http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=50833

Brothers and Sisters all. I have gone on a quest of my own devising. I have plunged into the _DEEPEST_ catacombs of the Monastery. I have been where few monks have been or even knew existed. I have seen things that chilled my bones. I have uncovered a DARK SECRET about the Monastery that will cause you perhaps to weep when you read it. I wondered what sorts of mysteries lay at the lowest nodes. I wanted to see what nodes were the first ones to be created, who created them, and what they said. So I systematically requested to see in order nodes zero through 128. 128 was a nice power of two and a good stopping point, though I doubt I've made much of a dent in uncovering the truth beneath the Monastery's foundations. I list them here in order for your viewing pleasure. Hopefully my friends, I will not be expelled for such a brash act of searching as I have done here this eventide. May you read this in good health, and indeed, may you read this and let it not be censored.

Edit: Closed some <b> tags. larsen

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: The True Catacombs of Perlmonks
by chromatic (Archbishop) on Jan 10, 2001 at 06:20 UTC
    Interesting detective work and suppositions. I can clear up some of the mysteries, though. (Others are lost in the haze of Everything 0.8.)
    • node 0: The 0th node is a virtual node, created on the fly by the Engine. It exists to make locations work, at least in 0.9 and later.
    • node 19: The general container changes its parent based on the current user's theme settings. You can't rely on what it says for the parent container, because the act of viewing it can change it. And that's the point.
    • node 20: Containers only provide markup (HTML) for content nodes. Nodelets contain HTML and (potentially) embedded Perl code to create HTML.
    • nodes 23 and 24: These haven't changed much. The only way to tell what's coming is to crack open nate's skull with a coconut. Or ask him.
    • node 84: I believe this is where system default settings live. The semantics have changed in version 0.9. The JavaScript only exists to make it easier arrange elements of a group. Client-side transformation is much faster.
    • node 96: Server statistics only shows server date, time, and load. It spawns two shell processes (date and uptime), so it's not too efficient.) Node Statistics shows basic information about the current node, like the number of hits, the nodetype, and the current display page.
    • node 106: This is actually the default node displayed when users don't request a node by id or name. The administrator can change the system default node in the system settings -- it now points to The Monastery Gates. The ultimate parent of all nodes is node, probably node_id 1 or 2.
    • node 107: I think nate wrote this. It's out of date. The manual is more complete.
    • node 110: Each user sees personal settings here.
    • node 111: The date is probably the release date of the Engine vroom used to set things up.
    • node 114: As they say on Everything 2, these are owners/employees of EDC, and only have this access to see how things are done or to fix things when vroom is passed out after a long night of studying.
    • node 126: I've heard that these things happen. Two tests are better than one.
    For more information, see the 'manual' link above, or download the latest version yourself and play with things.
Re: The True Catacombs of Perlmonks
by turnstep (Parson) on Jan 10, 2001 at 06:39 UTC
    It also pains me to say that I found taint in the Monastery. At the bottom of the htmlvars nodegroup is a link to "launch editor." It is written in Javascript. ::Watches as monks gasp in horror, and some of the weaker ones faint dead away:: I'm sorry, but this is what it is.

    What's wrong with javascript? Perl and javascript can play nicely together. Matter of fact, some of the higher functions of the monastery require javascript.

Re: The True Catacombs of Perlmonks
by cLive ;-) (Prior) on Oct 23, 2001 at 07:22 UTC
    node -1 is pretty interesting too.

    cLive ;-)

      node -1 is pretty interesting too.

      Not if I can help it!

Re: The True Catacombs of Perlmonks
by halxd2 (Monk) on Jan 11, 2001 at 02:17 UTC
    I like it!
    no really what a good idea. Go find a random perl posting to meditate upon...
    A worthy thing for every monk.
Re: The True Catacombs of Perlmonks
by ambrus (Abbot) on Mar 04, 2006 at 21:28 UTC

    I know what node 1 is. It's the nodetype nodetype.