雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第9章:退隱山林(106)

Back at Manchester, Tony Brooker arrived, and began at once to undo the worst effects of the base-32-backwards mentality, writing new and more efficient schemes for input and output which allowed decimal notation, as well as improved subroutine linkage.

回到曼徹斯特之後，託尼·布魯克加入了，他立刻終結了32進制的惡夢，編寫了能夠進行10進制輸入輸出的新程序，並改進了子程序的鏈接過程。

Alan did not mind in the least, but stuck to his own scheme, in which he was quite happy, his imagination quite easily visualising cow-blotches or rose-petals in a jumble of the thirty-two teleprinter symbols.

圖靈對此毫不介意，但他也保留了自己的想法，他對自己的想法很滿意，這體現在他用32個符號拼出了各種各樣的奶牛圖案或者玫瑰花瓣。

Meanwhile Christopher Strachey had visited Manchester to try out a long program, the longest that anyone had dared attempt, written only from the manual and a little consultation with Cicely Popplewell.

在這期間，斯特拉齊來到曼徹斯特，想要試驗一個有史以來最長的程序，這是他根據編程指南寫出來的。

It was intended to solve a problem that Alan had suggested to him, that of making the machine simulate its own behaviour, in such a way that other programs could be tested out.

這個程序是爲了解決一個圖靈跟他提過的問題，通過讓機器累積自身的行爲，從而對其它程序進行檢驗。

At the laboratory they regarded this ambitious amateur effort with friendly scorn, knowing that like everyone's first dabblings it stood not a chance of success. But the program was duly punched out and Strachey allowed to try it. Alan showed him how to operate the machine, offering a few quick-fire instructions, and then leaving Strachey to get on with it.

他們對此並不抱很大希望，但是斯特拉齊已經做好了打孔卡片，並得到了機器使用許可。圖靈給他講解瞭如何操作機器，以及一些快捷指令，然後就讓斯特拉齊自己動手了。

Usually Alan would be impatient with others' relative slowness, but this time he met his match. Overnight, Strachey was able to make his program work, and furthermore to amaze everyone with its final rendition of God Save the King, played on the hooter.

通常情況下，圖靈總是因爲別人拖拖拉拉的操作而感到極不耐煩，但這次的情況卻不同，斯特拉齊只用了一個晚上，就順利地讓他的程序正常運行了。

On Alan's recommendation, Lord Halsbury immediately offered Strachey a job with the NRDC, at a salary sufficient to persuade him away from his boys at Harrow.

在圖靈的推薦下，海斯貝瑞立馬在英國研究發展公司給斯特拉齊安排了一份工作，其薪水之豐厚，足以使他辭去哈羅公學的教職。

Alan's days as grand master of the console were over. He had handed on the torch.

圖靈作爲機器大主管的日子，從此一去不復返了，他親手把火炬傳給了別人。