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Comment by dcow | Hacker News Reader

Same. I don't want to go run python code to play your little quiz game, sorry.

I think the article would be better structured as an explanation of what a connection is, its 5-tuple, and then a dive into any surprising exceptions to the rule that there can be no ambiguity in where a packet is delivered, it must go to exactly one spot on a host. So as long as you can find an unambiguous subset of available 5-tuples, you're allowed to bind/connect.

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The Python quiz code is easily read as identical to the equivalent syscalls. You can click through to the answers and read them out of the docstrings without ever running a Python interpreter (that's what I did).

It was 7am and I wasn't in the mood to hop back and forth between GH and the blog post trying a bunch of examples and piecing things together. I just wanted to read an interesting writeup. That's all.

> hop back and forth between GH and the blog post trying a bunch of examples

The hopping back and forth was intended (and suboptimal) but you were never supposed to try the examples to get the answers.

To each their own. I just didn't like the style. I provided constructive criticism in my initial comment.

I'm not defending the style, I'm saying that part of your criticism is mistaken.

The answers are there so you don't have to run it. Running it is an option if you want to experiment, not a part of taking the quiz.

agreed, the post is missing a clear explanation of what defines a TCP connection

Fair point, though gauging what is the knowledge-level of your audience is hard. Gotta pick what to include and what to omit if you want to keep it concise.

for sure, gauging your audience is difficult. Still, any piece of writing benefits from a good framing. Great post, but I think jumping right into the details loses X% of potential readers. Keep up the good work :)

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