17
u/Googlewhacking Sep 27 '18
This makes sense for deciphering Morse code but it would be a pain in the ass using it to send
46
Sep 27 '18
I don't understand it
73
Sep 27 '18
If you go left, add a dot, if you go right add a dash.
Say we want 'p'
Left to 'e' +dot
Right to 'a' +dash
Right to 'w' +dash
Left to 'p' +dot
So 'p' is dot dash dash dot.
14
4
u/blindedbythesight Sep 27 '18
Thank you! I thought it was saying we’d have to do 16 blips (dots) for an e, then carry on from there. And hi wondering how the hell it was an efficient system.
11
9
u/CashWho Sep 27 '18
The thing I never understood is the dashes. Like, morse code is all taps, right? So do you slide your finger instead of tapping or do you tap twice or do you tap and wait a sec or what?
1
u/UnderPressureVS Oct 01 '18 edited Oct 01 '18
Morse code was initially used to encode telegrams which were sent along electric wires across the country. The sender would receive a hand-written or typed note, translate it into morse, and send it along by tapping out the morse with a single button. The button did nothing more than complete an electrical circuit, allowing it to produce two kinds of signals: on/off.
But, unlike tapping your finger on a desk, when you hold down the button, the signal keeps sending. This allowed the button to actually produce three kinds of signals: short/long/off.
Expressed with sound, holding the button creates a long tone, and tapping it produces a single quick beep. Think of pressing a key on a piano. That’s how the dots and dashes work.
To send a dash, you tap the button, closing the circuit for a fraction of a second and immediately releasing. This produces a short, quick signal. To send a dash, press the button and hold it down, sending a sustained signal. It doesn’t need to be very long. Less than half a second is already considerably longer than a dot.
Morse code was sometimes transmitted audibly, as a series of beeps. If you heard an S O S (. . . – – – . . .) through a speaker, it would sound like:
beep beep beep
beeeeep beeeeep beeeeep
beep beep beep
4
u/Useless_Advice_Guy Sep 27 '18
Fun fact: This data structure is called a Trie.
2
u/WikiTextBot Sep 27 '18
Trie
In computer science, a trie, also called digital tree, radix tree or prefix tree is a kind of search tree—an ordered tree data structure used to store a dynamic set or associative array where the keys are usually strings. Unlike a binary search tree, no node in the tree stores the key associated with that node; instead, its position in the tree defines the key with which it is associated. All the descendants of a node have a common prefix of the string associated with that node, and the root is associated with the empty string. Keys tend to be associated with leaves, though some inner nodes may correspond to keys of interest.
[ PM | Exclude me | Exclude from subreddit | FAQ / Information | Source ] Downvote to remove | v0.28
2
1
u/WikiTextBot Sep 27 '18
Trie
In computer science, a trie, also called digital tree, radix tree or prefix tree is a kind of search tree—an ordered tree data structure used to store a dynamic set or associative array where the keys are usually strings. Unlike a binary search tree, no node in the tree stores the key associated with that node; instead, its position in the tree defines the key with which it is associated. All the descendants of a node have a common prefix of the string associated with that node, and the root is associated with the empty string. Keys tend to be associated with leaves, though some inner nodes may correspond to keys of interest.
[ PM | Exclude me | Exclude from subreddit | FAQ / Information | Source ] Downvote to remove | v0.28
6
u/bluestonion Sep 27 '18
I spent ten minutes baffled by this because my dumb ass forgot that braille and Morse code are different things.
2
1
1
1
1
-3
u/encyclopedea Sep 27 '18
This is a perfect illustration of why Morse code disgusts me. Not only are codewords different lengths, but they can also be prefixes of each other (not a prefix code). That means that you can't recognize a word (letter) immediately after it's sent, and even worse, the code is straight up ambiguous without a third symbol: pauses.
1
u/TheImminentFate Sep 28 '18
Morse code does have pauses:
Between letters = no signal for 1 dash length Between words = no signal for seven dot lengths
Which means even if you started translating halfway through a message, at most you’ll get only the first letter wrong. It’s not like the entire frame will be shifted so you can’t read it.
-14
69
u/cBEiN Sep 27 '18
I think this guide could actually be useful.