Early attempts at console humor?
Michael J. Albanese
Just curious if anybody remembers early attempts at console humor on
mainframe systems. I recall that typing a bad command into the console
typewriter of a GE-225/235 would bring back the short but completely
understandable response of "Huh?"
Those little "humanisms", simple as they were, were one of the things
which made computing so captivating to a newcomer, in effect putting a
personality on those boxes of blinking lights. I've often wondered if a
lone programmer was able to put something like that into the code on
his/her own, or if it was all decided ahead of time by a committee.
Did IBM ever have console humor? All I seem to remember are blocks of
lines that looked something like IEE600I REPLY to 03 IS;311 :-)
Mike
--
(remove 'revoke-my-' from address for email)
Jay Maynard
<mjalb...@revoke-my-charter.net> wrote:
>Did IBM ever have console humor? All I seem to remember are blocks of
>lines that looked something like IEE600I REPLY to 03 IS;311 :-)
The closest I can think of off the top of my head is $HASP000 OK , which,
until MVS/ESA or so, was the JES2 response to damned near any request it
could handle.
Jim Haynes
in the evolution of the operating system the command EI produced the
response EIO . This was documented in the operator's manual.
A piece of unintentional console humor was in the G.E. 635 GECOS
operating system. A peripheral error caused a bunch of error codes
to be typed on the console, followed by prompting the operator for
a response. The most common prompt was RATZ , which was pretty much
what you felt like saying when one of those errors occurred. (The
meaning was R-retry, A-abort, T-terminate, or Z-go to an error exit
specified by the user.)
Another unintentional bit, and this was on listings, not on the console,
was the IBM message
********GO DOES NOT EXIST BUT HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE DATA SET
A student played games with the IBM console operator by including a card
in his deck which caused the console to type out
TOMORROW HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO INCORRECT JCL.
Dave Daniels
> lines that looked something like IEE600I REPLY to 03 IS;311 :-)
I have wondered about the MVS 'F' console command, where 'F'
stands for 'modify'. Why pick 'F'? All I can think of is that some
subversive element within IBM thought 'modify = fuck up', so I'll
abbreviate 'modify' to 'F'.
Dave Daniels
Brian Inglis
<dave_d...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:
>In article <v3jmfui...@corp.supernews.com>,
> Michael J. Albanese <mjalb...@revoke-my-charter.net> wrote:
>> Did IBM ever have console humor? All I seem to remember are blocks of
>> lines that looked something like IEE600I REPLY to 03 IS;311 :-)
What was the correct reply: R 03,G? Or was that some other
system?
>I have wondered about the MVS 'F' console command, where 'F'
>stands for 'modify'. Why pick 'F'? All I can think of is that some
>subversive element within IBM thought 'modify = fuck up', so I'll
>abbreviate 'modify' to 'F'.
SOP for letter choices used to be to order commands in expected
frequency of use or importance to avoid mistakes, then pick from
initial letter, final letter, something unused; skipping letters
that could be confused in documentation or read as responses if
entered at the wrong time: O, I, Y, N, ...
Wasn't M used for Mount, pretty high frequency in removable disk
and heavy tape days? So modiFy would be the next choice.
Thanks. Take care, Brian Inglis Calgary, Alberta, Canada
--
Brian....@CSi.com (Brian dot Inglis at SystematicSw dot ab dot ca)
fake address use address above to reply
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Jay Maynard
<Brian....@SystematicSw.ab.ca> wrote:
>On Fri, 31 Jan 2003 07:48:17 +0000 (GMT), Dave Daniels
><dave_d...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:
>>I have wondered about the MVS 'F' console command, where 'F'
>>stands for 'modify'. Why pick 'F'? All I can think of is that some
>>subversive element within IBM thought 'modify = fuck up', so I'll
>>abbreviate 'modify' to 'F'.
>SOP for letter choices used to be to order commands in expected
>frequency of use or importance to avoid mistakes, then pick from
>initial letter, final letter, something unused; skipping letters
>that could be confused in documentation or read as responses if
>entered at the wrong time: O, I, Y, N, ...
>Wasn't M used for Mount, pretty high frequency in removable disk
>and heavy tape days? So modiFy would be the next choice.
M is mount, I is switch (to switch from the actifve to the standby SMF
dataset - I don't think there are other uses for that, but I could be
wrong), and D is display. I don't remember if O or Y are assigned, but
probably not. That still leaves F as the best choice.
Joe Morris
>Another unintentional bit, and this was on listings, not on the console,
>was the IBM message
> ********GO DOES NOT EXIST BUT HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE DATA SET
That was output from the linkage editor, in response (IIRC) to an
input stream that called for the replacement of a nonexistent
load module.
And I recently posted a story given me by my shop's resident SE (back
when there *were* resident SEs, prior to New World) that the Delta
Airlines online system for ticket agents would respond to the command
"HOW?<send>" by running a diagnostic sequence on the attached Selectric
typewriter -- but would respond to "HOW ABOUT SEX?<send>" with the line:
NOT WITH YOU, BUDDY
...and the MAD compiler under certain error conditions would produce
a printer-art rendition of Alfred E. Newman.
Joe Morris
Paul Brinkley
wrote:
>
>Another unintentional bit, and this was on listings, not on the console,
>was the IBM message
> ********GO DOES NOT EXIST BUT HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE DATA SET
Eep. Y'know, reading this quickly, it looked at first like
********GOD DOES NOT EXIST BUT HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE DATA SET
Paul Brinkley
la...@starpower.net
John Everett
<mjalb...@revoke-my-charter.net> wrote:
>
>Just curious if anybody remembers early attempts at console humor on
>mainframe systems.
Two that I recall from the PDP-6/PDP-10 Monitor (long before it
acquired the name TOPS-10) were built into the CCL (Concise Command
Language) implementation.
There was MAKE command that compiled/assembled and linked a program,
but if you typed "MAKE LOVE" the response was "NOT WAR?". IIRC if
there was a source named LOVE.??? it went ahead and did the
appropriate thing.
The response to "GOTO HELL" was "GET STUFFED" on one line and
"IN ?????" on the next, but I can't recall what the "?????" was.
Anyone?
jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3
Dr. Richard E. Hawkins
C'mon, GOD is REAL, unless declared INTEGER :)
hawk
--
Richard E. Hawkins, Asst. Prof. of Economics /"\ ASCII ribbon campaign
doc...@psu.edu Smeal 178 (814) 375-4700 \ / against HTML mail
These opinions will not be those of X and postings.
Penn State until it pays my retainer. / \
Dr. Richard E. Hawkins
Brian Inglis <Brian....@SystematicSw.ab.ca> wrote:
>On Fri, 31 Jan 2003 07:48:17 +0000 (GMT), Dave Daniels
><dave_d...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:
>>I have wondered about the MVS 'F' console command, where 'F'
>>stands for 'modify'. Why pick 'F'? All I can think of is that some
>>subversive element within IBM thought 'modify = fuck up', so I'll
>>abbreviate 'modify' to 'F'.
>SOP for letter choices used to be to order commands in expected
>frequency of use or importance to avoid mistakes, then pick from
>initial letter, final letter, something unused; skipping letters
>that could be confused in documentation or read as responses if
>entered at the wrong time: O, I, Y, N, ...
One of the nicest things about unix is the two letter commands.
I *really* want to see an addition to the bugs section of mkdir and
rmdir acknowledging that they should have been 2 letter commands :)
hey, maybe if Dennis sends a message to the FreeBSD core team . . .
Dr. Richard E. Hawkins
Don Taylor <do...@agora.rdrop.com> wrote:
>At Oregon State U, the Oregon State Open Shop Operating System (OS3)
>running on the CDC 3300 would respond with something that slips my mind
>on your first two incorrect attempts to enter a password. On the third
>attempt I think I remember that it would respond
> those little fingers just aren't working, are they
:)
In tight space in Microsoft mbasic, I had to implement some level of
security. WHen I took over the project, it asked for your security
levl. Not your code, your level!
I hard-coded a six digit code with input$ (so it wouldn't print). After
three tries, I executed a WAIT to get a byte on a nonexistant input
port.
Far from perfect or ideal, but it caused a delay while rebooting the
thing off 5" disks, which was sufficient for the intended purpose (deter
mildly snoopy employees).
jchausler
"Michael J. Albanese" wrote:
> Just curious if anybody remembers early attempts at console humor on
> mainframe systems. I recall that typing a bad command into the console
> typewriter of a GE-225/235 would bring back the short but completely
> understandable response of "Huh?"
Not real early and not mainframe, but the real
time OS QNX 2 which was a mid 80's to mid
90's PC OS, has a common command "tsk" to
display task or process status. It takes a number
of different arguments depending on what you
want to see. Typing in "tsk tsk" however elicits
the following response:
Tsk Tsk? Have I been a bad computer?
Much further back but not part of the OS,
(but possibly more OT) there was an IBM
7040 at CMU (then CIT) in the early to
mid 60's running IBSYS. One of the
operators was a young female, Yvonne
IIRC, a nice girl but not quick on the uptake
particularly when it came to humor. It was
rigged late one night so at a certain job step
the console typed out something like:
IBSYS DEMANDS THE SACRIFICE
OF A VIRGIN
and looking much like the usual IBSYS
console message. The "boys" (that's us :-)
were sitting in an adjacent room when
she came in, in all seriousness (as we
expected :-) and ask us what she
should do?
A little OT but I recall another time when
the telephone company dude, Dickey, told
her that he was going to clean out the
telephone lines and he was worried that when
he did it the "dust" was going to damage the
computers. He suggested that she arrange
that all the telephones be put in bags to
contain the dust. Unfortunately, there were
more phones than bags to be had. After
about a half an hour of frantic searching
one morning. She came into the main office
area quite distressed that she had been unable
to accomplish her mission and worried about
what she should do. She was assured that "we"
would take care of it.
The "sad" part about all this (and there were
other times as well), was that I don't think she
ever recognized that people were playing
jokes on her.
More OT, one night when she was on duty,
we couldn't find her anywhere. She was
finally found pasted against the wall at the top
of one of the stairwells (Scaife Hall, then the
computer center) staring in terror at the light
fixture. Seems she was petrified of spiders
and there was a big on on the fixture working
hard to construct a web.
Poor Yvonne, otherwise a nice girl and
reasonably intelligent too, with a few
exceptions...............
Chris
AN GETTO$;DUMP;RUN,ALGOL,TAPE
$$
Steve O'Hara-Smith
MJA> Did IBM ever have console humor? All I seem to remember are blocks of
MJA> lines that looked something like IEE600I REPLY to 03 IS;311 :-)
The help system on Phoenix had answers for a number of silly
queries including god and sex.
--
C:>WIN | Directable Mirrors
The computer obeys and wins. |A Better Way To Focus The Sun
You lose and Bill collects. | licenses available - see:
| http://www.sohara.org/
Victor Eijkhout
> Did IBM ever have console humor?
Some old (well, late 70s) fortran compiler would report "None of the
errors found".
V.
Rich Alderson
> There was MAKE command that compiled/assembled and linked a program,
> but if you typed "MAKE LOVE" the response was "NOT WAR?". IIRC if
> there was a source named LOVE.??? it went ahead and did the
> appropriate thing.
MAKE invoked the TECO editor on a new file; it did not compile, or assemble, or
link, anything. It created the file LOVE.<no extension> and started the TECO
session.
"You can hack anything you want,
In TECO and DDT..."
--SRA
--
Rich Alderson alders...@panix.com
"You get what anybody gets. You get a lifetime." --Death, of the Endless
Ron Wellsted
> On Thu, 30 Jan 2003 21:05:55 -0500, "Michael J. Albanese"
> <mjalb...@revoke-my-charter.net> wrote:
>
>>
>>Just curious if anybody remembers early attempts at console humor on
>>mainframe systems.
>
> Two that I recall from the PDP-6/PDP-10 Monitor (long before it
> acquired the name TOPS-10) were built into the CCL (Concise Command
> Language) implementation.
>
> There was MAKE command that compiled/assembled and linked a program,
> but if you typed "MAKE LOVE" the response was "NOT WAR?". IIRC if
> there was a source named LOVE.??? it went ahead and did the
> appropriate thing.
>
The *nix make command would respond to "make sense" with "I don't kno how
to make sense" IIRC
--
Ron Wellsted
Charles Richmond
>
> [snip...] [snip...] [snip...]
>
> Poor Yvonne, otherwise a nice girl and
> reasonably intelligent too, with a few
> exceptions...............
>
today: Because you can't find three wise men and a virgin.
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Charles and Francis Richmond <rich...@plano.net> |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
Steve O'Hara-Smith
"Ron Wellsted" <r...@wellsted.org.uk> wrote:
RW>
RW> The *nix make command would respond to "make sense" with "I don't kno
RW> how to make sense" IIRC
BSD make will respond to make anything with "make: don't know
how to make anything. Stop" for any value of anything it can't find a rule
for.
Charles Richmond
>
> [snip...] [snip...] [snip...]
>
> There was MAKE command that compiled/assembled and linked a program,
> but if you typed "MAKE LOVE" the response was "NOT WAR?". IIRC if
> there was a source named LOVE.??? it went ahead and did the
> appropriate thing.
>
> The response to "GOTO HELL" was "GET STUFFED" on one line and
> "IN ?????" on the next, but I can't recall what the "?????" was.
> Anyone?
>
"hello sailor", the system would respond with "nothing happens here".
This was lifted from the game Zork. I also heard that later
versions of the OS responded with "a lot more nothing happens".
I also was told that using the FORTRAN IV preprocessor called
MORTRAN, if you put "GO TO JAIL" in your program...the message
"DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200" would be produced by the
preprocessor.
And let's *not* forget the assembly instructions. The 6809 had
a "SEX" instruction...which was "sign extend" of course. Some
of the PDP-11 line had an "SOB" instruction, which stood for
"subtract one and branch".
Steve Burton
wrote:
>John Everett wrote:
>>
>> [snip...] [snip...] [snip...]
>>
>> There was MAKE command that compiled/assembled and linked a program,
>> but if you typed "MAKE LOVE" the response was "NOT WAR?". IIRC if
>> there was a source named LOVE.??? it went ahead and did the
>> appropriate thing.
>>
>> The response to "GOTO HELL" was "GET STUFFED" on one line and
>> "IN ?????" on the next, but I can't recall what the "?????" was.
>> Anyone?
>>
>On the operating system for Convex computers, if one typed
>"hello sailor", the system would respond with "nothing happens here".
>This was lifted from the game Zork. I also heard that later
>versions of the OS responded with "a lot more nothing happens".
>
>I also was told that using the FORTRAN IV preprocessor called
>MORTRAN, if you put "GO TO JAIL" in your program...the message
>"DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200" would be produced by the
>preprocessor.
>
>And let's *not* forget the assembly instructions. The 6809 had
>a "SEX" instruction...which was "sign extend" of course. Some
>of the PDP-11 line had an "SOB" instruction, which stood for
>"subtract one and branch".
and SWAB.
Peter Flass
>
> Just curious if anybody remembers early attempts at console humor on
> mainframe systems. I recall that typing a bad command into the console
> typewriter of a GE-225/235 would bring back the short but completely
> understandable response of "Huh?"
>
Or the Burroughs MCP command: EI gets you EIO.
Ron Hunsinger
<mjalb...@revoke-my-charter.net> wrote:
> Just curious if anybody remembers early attempts at console humor on
> mainframe systems. I recall that typing a bad command into the console
> typewriter of a GE-225/235 would bring back the short but completely
> understandable response of "Huh?"
>
> Those little "humanisms", simple as they were, were one of the things
> which made computing so captivating to a newcomer, in effect putting a
> personality on those boxes of blinking lights.
I remember the very first time I ever saw a computer. I had just
wandered (uninvited) into the room where my University had installed
their brand new computer system, an IBM 1620.
After getting over my amazement that the console really was covered
with blinkenlights, just like in the movies, I walked up to get a
closer look. The apparent center of activity, the card reader, drew my
attention next, so my back was to the console typewriter when it
suddenly started typing. Startled, I spun around to see that it had
just typed out the word PROGRAM. There was a noticeable delay before it
continued NOT ACCEPTED.
"How nice!" I thought. "It took the time to double-check its work
before delivering this rejection. I had no idea computers were capable
of such diffidence."
Ages (months!) later, when I could actually read assembler, I found
that the delay was indeed intentional, but nothing more than a simple
timing loop. Had there been no syntax errors, the compiler would have
printed PROGRAM ACCEPTED with no internal delay. (Those of you familiar
with the IBM 1620 have of course recognized the FORGO, for "FORtran to
GO", compiler/simulator.)
Much later, on another system...
The Burroughs Medium Systems computers called the operator's console a
"SPO" (SuPervisOry console). In addition to the one built into the
panel, you could add any number of additional teletypes as "Remote
SPOs". The SL console command would produce a list of such remote SPOs,
or print out NONE if there weren't any.
Like all console commands, this command was two letters long and did
not require any trailing spaces to separate it from its parameters.
Seeing as how SL didn't actually take any parameters, it didn't matter
what followed SL on the command line.
So it became something of an in joke to encourage visitors to ask the
computer "SLEPT WITH ANY VIRGINS LATELY?" (or the tamer "SLAIN ANY
DRAGONS LATELY?" when sensitivity was called for), and watching them
puzzle over the computer's humble admission of "NONE".
-Ron Hunsinger
Dennis Ritchie
"Dr. Richard E. Hawkins" <ha...@slytherin.ds.psu.edu wrote:
> One of the nicest things about unix is the two letter commands.
>
> I *really* want to see an addition to the bugs section of mkdir and
> rmdir acknowledging that they should have been 2 letter commands :)
>
> hey, maybe if Dennis sends a message to the FreeBSD core team . . .
Not everyone agrees, for example Donald A. Norman.
But for you, we're making slow progress. In Plan 9,
to remove a directory you say "rm". Maybe by Plan 10.
Dennis
Michael J. Albanese
> After getting over my amazement that the console really was covered
> with blinkenlights, just like in the movies, I walked up to get a
> closer look. The apparent center of activity, the card reader, drew my
> attention next, so my back was to the console typewriter when it
> suddenly started typing. Startled, I spun around to see that it had
> just typed out the word PROGRAM. There was a noticeable delay before it
> continued NOT ACCEPTED.
>
> "How nice!" I thought. "It took the time to double-check its work
> before delivering this rejection. I had no idea computers were capable
> of such diffidence."
The teletypes connected to timesharing systems produced a similar
effect, as the print mechanism would sometimes just sit there doing a
bunch of "rubouts" before actually beginning to type. Almost like the
computer was taking a few seconds to compose itself or think. Other
times you'd get a short burst of rubouts, then nothing else -- the
computer equivalent of "Nevermind...".
I never really figured out what caused these things, but assumed it had
something to do with the handshaking going on between the main CPU and
the front-end processor. Perhaps the FEP was just keeping the comm line
open, or maybe anticipating something about to be sent, but then either
it or the main CPU changed its mind.
With speeds being what they are today, delays and pauses are becoming
less frequent. Except for getting "slashdotted", of course :-)
Brian Inglis
I think that was the original poster's intent -- I've seen that
in one of the old joke collections, prefixed by the *correct*
message code.
Steve O'Hara-Smith
"Dennis Ritchie" <d...@bell-labs.com> wrote:
DR> But for you, we're making slow progress. In Plan 9,
DR> to remove a directory you say "rm". Maybe by Plan 10.
Oh please don't use that name - May I humbly suggest a couple
of alternatives:
It - (Implementation ten - no! "It Came From Outer Space")
X Filer - (To bring things up to date)
Philip Newton
wrote:
> On the operating system for Convex computers, if one typed
> "hello sailor", the system would respond with "nothing happens here".
[snip]
> And let's *not* forget the assembly instructions. The 6809 had
> a "SEX" instruction...which was "sign extend" of course.
There's a fair bit more along this vein in the Jargon File, if my memory
serves me correctly.
Cheers,
Philip
--
Philip Newton <nospam...@gmx.li>
That really is my address; no need to remove anything to reply.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
Philip Newton
Richard E. Hawkins) wrote:
> One of the nicest things about unix is the two letter commands.
"I read somewhere that having lots of two letter commands makes things
too cryptic."
"Yeah, that's why I have one-letter aliases."
(Don't remember where I got that from.)
apm
> On Fri, 31 Jan 2003 20:35:45 +0000
> "Ron Wellsted" <r...@wellsted.org.uk> wrote:
>
> RW>
> RW> The *nix make command would respond to "make sense" with "I don't kno
> RW> how to make sense" IIRC
>
> BSD make will respond to make anything with "make: don't know
> how to make anything. Stop" for any value of anything it can't find a rule
> for.
If you use the csh to say
Got a light?
Unix replies with
no match.
Tee-hee-hee.
-apm
jmfb...@aol.com
MACRO-10 would report "NO ERRORS DETECTED".
It would crack Flemming up every time he assembled a program.
/BAH
Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.
Joe Morris
I assure you that students discovered how to make this message appear.
Joe Morris
Joe Morris
>And let's *not* forget the assembly instructions. The 6809 had
>a "SEX" instruction...which was "sign extend" of course. Some
>of the PDP-11 line had an "SOB" instruction, which stood for
>"subtract one and branch".
And since we're veering slighly off-topic into the hardware arena, don't
forget the FUBAR (Failed UNIBUS Address Register). Question to Barbara:
did any of the suits at DEC ever try to get this renamed?
Joe Morris
Joe Morris
>Paul Brinkley <la...@starpower.net> wrote:
>>On Fri, 31 Jan 2003 03:25:11 GMT, hay...@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) wrote:
>>>Another unintentional bit, and this was on listings, not on the console,
>>>was the IBM message
>>> ********GO DOES NOT EXIST BUT HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE DATA SET
>>Eep. Y'know, reading this quickly, it looked at first like
>>********GOD DOES NOT EXIST BUT HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE DATA SET
>I think that was the original poster's intent -- I've seen that
>in one of the old joke collections, prefixed by the *correct*
>message code.
No, that was a perfectly valid message. The syntax is:
<name of load module> DOES NOT EXIST BUT HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE DATA SET
so all you need to do in order to see it is to instruct the linkage
editor to replace a load module named "GOD" in a library where no
load module of that name exists. If the library *did* contain GOD,
the message would report that it had been replaced.
In typical CLG (compile-load-go) cataloged procedures, the default name
of the load module is "GO", leading to the first form of the message
in the posting upthread.
Joe Morris
Paul Lydon
If you look at the "man" page for the *nix command "cu" (used to
connect to another machine via modem by entering the command followed
by the name of the machine to connect to) on SCO Unix, the example
given is :
"cu jimmy"
Obviously thought up by a Glaswegian... ;-)
--
Paul Lydon
Winster, Derbyshire, UK
(Remove the 'DELETE' in email address to reply)
jchausler
Charles Richmond wrote:
> And let's *not* forget the assembly instructions. The 6809 had
> a "SEX" instruction...which was "sign extend" of course. Some
> of the PDP-11 line had an "SOB" instruction, which stood for
> "subtract one and branch".
Back in the mid 60's at CIT (now CMU), the
EE department (now ECE) had gotten a used
"missile launch" computer, a UNIVAC ATHENA.
This was an undergraduate toy and was modified
to be somewhat more useful by changing some of
its more useless instructions (like Read Radar Data
Register) to useful functions like a mimic of the
PDP-8 Group 7 set. (Hard to do that today with
micro processors. We did it by rewiring the
machine.) Somewhere along the way, I wrote
a package of routines for it which in hindsight
were much like the "monitor ROM's" like
Moto's MIKBUG for the early micros of
10 years later, essentially a set of program
loading, saving and debugging tools. Anyway,
I called the core of this thing "SHE" standing
for Somewhat Helpful Executive and a number
of additional "plug ins" added by both others
and myself were called "HER THINGS",
Helpful Executive Routines, To Help Implement
New and Greater Systems" (the "things" part
was borrowed from another system on campus,
the one from which my sig comes). A little (very)
undergraduate humor there.
Dennis Ritchie
> The teletypes connected to timesharing systems produced a similar
> effect, as the print mechanism would sometimes just sit there doing a
> bunch of "rubouts" before actually beginning to type. Almost like the
> computer was taking a few seconds to compose itself or think. Other
> times you'd get a short burst of rubouts, then nothing else -- the
> computer equivalent of "Nevermind...".
>
> I never really figured out what caused these things, but assumed it had
> something to do with the handshaking going on between the main CPU and
Various systems (including the TSS subsystem on GE->Honeywell
machines) would send a DEL (rubout) after every N seconds of
consumed CPU time, just to let you know it still cared about you.
I think some of the IBM systems would likewise send shift-up/shift-down
characters to wiggle the golf-ball on 1050 or 2741 terminals.
Dennis
jmfb...@aol.com
I don't know. That's out of my area. I would doubt it. For
some strange reason, suits didn't try to fuck with hardware.
Probably because their docs didn't tend to get produced in the
normal SOP. If there was a hardware doc getting prep'ed, a
hardware guru had almost complete control of content. The
writer assigned to project (I don't of any that had more than
one writer) had to be adept at working with the hardware type.
Philip Newton
<pa...@palydonDELETE.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> If you look at the "man" page for the *nix command "cu"
And then there's the well-known(?) quip on [some versions of] the
manpage of "tunefs", used for tuning filesystem parameters.
CBFalconer
> > something to do with the handshaking going on between the main CPU and
> > the front-end processor ....
>
> Various systems (including the TSS subsystem on GE->Honeywell
> machines) would send a DEL (rubout) after every N seconds of
> consumed CPU time, just to let you know it still cared about you.
>
> I think some of the IBM systems would likewise send shift-up/shift-down
> characters to wiggle the golf-ball on 1050 or 2741 terminals.
The HP3000 used to timeout terminal connections. I had systems
that connected over those links, and required that the handling
process be live. The last thing the 3000 sent before reading from
the terminal was a DC1. The read completed with receipt of <cr>.
So my systems generally sent a <cr> at intervals as a keep alive,
and detected the DC1 as an indication the 3000 was still up. We
could now send a record.
However the 3000 received all chars with a main cpu interrupt. If
I failed to time out the keep-alive sequence, and just sent it
when there was nothing else to do, I brought the 3000 to its
knees.
--
Chuck F (cbfal...@yahoo.com) (cbfal...@worldnet.att.net)
Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
<http://cbfalconer.home.att.net> USE worldnet address!
jmfb...@aol.com
John Everett <jeve...@earthlink.DEFEAT.UCE.BOTS.net> wrote:
>On Thu, 30 Jan 2003 21:05:55 -0500, "Michael J. Albanese"
><mjalb...@revoke-my-charter.net> wrote:
>
>>
>>Just curious if anybody remembers early attempts at console humor on
>>mainframe systems.
>
>acquired the name TOPS-10) were built into the CCL (Concise Command
>Language) implementation.
>
>but if you typed "MAKE LOVE" the response was "NOT WAR?".
It still is; we never took it out.
> ..IIRC if
>there was a source named LOVE.??? it went ahead and did the
>appropriate thing.
Nope. If there wasn't a source, it would go ahead. If it
existed MAKE would produce an error.
>
>The response to "GOTO HELL" was "GET STUFFED" on one line
Wasn't this from MIC and/or batch?
> ..and
>"IN ?????" on the next, but I can't recall what the "?????" was.
>Anyone?
Beats the shit outta me. IN is INITIA. Somebody's going
to have to look at the command dispatch table in INITIA.MAC.
This one doesn't sound familiar but I'm forgetting a lot these
days.
Jay Maynard
>I think some of the IBM systems would likewise send shift-up/shift-down
>characters to wiggle the golf-ball on 1050 or 2741 terminals.
VM will do this. You can turn it off by saying CP SET NOBLIP. I'm not sure
what having it turned on does if you're on a 3270...
Anne & Lynn Wheeler
> Various systems (including the TSS subsystem on GE->Honeywell
> machines) would send a DEL (rubout) after every N seconds of
> consumed CPU time, just to let you know it still cared about you.
>
> I think some of the IBM systems would likewise send shift-up/shift-down
> characters to wiggle the golf-ball on 1050 or 2741 terminals.
on cms it was the "blip" command, i don't know if it was inherited
from ctss ...
originally
blip chars <count>
(OFF) 1
and fixed at every two seconds of cpu ... characters defaulted to
wiggling the typeball.
previous reference to "feature" in early cp/67 scheduler and "blip"
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000g.html#12 360 Architecture, Multics, ..
--
Anne & Lynn Wheeler | http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/
Internet trivia 20th anv http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/rfcietff.htm
Anne & Lynn Wheeler
> VM will do this. You can turn it off by saying CP SET NOBLIP. I'm
> not sure what having it turned on does if you're on a 3270...
acts more like ftp hash command. oh, command reference in previous
post was from cp/67 cms manual.
Hans Vlems
"Ron Hunsinger" <newsr...@erstesoft.com> schreef in bericht
news:310120031749174139%newsr...@erstesoft.com...
> In article <v3jmfui...@corp.supernews.com>, "Michael J. Albanese"
> <mjalb...@revoke-my-charter.net> wrote:
>
> So it became something of an in joke to encourage visitors to ask the
> computer "SLEPT WITH ANY VIRGINS LATELY?" (or the tamer "SLAIN ANY
> DRAGONS LATELY?" when sensitivity was called for), and watching them
> puzzle over the computer's humble admission of "NONE".
>
> -Ron Hunsinger
OTOH, when you asked the MCP for a sweet snack its response was firm:
PUDDINGBROODJE?
REQUEST DENIED
Hans
Steve Burton
<pne-news...@newton.digitalspace.net> wrote:
>On Sat, 01 Feb 2003 17:36:28 +0000, Paul Lydon
><pa...@palydonDELETE.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> If you look at the "man" page for the *nix command "cu"
>
>And then there's the well-known(?) quip on [some versions of] the
>manpage of "tunefs", used for tuning filesystem parameters.
>
>Cheers,
>Philip
Certainly on FreeBSD 4.6.2
CBFalconer
> John Everett <jeve...@earthlink.DEFEAT.UCE.BOTS.net> wrote:
> >
... snip ...
> >
> >There was MAKE command that compiled/assembled and linked a
> >program, but if you typed "MAKE LOVE" the response was "NOT WAR?".
>
> It still is; we never took it out.
Easily added to almost any makefile:
love :
@echo not war?
^^^^^^^^
where that is a real tab character.
Howard S Shubs
Philip Newton <pne-news...@newton.digitalspace.net> wrote:
> And then there's the well-known(?) quip on [some versions of] the
> manpage of "tunefs", used for tuning filesystem parameters.
Appears to be on MacOS X...
--
Today, on Paper-view: The World Origami Championship
Charles Richmond
>
> On Sat, 01 Feb 2003 17:36:28 +0000, Paul Lydon
> <pa...@palydonDELETE.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > If you look at the "man" page for the *nix command "cu"
>
> And then there's the well-known(?) quip on [some versions of] the
> manpage of "tunefs", used for tuning filesystem parameters.
>
"You can tune a piano, but you can't tune a fish."
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Charles and Francis Richmond <rich...@plano.net> |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
Bill/Carolyn Pechter
>forget the FUBAR (Failed UNIBUS Address Register). Question to Barbara:
>did any of the suits at DEC ever try to get this renamed?
>
>Joe Morris
Nope... the word I heard is the SXT Sign eXTend instruction on the PDP11
was to be SEX --but that got killed.
The mux on the PDP11/34A that does it remains the SEX Mux on the prints.
I guess there's a limit to what can be pushed through the doggone
management types.
Bill
--
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Bill and/or Carolyn Pechter | pec...@shell.monmouth.com |
| Bill Gates is a Persian cat and a monocle away from being a villain in |
| a James Bond movie -- Dennis Miller |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Julian Thomas
at 10:13 PM, Peter Flass <peter...@yahoo.com>
may have used oatmeal boxes, old string,
and new, used, and recycled electrons to say (at least in part):
>Or the Burroughs MCP command: EI gets you EIO.
Mock-Donald and SOS, anyone?t:
--
Julian Thomas: jt . jt-mj @ net http://jt-mj.net
remove letter a for email (or switch . and @)
In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State!
Boardmember of POSSI.org - Phoenix OS/2 Society, Inc
http://www.possi.org
-- --
Welcome to Hell. Here's your copy of Windows ME
Tim Shoppa
> Philip Newton wrote:
> >
> > On Sat, 01 Feb 2003 17:36:28 +0000, Paul Lydon
> > <pa...@palydonDELETE.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > > If you look at the "man" page for the *nix command "cu"
> >
> > And then there's the well-known(?) quip on [some versions of] the
> > manpage of "tunefs", used for tuning filesystem parameters.
> >
> Do you mean:
>
> "You can tune a piano, but you can't tune a fish."
My favorite man-page humor Moody-Blues inspired quote in the ppmtopgm man page:
QUOTE
Cold-hearted orb that rules the night
Removes the colors from our sight
Red is gray, and yellow white
But we decide which is right
And which is a quantization error.
Most source code that has been around for more than just a few years has
had decent literary or humorous comments added. To invoke another member
of this group, the top of RT-11's DW.MAC says:
.MODULE DW,VERSION=30,COMMENT=<RD50C Mini-winchester disk for PC>,AUDIT=YES
...
.REM %
The DW handler is formally designated the
Martin B. Gentry Commemorative Handler
in recognition of their mutual reduction
of excessive avoirdupois.
%
Tim.
glen herrmannsfeldt
"Bill/Carolyn Pechter" <pec...@shell.monmouth.com> wrote in
message news:b1ma2j$bi3$1...@shell.monmouth.com...
(FUBAR snip)
>
> Nope... the word I heard is the SXT Sign eXTend instruction on
the PDP11
> was to be SEX --but that got killed.
>
> The mux on the PDP11/34A that does it remains the SEX Mux on the
prints.
>
> I guess there's a limit to what can be pushed through the doggone
> management types.
The 6809 has many features adapted from the PDP-11 family, though
they got this one right.
-- glen
David Wade
> Most source code that has been around for more than just a few years has
> had decent literary or humorous comments added. To invoke another member
> of this group, the top of RT-11's DW.MAC says:
>
> .MODULE DW,VERSION=30,COMMENT=<RD50C Mini-winchester disk for
PC>,AUDIT=YES
> ...
> .REM %
> The DW handler is formally designated the
> Martin B. Gentry Commemorative Handler
> in recognition of their mutual reduction
> of excessive avoirdupois.
> %
>
> Tim.
The old Honeywell (formally GE now BULL) H6000/L66 whatever used to run most
of the code in user/problem state. The instruction to switch back was "MME
.EMM" or "Enter Master Mode". In the print spooler the comment next to it
simply said
"abandon hope all yea who enter in"
George R. Gonzalez
"glen herrmannsfeldt" <g...@ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote in message
news:YbB%9.85759$to3.1...@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net...
> The 6809 has many features adapted from the PDP-11 family, though
> they got this one right.
>
> -- glen
yep, I recall one programmer who kept mumbling about how could he keep his
mind on writing this 6809 disk driver, as the code was full of BRAs and SEX.
Philip Newton
wrote:
> Philip Newton wrote:
> >
> > And then there's the well-known(?) quip on [some versions of] the
> > manpage of "tunefs", used for tuning filesystem parameters.
> >
> Do you mean:
>
> "You can tune a piano, but you can't tune a fish."
Precisely. Along with, supposedly, the warning in the troff source "take
this out and daemons will hunt you down until time_t rolls over" or
something like that.
But the more "dry" software companies these days don't like that sort of
humour. Just like it used to the case that "Every Unix system comes with
games".
Eric Sosman
>
> But the more "dry" software companies these days don't like that sort of
> humour. Just like it used to the case that "Every Unix system comes with
> games".
The games are still there; they've just moved
to new locations:
/bin/vi
/bin/csh
/bin/sed
...
Rich Alderson
> .MODULE DW,VERSION=30,COMMENT=<RD50C Mini-winchester disk for PC>,AUDIT=YES
> ...
> .REM %
> The DW handler is formally designated the
> Martin B. Gentry Commemorative Handler
> in recognition of their mutual reduction
> of excessive avoirdupois.
> %
Not "Megan"?
--
Rich Alderson alders...@panix.com
"You get what anybody gets. You get a lifetime." --Death, of the Endless
Rich Alderson
> But for you, we're making slow progress. In Plan 9,
> to remove a directory you say "rm". Maybe by Plan 10.
I thought that the Labs were already at "Research Version 10"?
GerardS
|> Dennis Ritchie wrote:
|> I think some of the IBM systems would likewise send shift-up/shift-down
|> characters to wiggle the golf-ball on 1050 or 2741 terminals.
|
| twice, as I recall; unmistakable sound: chunka-chunka... chunka-chunka...
THe IBM system was VM/CMS. Under CMS (which ran under VM) would (as a
default on a 1050 or 2741 terminal) raise and lower the printing/typing
mechanism to signify that 2 CPU seconds (of processing time) had elapsed.
This was to give the user a type of warning that their program was
consuming CPU time. On other types of terminals, a "blip" message was
displayed (this could be modified/set by the CMS user). _______Gerard S.
Anne & Lynn Wheeler
> THe IBM system was VM/CMS. Under CMS (which ran under VM) would (as a
> default on a 1050 or 2741 terminal) raise and lower the printing/typing
> mechanism to signify that 2 CPU seconds (of processing time) had elapsed.
> This was to give the user a type of warning that their program was
> consuming CPU time. On other types of terminals, a "blip" message was
> displayed (this could be modified/set by the CMS user). _______Gerard S.
originated on cp/67 .... and we (cambridge science center) ported
apl\360 to cp/67 cms ... and released it as cms/apl. palo alto science
center redid some of the stuff a couple years later .. they also did
the the apl m'code assist for the 370/145 and released as apl/cms
(many apl applications on 145 w/apl-mcode assist had thruput
compareable to running on 370/168-3 w/o assist)
earlier post in this thread:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003b.html#71 Early attempts at console humor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003b.html#72 Early attempts at console humor
lots of apl posts (intermixed with hone posts):
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone
--
Anne & Lynn Wheeler | ly...@garlic.com - http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/
Internet trivia, 20th anniv: http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/rfcietff.htm
Anne & Lynn Wheeler
> THe IBM system was VM/CMS. Under CMS (which ran under VM) would (as a
> default on a 1050 or 2741 terminal) raise and lower the printing/typing
> mechanism to signify that 2 CPU seconds (of processing time) had elapsed.
> This was to give the user a type of warning that their program was
> consuming CPU time. On other types of terminals, a "blip" message was
> displayed (this could be modified/set by the CMS user). _______Gerard S.
also note that by the time of apl\cms on vm/370 (instead of cms\apl on
cp/67) ... a large percentage of apl\cms would have been 3277 with
the apl characterset and keyboard ... instead of the cp "set apl on"
switching the terminal translate table to apl ... it would have change
to fullscreen 3270 apl operation. random apl translate table ref:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000f.html#6 History of ASCII (was Re: Why Not! Why not???)
Pete Fenelon
>
> But the more "dry" software companies these days don't like that sort of
> humour. Just like it used to the case that "Every Unix system comes with
> games".
I loved the way IBM took all the slander out of /etc/termcap on AIX -
there were some great paragraphs about "brain-damage", cretinism etc in
there in the old days - all of which had been carefully modified to
suggest that certain terminals might have been slightly suboptimal in
some area. Does IBM employ a team to take any "interesting" comments
out? :)
pete
--
pe...@fenelon.com "there's no room for enigmas in built-up areas" HMHB
Pete Fenelon
> yep, I recall one programmer who kept mumbling about how could he keep his
> mind on writing this 6809 disk driver, as the code was full of BRAs and SEX.
>
Not only SEX, but also ORL and ANL! :P
Joe Morris
>I loved the way IBM took all the slander out of /etc/termcap on AIX -
>there were some great paragraphs about "brain-damage", cretinism etc in
>there in the old days - all of which had been carefully modified to
>suggest that certain terminals might have been slightly suboptimal in
>some area. Does IBM employ a team to take any "interesting" comments
>out? :)
I can't really blame IBM for deleting the gratuitous swipes at the company
in files, but there was (for a while) a bit of humor in the macro that
generated the CVT (Communications Vector Table) for OS/360. If you
expanded it for use with MFT, some of the lines read:
CVTFN00 DC V(IEA0FN00) ENTRY POINT TO FINCH
* ENTYMOLOGICAL [sic] NOTE: FINCH WAS ALMOST RENAMED BLETCH
* WHEN FIND WAS RENAMED BLDL
"FINCH" -- "FINd and fetCH" -- was the closed subroutine called by
the supervisor to load an executable module. FIND was the original
name of the routine to search a load library; for some reason it was
renamed BLDL (BuiLD Load [List?]).
And to go back a bit further, the source for IBLP40 (the linear programming
package for IBSYS on the 704x) had some commentary that was quite thoroughly
non-PC. And I don't mean "Personal Computer".
Joe Morris
Pete Fenelon
> Pete Fenelon <pe...@fenelon.com> writes:
>
>>I loved the way IBM took all the slander out of /etc/termcap on AIX -
>>there were some great paragraphs about "brain-damage", cretinism etc in
>>there in the old days - all of which had been carefully modified to
>>suggest that certain terminals might have been slightly suboptimal in
>>some area. Does IBM employ a team to take any "interesting" comments
>>out? :)
>
> I can't really blame IBM for deleting the gratuitous swipes at the company
> in files, but there was (for a while) a bit of humor in the macro that
> generated the CVT (Communications Vector Table) for OS/360. If you
> expanded it for use with MFT, some of the lines read:
Actually most of the stuff they took out was slandering other people's
terminals - but it'd been there in BSD forever! (I think some of the HP
ones with softkeys, and the reverse-video on some Hazeltines ring a
bell).
Trog Woolley
--
Trog Woolley | trog at trog hyphen oz dot demon dot co dot uk
(A Croweater back residing in Pommie Land with Linux)
Isis Astarte Diana Hecate Demeter Kali Inanna
Anne & Lynn Wheeler
> Well... this isn't console or mainframe humor, but NEXTSTEP binaries use
> some interesting values for their magic numbers. For the m68k based
> hardware, the first two bytes of a binary spell out "feedface" in hex.
> The fat binaries they distributed used the magic number of "cafebabe" and
> I think there might have been a third variation for one the ports to
> either SPARC, PA-RISC, or Intel.
>
> It's also worth noting that Apple's current OS X, which is based on
> NEXTSTEP, recycles this bit of humor.
and nextstep was based on mach
--
Philip Newton
wrote:
> Well... this isn't console or mainframe humor, but NEXTSTEP binaries use
> some interesting values for their magic numbers. For the m68k based
> hardware, the first two bytes of a binary spell out "feedface" in hex.
> The fat binaries they distributed used the magic number of "cafebabe" and
> I think there might have been a third variation for one the ports to
> either SPARC, PA-RISC, or Intel.
I used "c0edbabe" as initialisers for "uninitialised" data in one
project.
Charles Richmond
>
> In article <v3jmfui...@corp.supernews.com>,
> Michael J. Albanese <mjalb...@revoke-my-charter.net> wrote:
> >
> > mainframe systems. I recall that typing a bad command into the console
> > typewriter of a GE-225/235 would bring back the short but completely
> > understandable response of "Huh?"
>
> Well... this isn't console or mainframe humor, but NEXTSTEP binaries use
> some interesting values for their magic numbers. For the m68k based
> hardware, the first two bytes of a binary spell out "feedface" in hex.
> The fat binaries they distributed used the magic number of "cafebabe" and
> I think there might have been a third variation for one the ports to
> either SPARC, PA-RISC, or Intel.
>
> NEXTSTEP, recycles this bit of humor.
>
you will need 32 bits for 8 hex digits.
Charles Shannon Hendrix
> Well... this isn't console or mainframe humor, but NEXTSTEP binaries use
> some interesting values for their magic numbers. For the m68k based
> hardware, the first two bytes of a binary spell out "feedface" in hex.
> The fat binaries they distributed used the magic number of "cafebabe" and
> I think there might have been a third variation for one the ports to
> either SPARC, PA-RISC, or Intel.
When doing embedded systems programming, we were sending messages to
a console on a 688 submarine's engine display for testing. The
console would flash through our hexionary:
DEADBEEF
FACEBEEF
CAFEBEEF
BABECAFE
B1FF7ADD
I can't remember all of them. It was funny to see people notice it for
the first time. Some of course, were not amused.
> It's also worth noting that Apple's current OS X, which is based on
> NEXTSTEP, recycles this bit of humor.
Current versions still use the old NeXT object format, but that will
change soon. Wonder if they'll put that bit back in?
Glen Herrmannsfeldt
"Brian 'Jarai' Chase" <b...@world.std.com> wrote in message
news:H9y7H...@world.std.com...
(snip)
> Well... this isn't console or mainframe humor, but NEXTSTEP binaries use
> some interesting values for their magic numbers. For the m68k based
> hardware, the first two bytes of a binary spell out "feedface" in hex.
> The fat binaries they distributed used the magic number of "cafebabe" and
> I think there might have been a third variation for one the ports to
> either SPARC, PA-RISC, or Intel.
Java class files use X'CAFEBABE', which makes sense for Java.
-- glen
Anne & Lynn Wheeler
somewhat related mainframe humor .... pithy sayings printed on the
6670 "separater" page
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#52 Enter fonts (was Re: Unix case-sensitivity: how did it originate?
other refs to the same:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001g.html#5 New IBM history book out
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002h.html#7 disk write caching (was: ibm icecube -- return of
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002o.html#24 IBM Selectric as printer
misc. refs to ibm jargon file:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001g.html#5 New IBM history book out
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#79 a.f.c history checkup... (was What specifications will the standard year 2001 PC have?)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002e.html#45 REXX and its designer (was: IBM 7090 instruction set)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002h.html#7 disk write caching (was: ibm icecube -- return of
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002k.html#39 Vnet : Unbelievable
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003b.html#19 Card Columns
fake corporate directive on password rules ... printed with 6670 on
corporate letterhead and posted on corporate bulletin boards ... (and
some people took quite a while to realize it was joke). Resulting
investigation led to placing all blank corporate letterhead paper
under lock & key (and it wasn't me that put it up on corporate
bulletin boards):
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001d.html#51 OT Re: A beautiful morning in AFM.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001d.html#52 OT Re: A beautiful morning in AFM.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001d.html#62 OT Re: A beautiful morning in AFM.
Anne & Lynn Wheeler
... next press release oct '88. note that "nextstep" (as opposed to
"next") was made available on a number of other platforms.
...snip...
Software as Part of the System NeXT includes an unparalled amount of
software in the price of every NeXT Computer System. The software
starts with Mach, an advanced multitasking operating system compatible
with 4.3BSD UNIX, which is the standard operating system in higher
education communities. In addition, the NeXT Computer System includes
NextStep, a complete software environment consisting of four
components: the Window Server, the Workspace Manager, the Application
Kit and the Interface Builder. The object-oriented environment was
developed with the Objective-C programming language, from the
Stepstone Corp. NextStep solves the two major problems with
UNIX-based systems: They are too complex and difficult for most
non-programmers to use, and they require developers to spend an
inordinate amount of time and expertise creating graphical, end-user
applications. For users, NextStep makes the power of UNIX available
by substituting a window-based, graphical and intuitive interface for
the traditional UNIX comand-line interface. For developers, NextStep
includes the Application Kit, a set of interacting software "objects"
for constructing applications. Also included in NextStep is Interface
Builder, a completely new kind of software development tool.
Interface Builder works graphically, letting the developer construct
an application by choosing from a palette of available objects and
using the mouse and keyboard to modify the objects as needed, define
the layout and establish connections between objects. This process
permits the rapid construction of graphical user interfaces and makes
application development accessible to a much larger community.
NextStep uses the Display PostScript system to ensure true WYSIWYG
(What You See Is What You Get) between the screen and the printer.
The Display PostScript system includes a high-performance
implementation of the PostScript language, the de facto imaging
standard for printing. It simplifies the programming of graphical
applications that support high-quality printing.
...snip...
posted to comp.os.mach 18aug89
...snip...
Information on Mach licensing and distribution and technical
reports can be obtained by writing to:
Mach Project
c/o Rick Rashid
School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
or
ma...@cs.cmu.edu
Current commercial products I am aware of are from NeXT, Encore,
Evans&Sutherland and BBN.
Mt Xinu has announced that it will be distributing commercial versions
of Mach on several architectures beginning early next year (in much
the way it has distributed BSD Unix).
CMU distributes Mach for the VAX, Sun 3 and IBM RT architectures.
Information on specific models, etc. can be obtained with the general
Mach information packet. The current release is referred to as Mach
Release 2. We are about to begin general distribution of Mach Release
2.5 (a number of Universities and companies already have early
releases of 2.5). There is a license for Mach from CMU and you will
need a Berkeley license to get a tape from us. There is no
distribution or license fee paid to CMU, however.
At CMU Mach runs on VAXen (uni and multiprocessors), DEC 3100s,
Multimaxes, Sun 3s, Sun 4s, 386s, IBM RTs, IBM 370s and Macintosh IIs.
Ports have also been done to a number of other machines by groups
outside CMU. CMU has limited capacity to distribute software so we
don't distribute Mach for all systems. We are, however, willing to
provide Mach free to any manufacturer who is interested in
distributing it for their own machines. If you want Mach for a
machine for which there is a port but no current distributor, you
should talk to your salesman or corporate representative.
...snip...
CBFalconer
>
... snip ...
>
> Do the 0xfeedface and 0xcafebabe magic numbers have their origins in Mach?
> I'd always attributed them to sneaky NeXT developers.
>
> On a related note:
>
> $ grep -i '^[abdcef]*$' /usr/share/dict/words
>
> Or for more variety, and assuming you're willing to map `0's and `1's
> to `o's and `i's, respectively:
>
> $ grep -i '^[abdcefoi]*$' /usr/share/dict/words
Adding an l in there yields, among others:
abbadide
accolade
acidific
beballed
boccacio
callable
coccidae
coccidia
daedalea
deadfall
dealable
dodecade
dollface
elidable
faceable
feedable
feelable
foldable
laceleaf
leadable
locofoco
--
Chuck F (cbfal...@yahoo.com) (cbfal...@worldnet.att.net)
Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
<http://cbfalconer.home.att.net> USE worldnet address!
Daniel P. B. Smith
Philip Newton <pne-news...@newton.digitalspace.net> wrote:
> On Fri, 31 Jan 2003 15:54:51 +0000 (UTC), ha...@slytherin.ds.psu.edu (Dr.
> Richard E. Hawkins) wrote:
>
> > One of the nicest things about unix is the two letter commands.
>
> "I read somewhere that having lots of two letter commands makes things
> too cryptic."
>
> "Yeah, that's why I have one-letter aliases."
FOCAL allowed one-letter abbreviations of ALL commands. They could also
be spelled out in full. IIRC these were the only legal spellings, i.e.
it did NOT simply look at the first letter (unlike MAD, which only
looked at the first letter and thus allowed the use of DAMNATION
statements as substitutes for DIMENSION statements).
FOCAL is the only language I personally know of which had not only an
English version, but versions in four or five European languages--that
is, in the French version the commands were French words.
--
dpbsmith at world dot std dot com
(replace "at" with at-sign and "dot" with period and remove spaces)
Lars Poulsen
> FOCAL allowed one-letter abbreviations of ALL commands. They could also
> be spelled out in full. IIRC these were the only legal spellings, i.e.
> it did NOT simply look at the first letter (unlike MAD, which only
> looked at the first letter and thus allowed the use of DAMNATION
> statements as substitutes for DIMENSION statements).
That particular substitution also worked in a Fortran dialect
that I have heard of, where keywords were matched based on
first letter, last letter and length.
> FOCAL is the only language I personally know of which had not only an
> English version, but versions in four or five European languages--that
> is, in the French version the commands were French words.
I have seen samples of COBOL based on languages including
French, German and Danish. I also remember an ALGOL60 compiler
from University of Grenoble where the keywords had been
translated to French. (I think they could be configured
to strings of your choice:
'DEBUT'
'ENTIER' I;
'SI' I = 2 'ALORS' I := 3;
...
'FIN';
The rendition of the keywords is from memory, 23 years ago.
I do remember that I was not as impressed as I should have
been. This compiler ran on the IBM 1130, which had a main
memory of 4 K words by 16 bits. But I came to that environment
from the GIER which ran a full Algol60 compiler on a machine
with 1 K words x 42 bits.
--
/ Lars Poulsen +1-805-569-5277 http://www.beagle-ears.com/lars/
125 South Ontare Rd, Santa Barbara, CA 93105 USA la...@beagle-ears.com
Philip Newton
<see.message.t...@bellatlantic.net> wrote:
> FOCAL is the only language I personally know of which had not only an
> English version, but versions in four or five European languages--that
> is, in the French version the commands were French words.
Earlier versions of Microsoft's VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), or
whatever it was called at the time. Basically, the macro languages for
Word/Excel/etc.
I once saw some German Excel code and seeing "WENN ... ENDE WENN" looked
distinctly disturbing to me.
It also made macro code non-portable between versions (though I think
each country version could also save as English, but if you didn't do
that, your French colleague with his French version of Excel couldn't
handle your macros). Which is probably why they dropped that.
Ron Hunsinger
<see.message.text.for.ema...@news.fu-berlin.de>,
> FOCAL allowed one-letter abbreviations of ALL commands. They could also
> be spelled out in full. IIRC these were the only legal spellings, i.e.
> it did NOT simply look at the first letter (unlike MAD, which only
> looked at the first letter and thus allowed the use of DAMNATION
> statements as substitutes for DIMENSION statements).
It would be more accurate to say that MAD looked at the first and last
letters.
More specifically, MAD made every keyword at least 7 letters long, so
there could be no conflict with user-defined terms, all of which were
limited to not more than 6 letters/digits. But then, to offset the
resulting verbosity, they allowed most keywords to be abbreviated to
<first letter>'<last letter>. For example:
W'R = WHENEVER (what in any other language would be IF)
O'R = OR WHENEVER (same as ELSE IF anywhere else)
O'E = OTHERWISE (ELSE)
E'L = END CONDITIONAL (END IF or FI)
D'N = DIMENSION
But not all keywords could be so abbreviated, because they couldn't be
disambiguated from other more common keywords:
E'E = ERASABLE, not EQUIVALANCE or EXECUTE
F'E = FORMAT VARIABLE, not FUNCTION NAME
Some statements could be abbreviated in more than one way. For example
N'L = NORMAL MODE IS BOOLEAN = N'S B'N
O'R = OR WHENEVER = OR W'R
Abbreviations would be expanded in the listing. The fact that the
compiler knew the full spelling (for the listing) and would check it at
least sometimes (in the otherwise ambiguous cases) suggests that it
probably checked the spelling always. But I confess it never occurred
to me to test that.
-Ron Hunsinger
Dr. Richard E. Hawkins
Daniel P. B. Smith <see.message.t...@bellatlantic.net> wrote:
> Philip Newton <pne-news...@newton.digitalspace.net> wrote:
>> On Fri, 31 Jan 2003 15:54:51 +0000 (UTC), ha...@slytherin.ds.psu.edu (Dr.
>> Richard E. Hawkins) wrote:
>> > One of the nicest things about unix is the two letter commands.
>> "I read somewhere that having lots of two letter commands makes things
>> too cryptic."
>> "Yeah, that's why I have one-letter aliases."
oddly, I only have one of those at the moment (t, to start my newsreqder
in its own window).
>FOCAL allowed one-letter abbreviations of ALL commands. They could also
>be spelled out in full. IIRC these were the only legal spellings, i.e.
>it did NOT simply look at the first letter (unlike MAD, which only
>looked at the first letter and thus allowed the use of DAMNATION
>statements as substitutes for DIMENSION statements).
>FOCAL is the only language I personally know of which had not only an
>English version, but versions in four or five European languages--that
>is, in the French version the commands were French words.
Ahh, so afgter writing a bad program, one simply says "Pardon my french"
(rather than the traditional time, while fixing the program . . .)
hawk
--
Richard E. Hawkins, Asst. Prof. of Economics /"\ ASCII ribbon campaign
doc...@psu.edu Smeal 178 (814) 375-4700 \ / against HTML mail
These opinions will not be those of X and postings.
Penn State until it pays my retainer. / \
Dr. Richard E. Hawkins
Philip Newton <nospam...@gmx.li> wrote:
>On Sat, 08 Feb 2003 20:59:34 -0500, "Daniel P. B. Smith"
><see.message.t...@bellatlantic.net> wrote:
>> FOCAL is the only language I personally know of which had not only an
>> English version, but versions in four or five European languages--that
>> is, in the French version the commands were French words.
>Earlier versions of Microsoft's VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), or
>whatever it was called at the time. Basically, the macro languages for
>Word/Excel/etc.
>I once saw some German Excel code and seeing "WENN ... ENDE WENN" looked
>distinctly disturbing to me.
>It also made macro code non-portable between versions (though I think
>each country version could also save as English, but if you didn't do
>that, your French colleague with his French version of Excel couldn't
>handle your macros). Which is probably why they dropped that.
Even version 2 of micrsoft basic-80 had tokens, I believe. Keywords
were not stored in text, but as a single character. When printing,
these were looked up in a table.
I can't imagine they dropped this as they made international versions of
later products; I expect the code would auto-translate.
Nick Spalding
> In article <aerb4v0af9l960j2h...@4ax.com>,
> Philip Newton <nospam...@gmx.li> wrote:
> >On Sat, 08 Feb 2003 20:59:34 -0500, "Daniel P. B. Smith"
> ><see.message.t...@bellatlantic.net> wrote:
>
> >> FOCAL is the only language I personally know of which had not only an
> >> English version, but versions in four or five European languages--that
> >> is, in the French version the commands were French words.
>
> >Earlier versions of Microsoft's VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), or
> >whatever it was called at the time. Basically, the macro languages for
> >Word/Excel/etc.
>
> >I once saw some German Excel code and seeing "WENN ... ENDE WENN" looked
> >distinctly disturbing to me.
>
> >It also made macro code non-portable between versions (though I think
> >each country version could also save as English, but if you didn't do
> >that, your French colleague with his French version of Excel couldn't
> >handle your macros). Which is probably why they dropped that.
>
> Even version 2 of micrsoft basic-80 had tokens, I believe. Keywords
> were not stored in text, but as a single character. When printing,
> these were looked up in a table.
Quickbasic 4.5 and VB for Dos both still give you the option of saving
source tokenised so presumable work that way internally. I don't have VB
for Windows.
--
Nick Spalding
Charles Richmond
>
> [snip...] [snip...] [snip...]
>
> The rendition of the keywords is from memory, 23 years ago.
> I do remember that I was not as impressed as I should have
> been. This compiler ran on the IBM 1130, which had a main
> memory of 4 K words by 16 bits. But I came to that environment
> from the GIER which ran a full Algol60 compiler on a machine
> with 1 K words x 42 bits.
>
compiler on the GIER computer had 30 or 40 passes...one
can trade adequate memory for *lots* of passes over the
program to do the compile.
Lars Poulsen
> You did *not* mention this...but I bet that the Algol60
> compiler on the GIER computer had 30 or 40 passes...one
> can trade adequate memory for *lots* of passes over the
> program to do the compile.
Actually, 9 passes. The first of which was just the lexer.
(Had to keep it simple, so it could drive that 2000 cps
papertape reader at full speed!) The compiler leved on the
drum, which was 320 tracks of 40 words of 42 bits. (Although
most installations upgraded to the larger drum with 960
tracks.) I think the compiler and runtime library took up
around 200 tracks.
David Wade
"Charles Richmond" <rich...@ev1.net> wrote in message
news:3E46BA1B...@ev1.net...
> Lars Poulsen wrote:
> >
> > [snip...] [snip...] [snip...]
> >
> > The rendition of the keywords is from memory, 23 years ago.
> > I do remember that I was not as impressed as I should have
> > been. This compiler ran on the IBM 1130, which had a main
> > memory of 4 K words by 16 bits. But I came to that environment
> > from the GIER which ran a full Algol60 compiler on a machine
> > with 1 K words x 42 bits.
> >
> You did *not* mention this...but I bet that the Algol60
> compiler on the GIER computer had 30 or 40 passes...one
> can trade adequate memory for *lots* of passes over the
> program to do the compile.
>
I remember using the COBOL compiler on a Honeywell L61. It had 16 passes of
cobol, followed, if my memory still works by 4 passes of Assembler. Some
wag made Pass 13 print out the error messages. You knew if it skipped from
12 to 14 you were going to get a good compile.....
Really
message news:v3jmfui...@corp.supernews.com...
>
> Just curious if anybody remembers early attempts at console humor
on
> mainframe systems. I recall that typing a bad command into the
console
> typewriter of a GE-225/235 would bring back the short but
completely
> understandable response of "Huh?"
>
things
> which made computing so captivating to a newcomer, in effect
putting a
> personality on those boxes of blinking lights. I've often
wondered if a
> lone programmer was able to put something like that into the code
on
> his/her own, or if it was all decided ahead of time by a
committee.
>
> Did IBM ever have console humor? All I seem to remember are
blocks of
> lines that looked something like IEE600I REPLY to 03 IS;311 :-)
When we went from a Univac to an IBM 370-158 I was working late
trying to get some programs converted and something wasn't working
as expected (probably me) and I typed into the console a comment
suggesting that the computer should do something sexual to itself.
But not in those words. :)
The reply I got was "Please do not use profanity when talking to
your computer".
Barry
Brian Inglis
Lars Poulsen <la...@beagle-ears.com> wrote:
>Daniel P. B. Smith wrote:
>> FOCAL allowed one-letter abbreviations of ALL commands. They could also
>> be spelled out in full. IIRC these were the only legal spellings, i.e.
>> it did NOT simply look at the first letter (unlike MAD, which only
>> looked at the first letter and thus allowed the use of DAMNATION
>> statements as substitutes for DIMENSION statements).
>
>That particular substitution also worked in a Fortran dialect
>that I have heard of, where keywords were matched based on
>first letter, last letter and length.
>
>> FOCAL is the only language I personally know of which had not only an
>> English version, but versions in four or five European languages--that
>> is, in the French version the commands were French words.
>
>I have seen samples of COBOL based on languages including
>French, German and Danish. I also remember an ALGOL60 compiler
>from University of Grenoble where the keywords had been
>translated to French. (I think they could be configured
>to strings of your choice:
Algol 60 allowed any source character set to be used, it was
before the days of international standard character sets: I
remember a weekly computer newspaper contest to translate a
Chinese Algol 60 program into English.
Thanks. Take care, Brian Inglis Calgary, Alberta, Canada
--
Brian....@CSi.com (Brian dot Inglis at SystematicSw dot ab dot ca)
fake address use address above to reply
ab...@aol.com tos...@aol.com ab...@att.com ab...@earthlink.com
ab...@hotmail.com ab...@mci.com ab...@msn.com ab...@sprint.com
ab...@yahoo.com ab...@cadvision.com ab...@shaw.ca ab...@telus.com
ab...@ibsystems.com u...@ftc.gov spam traps
Brian Inglis
>FOCAL is the only language I personally know of which had not only an
>English version, but versions in four or five European languages--that
>is, in the French version the commands were French words.
Software A.G. Natural supported German and French as well as
English simultaneously, and allowed some other interesting
synonyms, like WASTE PAPER as well as NEW PAGE or the ilk IIRC.
Dennis Ritchie
"Ron Hunsinger" <newsr...@erstesoft.com> wrote
a correct (so far as I remember) explanation of
the abbreviations in MAD:
> It would be more accurate to say that MAD looked at the first and last
> letters.
>
> More specifically, MAD made every keyword at least 7 letters long, so
> there could be no conflict with user-defined terms, all of which were
> limited to not more than 6 letters/digits. But then, to offset the
> resulting verbosity, they allowed most keywords to be abbreviated to
> <first letter>'<last letter>. For example:
>
> W'R = WHENEVER (what in any other language would be IF)
I don't remember whether there was checking of the middle
if it was mis-spelled out, e.g. WXXXXXXR.
...
The abbreviations were "official" and described in the manual.
UMES (U. Michigan Executive System), the original environment
for MAD, had a different scheme of compression for
representing the phrases on control cards. For example,
to say that what was upcoming in the deck was
a MAD program one used
COMPILE MAD
One of my fellow TAs discovered that you could also say
COME IN EVA
My guess is that it squeezed spaces, matched 3 letters, then
looked at every other letter (up to 6 total, conveniently fitting
in the 36-bit word).
COMpIlEmAd
COMeInEvA
Dennis
Joe Morris
>fake corporate directive on password rules ... printed with 6670 on
>corporate letterhead and posted on corporate bulletin boards ... (and
>some people took quite a while to realize it was joke). Resulting
>investigation led to placing all blank corporate letterhead paper
>under lock & key (and it wasn't me that put it up on corporate
>bulletin boards):
>http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001d.html#51 OT Re: A beautiful morning in AFM.
>http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001d.html#52 OT Re: A beautiful morning in AFM.
>http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001d.html#62 OT Re: A beautiful morning in AFM.
ROFL. Printed and passed on to our INFOSEC people...
Joe Morris
Joe Morris
>I have seen samples of COBOL based on languages including
>French, German and Danish. I also remember an ALGOL60 compiler
>from University of Grenoble where the keywords had been
>translated to French. (I think they could be configured
>to strings of your choice:
GRALGOL for the 7040, correct? I liked the design for it since
it efficiently used the same interface as the IBFTC (and IBCBC)
FORTRAN and COBOL compilers: it generated internal data streams
representing the desired machine instructions, but passed them
to the middle of the IBASM assembler phases to generate the
binary decks. That meant that the designers could concentrate
on the ALGOL language and how to implement it under IBFTC, and
not have to worry about the mechanics of binary deck creation.
Joe Morris
jmfb...@aol.com
ha...@slytherin.ds.psu.edu (Dr. Richard E. Hawkins) wrote:
>In article
<see.message.text.for.ema...@news.fu-berlin.de>,
>Daniel P. B. Smith <see.message.t...@bellatlantic.net> wrote:
>>In article <812n3vgpgm2158n7b...@4ax.com>,
>> Philip Newton <pne-news...@newton.digitalspace.net> wrote:
>
>>> On Fri, 31 Jan 2003 15:54:51 +0000 (UTC), ha...@slytherin.ds.psu.edu
(Dr.
>>> Richard E. Hawkins) wrote:
>
>>> > One of the nicest things about unix is the two letter commands.
>
>>> "I read somewhere that having lots of two letter commands makes things
>>> too cryptic."
>
>>> "Yeah, that's why I have one-letter aliases."
>
>oddly, I only have one of those at the moment (t, to start my newsreqder
>in its own window).
I never liked one-character commands. The probability of a typo
screwing myself was too high. I certainly wouldn't pick "t"; the
probability of making that typo doubles (two fingers are within
reach of that character).
/BAH
Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.
Sami S. Sihvonen
Paul Lydon <pa...@palydonDELETE.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> If you look at the "man" page for the *nix command "cu" (used to
Try GNU Emacs command "M-x man (ret) prison escape (ret)" to make
sure that your "process sentinel" is working correctly to prevent
such things... :)
--
Sami Sihvonen, "When I was in school, I cheated on my
Senior Unix Administrator, metaphysics exam: I looked into the
Janiika Networks Corporation. soul of the boy sitting next to me."
--Woody Allen
Dr. Richard E. Hawkins
Laucnhing a new xterminal that launches a newsreader is hardly a
dangerous side effect :)
Pascal Bourguignon
> In article <tm0o3vogjpk9q3pjc...@4ax.com>,
> Paul Lydon <pa...@palydonDELETE.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > If you look at the "man" page for the *nix command "cu" (used to
>
> Try GNU Emacs command "M-x man (ret) prison escape (ret)" to make
> sure that your "process sentinel" is working correctly to prevent
> such things... :)
Hey! It's almost as scary as the MCP!
--
__Pascal_Bourguignon__ http://www.informatimago.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a fault in reality. Do not adjust your minds. -- Salman Rushdie
jmfb...@aol.com
ha...@slytherin.ds.psu.edu (Dr. Richard E. Hawkins) wrote:
>In article <b2av6j$lee$1...@bob.news.rcn.net>, <jmfb...@aol.com> wrote:
>>In article <b25mv2$10go$1...@f04n12.cac.psu.edu>,
>> ha...@slytherin.ds.psu.edu (Dr. Richard E. Hawkins) wrote:
>
>
>>>>> "I read somewhere that having lots of two letter commands makes
things
>>>>> too cryptic."
>
>>>>> "Yeah, that's why I have one-letter aliases."
>
>>>oddly, I only have one of those at the moment (t, to start my newsreqder
>>>in its own window).
>
>>I never liked one-character commands. The probability of a typo
>>screwing myself was too high. I certainly wouldn't pick "t"; the
>>probability of making that typo doubles (two fingers are within
>>reach of that character).
>
>Laucnhing a new xterminal that launches a newsreader is hardly a
>dangerous side effect :)
It is when you're debugging the code or doing a demo.
Dr. Richard E. Hawkins
Well, sure. Those should get two letter commands :)
jmfb...@aol.com
ha...@slytherin.ds.psu.edu (Dr. Richard E. Hawkins) wrote:
>In article <b2irpu$96a$4...@bob.news.rcn.net>, <jmfb...@aol.com> wrote:
>>In article <b2gk15$10so$6...@f04n12.cac.psu.edu>,
>> ha...@slytherin.ds.psu.edu (Dr. Richard E. Hawkins) wrote:
>
>
>>>>I never liked one-character commands. The probability of a typo
>>>>screwing myself was too high. I certainly wouldn't pick "t"; the
>>>>probability of making that typo doubles (two fingers are within
>>>>reach of that character).
>
>>>Laucnhing a new xterminal that launches a newsreader is hardly a
>>>dangerous side effect :)
>
>>It is when you're debugging the code or doing a demo.
>
>Well, sure. Those should get two letter commands :)
TW occasionally typed FU at the monitor. A vague wisp of
memory seems to recall that somebody patched the monitor
to do an appropriate reply and then waited until TW issued
the command. But I can't remember anything else and don't
even know if this is a dream of mine.