WIP: understanding stacktraces

content/thoughts/understanding-stacktraces.md

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+title = "Understanding Stacktraces"
+date = 2021-11-29
+draft = true
+
+[taxonomies]
+tags = ["programming", "stack traces"]
++++
+
+I've seen some people confused when their application crashes, spewing a bunch
+of lines and they can't figure out what went wrong.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+But let's start with something easier: What are stacktraces?
+
+## The Turing Machine
+
+To get what stacktraces are, let's start with the very beginning and talk about
+Turing Machines.
+
+Alan Turing, father of the computing, thought about having a long tape with
+commands[^1] and a pointer that would move forwards or backwards according to
+the command.
+
+For example, imagine that you have the following sequence of commands:
+
+- Take a piece of paper
+- Fold it in half
+- Unfold
+- Move the bottom right corner so it touches the fold mark
+
+... and so on (no, I'm not describing the whole process of making a paper
+plane). Even if the actions are pretty simple, you can use something to point
+which action you're taking so you know which one is the next one. Something
+like:
+
+- Take a piece of paper
+- Fold it in half
+- Unfold                       **<= I'm Here**
+- Move the bottom right corner so it touches the fold mark
+
+---
+
+[^1]: Actually, the Turing Machine would compose a group of 0s and 1s to figure
+    out a command, but let me simplify things a little bit.