HOW IT HAPPENED
I am not the author of PDD.EXE. In fact, as far as I can tell, nobody created
PDD.EXE. No source code for PDD.EXE has ever existed. Allow me to explain.
A few years ago, one of my clients requested a program to communicate with a
Portable Disk Drive from his PC. I tried LapDOS, but it could not be successfully
integrated with my client's existing system. I needed something more flexible, preferably
source code. A few days later, I was doing some routine maintenance on my PC's hard disk,
when I discovered a file that I hadn't noticed before: "PDD.EXE". Curious, I
tried it out. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that this program would actually
communicate with my Portable Disk Drive! What a coincidence! But where did PDD.EXE come
from? I was sure I hadn't copied it from any diskettes or downloaded it from a BBS, so how
did it get on my hard disk?
At once I began an investigation into the background of my uninvited visitor,
trying to locate its author, with the hope that I could persuade her or him to provide me
with the source code. During the course of my investigation, I discovered several older
versions of PDD.EXE, with obvious bugs which did not exist in the latest version. After
analyzing these programs and comparing them with each other, I came to an incredible
conclusion: PDD.EXE was a different kind of program than had ever been seen before. It
appeared to be the result of some strange kind of self-mutating code, which, over time,
had actually succeeded in adding additional features to itself while eliminating its own
bugs!
It was then that I realized that if I could trace this code down to its origin,
I could make a breakthrough discovery: self-debugging, self-maintaining code! I'd never
need to debug another program. I could give up programming and take up fishing.
Over the next few months, I discovered several more older versions of PDD.EXE:
more links in the chain toward the elusive origin of this program. One day, I discovered a
small utility program PDDTEST.EXE, which simply checked to see if the PDD was currently
available on the COM port. I knew when I found PDDTEST.EXE that I was getting close to the
beginning. After years of research, I finally traced the origins of PDD.EXE all the way
through the most primitive utilities, until I found the origin: a single bit, sitting in
my root directory. I stared in awe. That single bit had the potential of becoming the
Mother of all programs!
I went out and bought the fastest 486 computer I could find, with a 400MB hard
drive. Then I copied the Mother bit to the root directory. As I watched in amazement, that
one Mother bit transformed itself, through a process of random mutation, into a complete
family of full-featured, bug-free programs for handling every need imaginable.
I had discovered the Source of all code.
* * *
Back to reality. As we all know, computer programs don't create themselves from
a Mother bit. It is fantasy at best, and foolishness at worst, to even consider the
thought. (Even the most sophisticated "artificial intelligence" programs can all
be traced back to an intelligent HUMAN source.)
How, then, could we ever entertain the concept that human life, and all of the
other life which surrounds us, just "evolved" from a long series of random
mutations? Look at the trees, the mountains, the animals; look in the mirror! Everywhere
you look, the work of a loving Creator is evident.
Just as PDD.EXE was carefully created by me, you were carefully created by God.
Acknowledge Him today as your Source, realize your own inadequacy and accept His gift of
permanent life through Jesus Christ.
If you want to know more about God, read the book of John in the Bible. Or,
contact me; I'd be glad to help.
Have a nice life!
Tim Palmquist
