Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software, 2nd Edition

Chapter Eleven

Bit by Bit by Bit

A story dating from at least the 1950s tells of a man traveling home after a stint in a distant prison. He doesn’t know if he’ll be welcomed back, so he requests a sign in the form of some cloth tied around a branch of a tree. In one version of the story, the man is traveling by train to his family, and he hopes to see a white ribbon on an apple tree. In another, he’s traveling by bus to his wife, and he’s looking for a yellow handkerchief on an oak tree. In both versions of the story, the man arrives to see the tree covered with hundreds of these banners, leaving no doubt of his welcome.

The story was popularized in 1973 with the hit song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” and since then, displaying ...