hold up half the sky."

At this moment, Chen Jing felt like steamed buns fell from the sky.

She had to take over because no one else wanted to work on the railway.

Now I have become the first female programmer and will be promoted soon.

The director, Professor Xia Zhongsu and a group of experts observed the operation of the railway automatic signals and decided to understand the basic knowledge of the Bo language.

Li Aiguo, the first programmer in the flower-growing family, had to take on the role of teacher.

At this time, Chen Zilan saw that the work was completed and was worried that it would have a bad impact if he stayed in the railway depot and did not work.

He wanted to return to the Institute of Mathematics to continue his previous work.

Li Aiguo stopped Chen Ziyuan and said, "Brother Chen, I'm going to give a lecture to several colleagues from the Institute of Computing Technology tomorrow. Can you come and listen?"

"Me?" Chen Ziran was stunned.

Chen Zilan thought that Li Aiguo knew that he was interested in computer science and that was why he was brought along, so he agreed.

Li Aiguo didn't see Chen's information. He watched him leave with a triumphant smile on his face.

As the sun sets and the sky darkens, every household returns home.

Li Aiguo developed a high-level language program today and was very happy.

Ride your bike to Chaoyang Vegetable Market.

I bought five pounds of eggs, two pounds of duck eggs, and a big carp, preparing to improve my life.

Pushing the bicycle into the yard.

The third uncle had just returned from fishing and was picking up small fish.

Looking at the big carp hanging on the handlebar of Li Aiguo's bike, he blinked his little eyes and bent over to come closer.

“Patriotism, big fish don’t taste as good as small fish.

I'll trade three pounds of small fish for your three pounds of big fish.

How about I take a little loss and let you take a little advantage?"

The third uncle picked up a string of catfish.

"Uncle, I have a high level of consciousness and never take advantage of others, so I cannot trade with you."

After saying that, Li Aiguo pushed his bicycle away.

The sentence "never take advantage of others" confused the third uncle.

He stretched out his hand towards Li Aiguo's back but couldn't say a word.

"Old woman, why do I feel like Li Aiguo is scolding me?" The third uncle said quietly as he looked at the third aunt who was pedaling the electric wheel.

The third aunt nodded: "Your feeling is correct."

Uncle Three: “.”

Pushing my bicycle, I followed the residents and greeted them as they entered the central courtyard.

Li Aiguo saw Jia Zhang standing by the pool, pointing in the direction of the Yi family and cursing something.

An old lady would occasionally stick her head out from the crescent door but she didn't dare to come forward.

There was a group of residents there watching the fun.

"What's wrong?" Li Aiguo walked up to Xu Damao, handed him a cigarette and asked.

Xu Damao took the cigarette and gloated, "Jia Dongxu had an accident in the workshop today. His finger was pinched by the machine and almost broken."

"What does this have to do with Yi Zhonghai?"

"When Jia Zhang saw that Yi Zhonghai did not bring any gifts to visit Jia Dongxu, she thought that Yi Zhonghai deliberately arranged for Jia Dongxu to do dangerous work in order to harm Jia Dongxu."

Xu Damao seemed particularly excited.

After understanding the whole story, Li Aiguo lost interest in reading any further.

Compared with the intrigues in the courtyard, he would rather spend his time on serious matters.

Jia Zhang cursed for a while, but she didn't dare to settle the score with Yi Zhonghai, so she could only return home angrily.

When the aunt saw that Jia Zhang didn't come to her door, she breathed a sigh of relief and ran back home.

"Old man, it wasn't you who caused Jia Dongxu's injury, was it?"

An old lady looked at Yi Zhonghai and asked.

Yi Zhonghai looked helpless: "Don't you know what kind of person I am? Although Jia Dongxu is becoming more and more unreasonable, he is still my apprentice. Can I be so cruel?"

"Then why was he injured?"

"That's just his own fault because he's stupid." Yi Zhonghai said in a cold tone.

In the past, Jia Dongxu had Yi Zhonghai's help and only had to do easy work in the workshop.

Now that the two families have fallen out, Jia Dongxu can only do heavy work in the workshop like other workers.

After understanding the whole story, the aunt sighed and said, "Old Yi, Dongxu is your apprentice after all, so please take care of him as much as you can."

Yi Zhonghai was not happy to hear this, and waved his hand to interrupt the aunt: "When Jia Dongxu betrayed me, he didn't regard me as a master, so why should I regard him as an apprentice? Don't mention these things again in the future."

Seeing that Yi Zhonghai was getting more and more excited, the aunt was worried that he was having another heart attack, so she quickly brought him some medicine and asked him to take it.

After taking the medicine, Yi Zhonghai asked, "Old lady, what has Li Aiguo been busy with recently?"

"Today I saw him coming back with a big carp."

"This thief actually eats fish!"

Yi Zhonghai was about to curse a few words when he felt his heart pounding.

He took a few deep breaths and felt a little better.

Now you can’t even curse at people.

Yi Zhonghai felt very aggrieved.

Night is approaching.

Lights were turned on in every household.

Chen Xueru's promotion has made progress. Today, comrades from the district talked to her. If no one objects, she will probably be promoted to deputy director next month.

Miss Chen seemed very happy and cooked a large table of dishes.

After eating and drinking, Li Aiguo turned on the desk lamp, sat at the desk, picked up the pen and started writing on the manuscript paper.

"ㄅㄛ Language Tutorial"

The quality of computer language tutorials is of great importance.

To this day, Li Aiguo still remembers the experience of being almost discouraged by a C language textbook when he first came into contact with programming in his previous life.

Later, I read other textbooks and regained my confidence.

Looking back, Li Aiguo feels that the core spirit of that C language textbook is not to make you learn C language, but to prevent you from learning it.

The comrade who wrote the textbook used his life energy to dissuade countless students from pursuing computer careers.
[If anyone knows which C language textbook it is, please type the answer on the public screen]

“The principles of the ㄅㄛ language course.”

The tip of the pen moved across the white paper, and neat lines of Chinese characters and symbols appeared one after another.

Chen Xueru washed the dishes and saw Li Aiguo started working. She poured an enamel mug of tea and brought it over.

"Brother Aiguo, what did you write? I can't understand it at all." Chen Xueru looked at the various strange symbols on the paper, and her little head was full of question marks.

Li Aiguo pinched the pen and replied: "This is a Japanese language, a professional textbook."

"Bo language" Miss Chen muttered, her eyes instantly widened and her breathing became rapid.

Her mind went blank and she stared blankly at the symbols on the paper.

Can kissing be openly mentioned? There is even a special textbook on it?!

"There are two methods of direct insertion sorting, one is"

At this time, Li Aiguo luckily read out the sorting method that was being written.

Kissing is fine, but now I want more.
"what!"

Little Chen Niang cried out in pain, almost dying of shame and anger!

Li Aiguo was startled. He looked up at Miss Chen, who was so angry that she was about to cry, and asked in confusion, "Xue Ru, what's wrong?"

"How could you write such shameless things!" Miss Chen's face turned red with shame.

Just thinking about those words made her feel her soul was polluted.

"What a shameless thing"

Li Aiguo looked at the symbols on the material paper and finally understood what was going on. He quickly explained, "This is BO language, the language used to compile programs on computers. It's not what you think."

Language program on computer?

Miss Chen had also read news about vacuum tube computers in the newspaper, but it was the first time she heard that computers needed language.

Li Aiguo went on to explain: "A computer is a machine. We can only make it work by using a language it can understand. This language is called computer language."

Only then did Miss Chen realize that she had made a big mistake.

It turned out that she was the one with impure thoughts.

"Oh, I seem to be drunk just now."

Miss Chen was so panicked at this moment that she slipped into the bed and pretended to be an ostrich.

Li Aiguo looked at the squirming quilt, and then at the written words on the paper.

"The cold words of kissing are not as joyful as kissing."

He stood up and strode over.

The dim light shone on him, casting a huge shadow on the bright red bedding.

The night was quiet.

The night is lively.

(End of this chapter)