Information technology in the New Year musical "The Magicians"
For me, one of the symbols of the New Year has always been (and still remains) the wonderful musical “Wizards” . And it's not just good songs, great cast or fairytale atmosphere. The film "Wizards" is another look at the beloved world of the book "Monday Starts on Saturday" by the Strugatsky brothers. They also wrote the script for the film (although much had to be redone in spite of their original idea).
"What do all these reflections do on Habré?" - you ask. Well, firstly, New Year is in the yard, and secondly, "Monday begins on Saturday" is a book for programmers ("A Tale for Young Scientists") and about programmers (the profession of the protagonist of the book). Already on the first page of the book we see, for example,
The film also shows us the magic as a result of the complex and knowledge-intensive activities of simple, in general, people. No here you " you were born in a family of wizards and inherited the gift ... " and other philosophical stones and mandrake root. The laboratory of absolute surprises in the film looks like a classic computing center of any scientific research institute of those years:
')
And now I want to talk about one issue related to information technology in this film, which has interested me for many years and for which I even wrote a letter to Boris Strugatsky, when he was still alive (although he did not receive an answer). With each of the numerous views of the movie "Wizards" I was surprised at one episode in it (carefully, there will be spoilers under the cut!).
At the 44th minute of the second series, one of the main characters of the film, Ivan Pukhov, steals a magic wand and tries to use it to improve relations with the bewitched lover - Alyonushka. Unfortunately, due to lack of awareness (no one reads the documentation!), Ivan does not know that this function is not supported by a wand and breaks the surrounding reality (house) to some extent. Comrades who came to the rescue asked Ivan to calm down and (attention!) To undo all the changes , for which it is proposed to draw a Latin letter Z in the air with a magic wand. Ivan follows the advice, all changes are rolled back:
The terms "undo changes" and reference to the Latin letter Z in today's world evoke a strong analogy with the Undo function and its corresponding key combination Ctrl + Z. But what does this combination do in the Soviet musical about wizards filmed in 1982? Do the characters in the movie mention the letter Z consciously, with a reference to the Undo function, from somewhere familiar to them, or is it just a coincidence? Let's figure it out.
First of all, let's find out on what hardware and software the Laboratory of Absolute Surprises operates, whose employees are Kovrov and Bryl, mentioning the cancellation of the action and the letter Z. A careful viewing of the film brings us this find:
Behind the heroes is the EC computer 1045, one of the models included in the “Unified system of electronic computers”, which has been developed and produced in the USSR since 1971.
You can read about it in Wikipedia or publication 3dnews .
Specifically, the EU model 1045 was produced from 1979, had a capacity of up to 800,000 operations per second and RAM up to 4 MB. In total, 1865 of such bags were built, so at the time of the shooting (1982), the Laboratory of Absolute Surprises can be considered fairly well equipped.
With iron sorted out. Now go to the software. Here we need to remember why and how the computers of the EC series of computers and their software were developed. In view of the insufficient resources of the USSR to develop from scratch hardware and software platforms that are comparative in their capabilities with products from the western world, it was decided to create both hardware and software compatible with the very popular and widely used IBM System / 360 and IBM System mainframe / 370 . This made it possible to “peep” the right technical solutions, use ready-made peripherals, analyze the source code of the programs, run the original software from IBM (which by the standards of those years existed incredibly much). Some code was even openly available (or available in source code after purchase), which allowed to refine the software to fit your needs, rather than writing it from scratch.
The most important feature in this all was, of course, the ability to run original IBM operating systems on the hardware that was created, which, according to Wikipedia, often happened in real work, because “they had a much smaller number of errors, they had better performance characteristics and reliability. Those. There were systems, both working on the original EU OS , and illegally running on the IBM System / 360 or IBM System / 370.
What exactly worked on the computer shown in the film, I do not know. Here is the only screenshot with more or less close-ups of one of the terminals. If suddenly there is someone among the readers who is able to determine the OS from it ( or someone has the Full-HD version of the same frame lying around ) - please share with us in the comments.
Why do I even mention System / 360 and IBM System / 370 here? But why? The fact is that it was for these systems that the File Retrieval and Editing System program was developed in 1968, which is officially considered the first program in the world that supports the Undo function. This is how the author Andries van Dam tells about this function in this program:
Those. We have already come to understand that the EU 1045 mainframe shown in the film (developed in 1979) could have run the IBM System / 370 operating system and use the text editor File Retrieval and Editing System (developed in 1968) with the Undo function. . Those. the very concept of the cancellation operation and even its implementation in a specific text editor could be well known to the main characters due to the circumstances of the film.
Now let's talk about the invocation of the Undo action using the Ctrl + Z combination (or any other with the letter Z). I shoveled a lot of information, but didn’t find a description of how the cancel command was run in the File Retrieval and Editing System editor (maybe some readers know how to google better than me?). But what is absolutely certain is that the combination Ctrl + Z was used to undo actions in the Bravo text editor , created in 1974 by programmers from Xerox PARC . It is to them that all official sources (for example, The New York Times ) attribute the authorship of the idea to bind the Ctrl + Z combination to the Undo function. Considering the track record of the inventions of the Xerox PARC division, it is quite possible to believe this.
So, now we know that at the time of the creation of the EU 1045 for 11 years, there was an implementation of the Undo function (in the EU 1045 compatible software) and 5 years as there was a keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Z, as a hot key to call Undo. From the creation of the EU 1045 to filming the film took another 3 years, which also contributed to the spread of software and knowledge of its functions.
From here we can conclude that the characters of the film (as well as its authors) could consciously and convincingly mention the cancel function and its connection with the Latin letter Z as a reference to the Undo function and the Ctrl + Z key combination in the software of those years.
I will be glad to any clarifications (well, or even denials) written.
PS Habr's collective intelligence and this time showed his strength. Dear unwrecker found the answer of Boris Strugatsky to my question about the meaning of cancellation with the Z sign. This answer completely refutes my theory, but finally sheds light on what is happening, which is undoubtedly more important! Thanks to Boris Strugatsky for the answer and thanks to unwrecker for his help in finding him.
"What do all these reflections do on Habré?" - you ask. Well, firstly, New Year is in the yard, and secondly, "Monday begins on Saturday" is a book for programmers ("A Tale for Young Scientists") and about programmers (the profession of the protagonist of the book). Already on the first page of the book we see, for example,
An example of a head-hunting valuable specialist in a cash-free, but interesting project
“Where do you work?” I answered. “Colossal! - exclaimed a hook-nosed one. - Programmer! We just need a programmer. Listen, leave your institute and go to us! ”...“ More interesting than ours, you will not be anywhere ”. - "Why do you think so?" - "Sure."
The film also shows us the magic as a result of the complex and knowledge-intensive activities of simple, in general, people. No here you " you were born in a family of wizards and inherited the gift ... " and other philosophical stones and mandrake root. The laboratory of absolute surprises in the film looks like a classic computing center of any scientific research institute of those years:
')
And now I want to talk about one issue related to information technology in this film, which has interested me for many years and for which I even wrote a letter to Boris Strugatsky, when he was still alive (although he did not receive an answer). With each of the numerous views of the movie "Wizards" I was surprised at one episode in it (carefully, there will be spoilers under the cut!).
At the 44th minute of the second series, one of the main characters of the film, Ivan Pukhov, steals a magic wand and tries to use it to improve relations with the bewitched lover - Alyonushka. Unfortunately, due to lack of awareness (no one reads the documentation!), Ivan does not know that this function is not supported by a wand and breaks the surrounding reality (house) to some extent. Comrades who came to the rescue asked Ivan to calm down and (attention!) To undo all the changes , for which it is proposed to draw a Latin letter Z in the air with a magic wand. Ivan follows the advice, all changes are rolled back:
The terms "undo changes" and reference to the Latin letter Z in today's world evoke a strong analogy with the Undo function and its corresponding key combination Ctrl + Z. But what does this combination do in the Soviet musical about wizards filmed in 1982? Do the characters in the movie mention the letter Z consciously, with a reference to the Undo function, from somewhere familiar to them, or is it just a coincidence? Let's figure it out.
First of all, let's find out on what hardware and software the Laboratory of Absolute Surprises operates, whose employees are Kovrov and Bryl, mentioning the cancellation of the action and the letter Z. A careful viewing of the film brings us this find:
Behind the heroes is the EC computer 1045, one of the models included in the “Unified system of electronic computers”, which has been developed and produced in the USSR since 1971.
You can read about it in Wikipedia or publication 3dnews .
Specifically, the EU model 1045 was produced from 1979, had a capacity of up to 800,000 operations per second and RAM up to 4 MB. In total, 1865 of such bags were built, so at the time of the shooting (1982), the Laboratory of Absolute Surprises can be considered fairly well equipped.
With iron sorted out. Now go to the software. Here we need to remember why and how the computers of the EC series of computers and their software were developed. In view of the insufficient resources of the USSR to develop from scratch hardware and software platforms that are comparative in their capabilities with products from the western world, it was decided to create both hardware and software compatible with the very popular and widely used IBM System / 360 and IBM System mainframe / 370 . This made it possible to “peep” the right technical solutions, use ready-made peripherals, analyze the source code of the programs, run the original software from IBM (which by the standards of those years existed incredibly much). Some code was even openly available (or available in source code after purchase), which allowed to refine the software to fit your needs, rather than writing it from scratch.
The most important feature in this all was, of course, the ability to run original IBM operating systems on the hardware that was created, which, according to Wikipedia, often happened in real work, because “they had a much smaller number of errors, they had better performance characteristics and reliability. Those. There were systems, both working on the original EU OS , and illegally running on the IBM System / 360 or IBM System / 370.
What exactly worked on the computer shown in the film, I do not know. Here is the only screenshot with more or less close-ups of one of the terminals. If suddenly there is someone among the readers who is able to determine the OS from it ( or someone has the Full-HD version of the same frame lying around ) - please share with us in the comments.
Why do I even mention System / 360 and IBM System / 370 here? But why? The fact is that it was for these systems that the File Retrieval and Editing System program was developed in 1968, which is officially considered the first program in the world that supports the Undo function. This is how the author Andries van Dam tells about this function in this program:
The most popular feature, however, was undo. I will claim that I’m free. An autosave and an undo. I think it is the most important feature of the system today. One level is better than zero, but inadequate for serious work. It doesn’t matter how much it’s been done
Those. We have already come to understand that the EU 1045 mainframe shown in the film (developed in 1979) could have run the IBM System / 370 operating system and use the text editor File Retrieval and Editing System (developed in 1968) with the Undo function. . Those. the very concept of the cancellation operation and even its implementation in a specific text editor could be well known to the main characters due to the circumstances of the film.
Now let's talk about the invocation of the Undo action using the Ctrl + Z combination (or any other with the letter Z). I shoveled a lot of information, but didn’t find a description of how the cancel command was run in the File Retrieval and Editing System editor (maybe some readers know how to google better than me?). But what is absolutely certain is that the combination Ctrl + Z was used to undo actions in the Bravo text editor , created in 1974 by programmers from Xerox PARC . It is to them that all official sources (for example, The New York Times ) attribute the authorship of the idea to bind the Ctrl + Z combination to the Undo function. Considering the track record of the inventions of the Xerox PARC division, it is quite possible to believe this.
So, now we know that at the time of the creation of the EU 1045 for 11 years, there was an implementation of the Undo function (in the EU 1045 compatible software) and 5 years as there was a keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Z, as a hot key to call Undo. From the creation of the EU 1045 to filming the film took another 3 years, which also contributed to the spread of software and knowledge of its functions.
From here we can conclude that the characters of the film (as well as its authors) could consciously and convincingly mention the cancel function and its connection with the Latin letter Z as a reference to the Undo function and the Ctrl + Z key combination in the software of those years.
I will be glad to any clarifications (well, or even denials) written.
PS Habr's collective intelligence and this time showed his strength. Dear unwrecker found the answer of Boris Strugatsky to my question about the meaning of cancellation with the Z sign. This answer completely refutes my theory, but finally sheds light on what is happening, which is undoubtedly more important! Thanks to Boris Strugatsky for the answer and thanks to unwrecker for his help in finding him.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/318910/
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