From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Aug 19 18:01:56 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 18F67106568C for ; Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:01:56 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Received: from sola.nimnet.asn.au (paqi.nimnet.asn.au [220.233.188.227]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 62B7C8FC62 for ; Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:01:55 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sola.nimnet.asn.au (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id n7JI1rY1050742; Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:01:53 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:01:52 +1000 (EST) From: Ian Smith To: Walt Pawley In-Reply-To: <20090818120022.668B710656AC@hub.freebsd.org> Message-ID: <20090820025253.M90928@sola.nimnet.asn.au> References: <20090818120022.668B710656AC@hub.freebsd.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: MULTIPART/MIXED; BOUNDARY="0-423725794-1250704912=:90928" Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: please help to uninstall FreeBSD!!! X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:01:56 -0000 This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. --0-423725794-1250704912=:90928 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT On Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:23:29 -0700 Walt Pawley > At 4:44 PM +0200 8/17/09, Heiner Strauß wrote: [..] > >Putting the symbol names in one word helped the linker / loader a lot. > >Live was so easy. > > > >Heiner > > > >C (one word = 32 bit) .NOT. (some word processor software) > > As something of an ancient curmudgeon these days, I've enjoyed > this discussion. As speculation on my part, perhaps the six > character limitation is less a software issue than an early > architecture issue - DEC's PDP-6/10 design used 36-bit words > and packed six characters (clearly from a limited subset of the > then current ASCII) per word, making simple searches very > effective through symbol tables with a simple word level > compare loop. Can I play in the ancient curmudgeonly nostalgia reunion too? > While likely not all that closely related to the issue, I > recall a technique I was introduced to on Control Data systems > called COSY, in which one punched binary coded Hollerith cards > with two characters per column encoded (six bits per > character). Of course, such cards required excellent handling > equipment (which Control Data had) because a stack of cards > punched with 960 holes in each one had lots of opportunity for > hanging chads. First real systems programming job was converting $multinat's data files from NCR 315 format (12-bit 'slabs' holding 2 6-bit alphanum upper-case characters or 3 4-bit BCD numbers, on 7 track tape and some paper tape) to IBM 360 format (8 bit EBCDIC chars or BCD numerics, on 9 track tape), which only took about 4 months, replacing a whole floor & tons of gear. The NCR was also clearly designed around 80-column punch cards; 2 alphas or 3 digits or one 12-bit instruction code per column. The programmer's art was judged (by peers, not management :) on what your best single card 80-slab program could do once booted .. test runs of which involved turning up at the end of The Operator's shift and likely offering some $inducement, after conning one of the punch girls into typing 160 chars of utter gibberish for no apparent reason .. cheers, Ian --0-423725794-1250704912=:90928--