I remember it as a long, sunny day. But if you look at the calendar, it’s just over a week. Relive that battle before it gets diluted and distorted too much.
January 16th is no hurry
On the afternoon of January 15, Pacific time, I caught sight of the article “Mulan, China’s self-developed programming language, officially released” in the headlines of China Youth Daily. I was so excited that I thought, “Will 2020 be the first year of domestic programming language? “, failed to find the official website and documents, so I posted the question “What are the features of Mulan programming language? . It was the morning of 16th Beijing time, and the encounter with Mulan was joyful.
One even found the executable file ulang-0.2.2.exe on the official website to download and immediately saved a copy, but I don’t know whether it is officially released.
Wait. What’s the hurry? Wait for the big guy to come and analyze it.
One of the first answers mentioned “Python2 shells.”
January 17th was uneventful
Got up in the morning, looked at the QQ group, someone mentioned the Core. Binary analysis of exe began to appear in the answers, and more “clues” pointed to Python.
Just sit tight and get on with whatever else you’re doing, really.
Couldn’t help but try to run the EXE at night.
Under one answer, a commenter knew Liu lei’s team and asked him to send a message to the authorities for clarification as soon as possible.
On January 18th it took a sharp turn for the worse
See liu Lei’s Fact Sheet on “Mulan” programming language.
My zhihu question became a hot list, and the number of answers surged. The style of painting began to change, and more and more people no longer cared about technical details. An “apology” and the words “Python” will suffice, and the party begins.
What is the truth? I have to use my own judgment. (9:30 a.m. Pt. 17) Continued to explore executables, trying out function definitions, etc.
Before going to bed, call on the QQ group:
For mulan, technical discussion is welcome. For the improper publicity, might as well take this as a mirror, sum up the experience and lessons, rather than cynicism.
Before I knew it, the story had already spilled over and some members of the media were already rubbing their hands.
January 19 Come on, come on!
At 8:30pm Pacific time on the 18th, a person was found to have reversed the Magnolia executable into Python code and analyzed it. Just after midnight, the reverse engineering has been successfully run, the PR has been submitted, the function can be defined, it feels reliable.
Very good, even if the official is not open source, I also need not be led by the nose of rumors, continue to see the source code.
An hour later, I saw the computer science Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences issued “On the Treatment of Mulan language problem”. The “Python open source compiler is included in the product development kit” made me choke.
The first reaction in the QQ group was:
Stop loss… In the wake of this incident, one should be cautious about “autonomy”. Moreover, to save development costs, even if the language design is original, the implementation often relies on the existing language runtime, is not said to be XX skin?
Then I saw the reports of various we-media and left a message before going to bed:
A temporary folder containing python characters can be identified as the python compiler itself. Take a rest and calm down
Go back and try to sum it up, using history as a guide
Early the next morning, the messenger did not respond. All kinds of rumors are still going viral, and the answers under the Zhihu question are getting more and more low. All this is deja vu, those without lower limits, stir up the fire shake clever in Chinese programming related topics also often appear. The few answers with serious technical analysis have been drowned out.
Now is not the time for summing up. We must, as soon as possible, make a different sound.
January 20 hanchip also a road? !
Qq group to hear some han Xin inside the story, history seems to be repeating – seize the braidstick a simple label to incite public opinion will project and the leader of a stick down. The labels of Hanxin are “Polish CPU” and “change logo”, while Mulan is “fake” and “Change Python skin and shell”.
The technical details of Hanchip have long been unable to explore, only the report of the expert group is open. But Mulan was rescued with at least one executable file before the official website was shut down.
However, the third party technical analysis has been left behind by the manic crowd, at this point analysis of reverse engineering is not helpful.
An open Letter to mulan Programming Language Development Team was posted on Zhihu and Toutiao at 11:30 PM Pacific time on 19th. Open source, open source now, at least you can be proactive!
Qq message one hour later:
As a bystander from the beginning, make your voice heard. Just saw the People’s Daily to The Beijing News editorial, maybe already too late. At any rate, the Python AST transformation is a technical route that has been trod. There are many lessons to be learned.
In the investigation to get to the bottom of the matter, the impression of the authoritative media followed the trend with “fake” to do the title, why so? What can we do now?
No news on January 21st is good news
At 11:30 PM Pacific Time on 20 PM, the post “Why the Rush to Label Mulan as a ‘fake’ programming language?”
Even if the sound is weak, I will do my best to beat. In the midst of the storm, I’m sure some people are watching the public opinion closely. Whoever it is, they have far more sway over events than I do. If my voice can reach any of them, it will be worth it.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences has yet to come up with a response, and there is no doubt that those involved are suffering. Buy them one more minute to defend themselves.
January 22 must be calm
From the top of the list of my Zhihu questions, answers from “Guxi” attracted most traffic, and bits of them were widely quoted by various media.
The answer was particularly harsh:
You can literally package Python with PyInstaller and call yourself “homegrown.”
Completely flimsy bullshit, as long as it caters to “popular expectations,” can actually prevail. Although I’ve been exposed to various types of Chinese programming in the dark, being up close and personal with the audience was overwhelming.
At noon On Monday Pacific Time, he made his first attempt at a selfie video to refute such nonsense. He soon realized that passive defense through unfamiliar channels and being drawn into clever dog fights were not only ineffective but also burdening.
Calm does bring clarity. The shock education I have received in the past few days, combined with sporadic feelings before this and the current chip dilemma, makes me re-examine the invisible weakness of programming language. At 7 PM on the same day, the post “The key battle for localization of programming language — Saying” No “to the indiscriminate stigmatization of” Mulan “programming language”.
After figuring out the big problem, I put aside my useless anger. Now, let’s get down to business.
January 23rd
I have long seen that many well-known old media rushed to criticize the Chinese Academy of Sciences after it published “Instructions on Handling the Situation”. I am afraid that many of the labels quoted in it, such as “changing the skin” and “covering the shell”, may have their origins in my answers to the questions on zhihu.
It was my first experience of a nationwide corruption scandal, and it was a memorable moment when the public was still in the infancy of programming language construction.
Hence the article “Mulan programming Language misstatements in the Media”.
It took less than 10 minutes for Zhihu to pass approval (around 2pm Pacific time on 22nd) and more than an hour for the headlines. It went surprisingly well. Zhihu article published, to the QQ group for advice. In opposition, it was the same person who first mentioned HMC, and for the first time in a private message, who urged me to take it down, defended every story I refuted, and seemed to know something about the news business (mentioning details like editorial staff and headline word limits). At the time, he seemed to have escaped the messengers of the enemy camp.
I don’t have time for this.
We do not know how long the hands of the we-media number can be used, we need to make as strong a sound as possible, for as much time as possible to wake up the rational.
The unexpected end of January 24th
Both Zhihu and the headline “Review of Inappropriate Remarks” are still online, and the reading volume seems to be normal. Looks like, maybe, more time?
Until we find out, we need every minute to set the record straight. Finish “Debunking Bad Rumors about the Mulan programming language” at noon Pacific time, 23rd.
Zhihu was quickly reviewed, but the headline took longer to review than the previous one, as if the censors were at war with each other. I was very surprised to receive the unprecedented preferential treatment of “being successfully popup” (it is said that “it has been pushed to the user through the mobile phone message, and will get more reading”), thinking that it would be a popular article, and even more surprised, the final reading was even less than 100, this is later.
I have read the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Opinions on the Investigation and Treatment of “Mulan” Language Problem.
Mixed tastes.
Ten minutes, a decision was made.
It doesn’t matter. Now that you know what to do, it’s just a matter of how to do it. Now, there’s no hurry.
Wuhan was on lockdown that day ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. The online backlash against Mulan seems to have come to an abrupt end.
At 23pm Pacific time, the MulanRevive programming Language project was launched.
January 25th is Chinese New Year’s Day
It’s time for lunch.
Head to a nearby noodle shop, sit down at a table for two, and ask if the limited edition special duck leg noodles are still available. Eat noodles, pay the bill, push the door and walk out into the sunshine. It was early morning of The 25th Beijing time, the Spring Festival.
Mulan, wish you all a happy New Year.
Since fate, and allow me to go with you.
Wu Xuan, wrote at midnight Pacific time on October 11, 2020