A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Upon hearing "Second Generation Super Yellow," Liu Huaqing's eyes first lit up, then dimmed again. He lightly tapped Old Wang's shin with his cane and chuckled, "I'll scold you!"

"Bullshit! I think you've been hanging out with some scoundrel for too long, and you're blowing your own horn like crazy! What's 'Big Yellow'? It's a precious gem that all the ministries protect like the apple of their eye. You call it second-generation? Super? You think it's like collecting seashells on the beach, where you can have as many as you want?"

"Old platoon leader, don't be so skeptical! My confidence comes from somewhere! It's not that I, Wang Kui, am particularly capable; it's just that the guy in the room wanted to slack off, and by sheer luck, we stumbled upon a perfect opportunity!"

Yes, that's absolutely right.

The main reason was that Jiangxia exchanged for the complete set of blueprints for the Hayashio-class submarines, but only a small portion of them were given to Professor Shilu and his colleagues.

Although Jiang Xia considered this submarine to be a cobbled-together creation, the data on its hull layout and keel structure were still very valuable for reference.

Jiang Xia originally wanted to take out the entire set of materials, but all the documents in the space store were standard printed copies, and they even used Founder fonts...

Taking it directly won't work; I'll have to print it out and rewrite it as a hand-drawn sketch.

With so many blueprints, if he were to draw them all by himself, he wouldn't be able to do anything else for the next year; he'd have to spend every day glued to the drawing board!

The turning point came at just the right time.

Just as Lao Wang was impersonating the King of Qin and making Junichiro, that little idiot, walk a tightrope, Jiang Xia also received a call from his senior brother from Yunnan and Guizhou in Beijing.

Old Wang had no idea what the specific content of the call was; he had only glanced at it briefly while helping Jiang Xia organize the call logs.

It seems that Senior Brother Yungui drew on the early ideas of a "cursor controller" that some comrades had brought back from abroad, and combined it with his own experience in graphic display to create a new interactive graphic input system.

At its core is a device called "a screen coordinate picker based on the principle of photoelectric conversion". With the special software they developed, the operator can directly select elements on the screen with the pen tip and establish geometric constraints between graphics, so that graphic elements can interact with each other.

Well, now everyone likes a name based on something, but while it looks fancy on paper, it's a hassle to pronounce in everyday life!

So this thing got a simplified name—light pen!

Old Wang didn't understand what this thing had picked up, but Jiang Xia did!

Upon hearing the description over the phone, Jiang Xia immediately realized what it was...

This thing is just a mouse!

However, compared to the appearance of the mouse, what delighted Jiang Xia even more was the application of the software on the computer described by the senior brother from Yunnan and Guizhou.

why?

Come on, let's first take a look at the light pen that Senior Brother Yungui made.

Its shape does indeed resemble a short, stubby electronic pen, and its tip integrates a phototube that Changchun Optoelectronics has recently developed.

When the pen tip is pointed at a specially designed cathode ray tube screen, it can detect the instantaneous flash of a scanning light spot at a specific location on the screen, allowing the computer to "know" where the pen tip is pointing. Pressing the button on the pen is equivalent to issuing a "select" or "execute" command.

However, what is truly revolutionary is the interactive graphical software developed by the Yunnan-Guizhou Master Brother team for this system.

It allows engineers to draw lines and define shapes directly on the screen using a light pen, and to add geometric constraints such as "horizontal", "vertical", "tangent", and "equal length" to these graphic elements.

Once the constraints are established, the entire graphic seems to be endowed with an inherent mathematical soul. Dragging any part will automatically adjust all related parts, while always strictly maintaining the preset geometric relationships.

When Jiang Xia heard his senior brother use the example of "dragging a circle and having tangent lines automatically follow it" on the phone, he instantly understood...

This is just CAD, the kind with parametric constraints!

"Senior Brother, Senior Brother! Does it support instance copying now? Like, if you draw a part, can you 'whoosh' copy a whole bunch of them, and if you change one, all the others will change too?"

"Huh? What does this mean?"

"Instance...copy? Oh! You mean, draw one and generate multiple related instances? This...can't be done yet, you have to draw them one by one. But drawing with a 'light pen' is quite fast!"

The senior disciple from Yunnan and Guizhou was disappointed that his junior brother could not witness his research results in person, but that did not stop him from having fun playing with the light pen.

"Watch closely! Draw a baseline circle first!" Yun Gui shouted into the microphone, lightly tapping the screen with the tip of his pen, ignoring Jiang Xia's constant complaints on the other end of the microphone that he was showing off.

Hey! Just showing off!

Regardless of what others thought, Senior Brother Yungui was simply imagining the silly boy scratching his head in his mind.

Hey, you little rascal, you dug a hole and left! You'd better experience the feeling of wanting something but not getting it!

As Senior Brother Yungui pressed the button on the side of the pen.

A soft electronic beep sounded.

A small "+" cursor appeared in the center of the screen. The senior brother steadily moved the light pen with his wrist, "dragging" out a vague circular outline from the "+" as the center.

He moved slowly because there was a visible delay in cursor tracking. When the circle was about the right size, he pressed the button again.

"Click."

The screen seemed to "freeze" for a second, as the eerie green scan lines repeatedly refreshed the area. Then, a perfect circle composed of dense pixels appeared on the screen, with the values ​​of its center and radius automatically popping up in the corner.

"It's done!" Senior Brother Yungui cheered softly, but didn't stop. He moved the light pen and selected the "straight line" tool from the menu.

This time, he carefully positioned the pen tip near the upper quadrant of the circle, pressed the button to confirm the starting point, and then slowly dragged the cursor down, trying to draw a vertical line.

The lines are crooked.

He didn't panic. Instead, he clicked on a submenu labeled "Constraints" and selected "Tangent." Then, he used the light pen to first tap the crooked straight line, and then the circle.

The screen entered "thinking" mode again, the scan lines scrolled slowly, and the disk arrays in the rack could be heard making more intense seek noises, as if the entire machine was working at full capacity for this "relationship" calculation.

As the indicator light of the external computing module lit up, the crooked straight line seemed to be instantly "absorbed" and "straightened" by an invisible force, automatically adjusting to a position that was perfectly tangent to the circle, and a tiny "TAN" symbol was automatically marked next to it.

"Hahaha! Perfect! Junior brother, your idea for this cheat is pretty good! Now, when the second-generation Big Yellow detects insufficient computing power, it will automatically connect to this computing board. It's like flying!"

"Elder brother..."

Hearing Jiang Xia begging for mercy on the other end of the microphone, a smile appeared in the eyes of Senior Brother Yun Gui.

But where is this?

Enjoy the feeling of a cat tickling your heart and lungs!

"Let me show you the cutting function!"

Jiang Xia on the other end of the phone almost cursed: "What the hell am I supposed to watch?! If you're so capable, then put the video function on!"

Unable to hear Jiangxia Xinsheng, Senior Brother Yungui selected the trimming tool. The light pen transformed into sharp scissors, and he carefully "dotted" on the small arc formed by the circle and the tangent.

Each time you click, the screen pauses briefly. The "cut" line doesn't disappear immediately; instead, it first becomes a flashing dotted line before quietly disappearing in the next screen refresh.

The process wasn't smooth; it was even a bit choppy, but every step was precise and executed strictly according to his "strokes." In the end, what remained on the screen was a simple geometric shape composed of a standard circle and a precise tangent line.

……

Although he couldn't see the scene, Jiang Xia was already completely captivated by the descriptions from his senior brother from Yunnan and Guizhou...

After waiting for Senior Brother Yun Gui to finish showing off, Jiang Xia quickly offered a whole bunch of flattery, and finally cautiously asked Senior Brother if he could get a set, euphemistically called a 'practical test'.

As a result, everything went smoothly.

The senior brother from Yunnan and Guizhou should submit a report explaining the situation, saying that the chief engineer of the computer project needs to test the system.

And this task of transportation and docking fell right on the "old nest".

Adhering to the long-standing tradition in Jiangxia that important equipment needs to be backed up, the senior brother from Yunnan and Guizhou sent over two units at once.

Old Wang had his eye on this backup machine!