Why is Ada considered "too specialized" for scientific use
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From: Fritz Wuehler on 7 Jun 2010 12:18 > Of course that's effectively two programs - a macro processor and an > assembler. The PL/I preprocessor isn't tied to the language and can be > used as a general-purpose macro processor. The IBM assembler macro processor *is* part of the assembler and *is* tightly bound to the language.
From: George Orwell on 7 Jun 2010 14:50 > So? Shortcuts to keep from having to repeatedly type a bunch of code. > Don't do anything you couldn't do by hand and you are not compelled to > use them. The same is true of any compiler. Il mittente di questo messaggio|The sender address of this non corrisponde ad un utente |message is not related to a real reale ma all'indirizzo fittizio|person but to a fake address of an di un sistema anonimizzatore |anonymous system Per maggiori informazioni |For more info https://www.mixmaster.it
From: Gib Bogle on 7 Jun 2010 17:04 J. Clarke wrote: > On 6/7/2010 8:35 AM, Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57) wrote: >> Le Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:40:07 +0200, Peter Flass <Peter_Flass(a)yahoo.com> >> a écrit: >>> If you want to talk *really* old assemblers, look at SOAP. The >>> hardware had no core, only drum memory, >> What is a “drum memory” ? > > Are you serious? > > You remember those old Edison phonographs that used a wax cylinder? Well > imagine that concept only with the cylinder coated with magnetic > material instead of wax, and with a row (or several rows) of heads along > its length. Has most of the properties of a fixed-head disk except the > unequal track lengths. > > You had drum memory? You were lucky. When I was young we had to tie knots in pieces of string, by hand.
From: Wilson on 7 Jun 2010 17:05 On Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:24:00 -0400, Richard Harter <cri(a)tiac.net> wrote: > On Mon, 07 Jun 2010 06:40:07 -0400, Peter Flass > <Peter_Flass(a)Yahoo.com> wrote: > >> robin wrote: >>> "Martin Krischik" <krischik(a)users.sourceforge.net> wrote in message >>> news:op.vdv17504z25lew(a)macpro-eth1.krischik.com... >>> | Am 06.06.2010, 17:19 Uhr, schrieb J. Clarke <jclarke.usenet(a)cox.net>: >>> | >>> | > On 6/6/2010 12:25 AM, Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz wrote: >>> | >>> | > What do you believe to be the difference between machine code and >>> | > assembler? >>> | >>> | 6502 Assembler: >>> | >>> | LDA #10 >>> | >>> | 6502 Machine code: >>> | >>> | A9 10 >>> | >>> | Any more silly questions? >>> >>> That assembler was of a much later period than the one under >>> discussion, >>> namely, the 1940s-1950s. >>> >>> >> >> If you want to talk *really* old assemblers, look at SOAP. The hardware >> had no core, only drum memory, and each H/W instruction contained the >> drum address of the next instruction to be executed. A big function of >> the assembler was figuring out where to store the instructions on the >> drum so that the next instruction was under the R/W head just as the >> previous finished executing -- based on the instruction timings. Try >> doing that by hand for a large program! > > It must be time to recall the story of Mel. I've got a copy on > my website at http://home.tiac.net/~cri/2001/mel.html though I am > sure that there must be other copies on the web. > > > > Richard Harter, cri(a)tiac.net > http://home.tiac.net/~cri, http://www.varinoma.com > Reality is real; words are real too. > However words are not reality. Loved your story of Mel. I worked with a couple of people like that. We called them "bit diddlers" because "real programmers" always worked with bits. None of fancy, dancy oct or hex stuff. Unfortunantly, like you I had to upgrade one or two of their programs. Even worse, at one time I belonged to their fraternity. It was mentally chalanging either way, and a great game to see how good you were. In other words, fun while it lasted. The arrival of Fortran and Cobol put an end to the era of the bit diddler, although they made a small comeback with the advent of the first microporcessors. (Now that I think about it, I'll bet that somewhere there is a bit diddler trying to shoehorn a big program into the small memmory of some kind of control computer.) -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/ --- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: news(a)netfront.net ---
From: Gib Bogle on 7 Jun 2010 17:07
Arthur Evans Jr wrote: > > BTW -- Don Knuth, who like me cut his programming teeth on the 650, once > designed an integer-programming application to truly optimize > instruction placement. I don't know if he ever actually programmed it, > as he was sure it would take vastly more time to execute than it could > ever save. I may misremember some of the details. Classic! |