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Groups > alt.folklore.computers > #158899 > unrolled thread

Qbasic

Started byphilo <philo@privacy.net>
First post2016-02-05 11:25 -0600
Last post2016-02-13 11:33 +0000
Articles 20 on this page of 190 — 34 participants

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Contents

  Qbasic philo <philo@privacy.net> - 2016-02-05 11:25 -0600
    Re: Qbasic Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2016-02-05 14:56 -0800
      Re: Qbasic philo <philo@privacy.net> - 2016-02-05 18:13 -0600
        Re: Qbasic Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-02-05 22:40 -0500
          Re: Qbasic philo <philo@privacy.net> - 2016-02-05 22:32 -0600
            Re: Qbasic "Gene Buckle" <gene.buckle@bbs.retroarchive.org.remove-3hg-this> - 2016-02-11 10:22 -0800
              Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-11 17:16 -0800
                Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-11 18:49 -0800
                  Re: Qbasic philo <philo@privacy.net> - 2016-02-12 05:25 -0600
                    Re: Qbasic "gareth" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2016-02-12 11:50 +0000
                      Re: Qbasic scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2016-02-12 14:02 +0000
                        Re: Qbasic "gareth" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2016-02-12 23:24 +0000
                    Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-12 09:50 -0800
                  Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-12 06:53 -0500
                    Re: Qbasic jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-02-12 13:40 +0000
                      Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-12 09:53 -0800
                        Re: Qbasic jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-02-13 14:37 +0000
                    Re: Qbasic scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2016-02-12 14:04 +0000
                      Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-12 09:55 -0800
                        Re: Qbasic Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-02-12 20:49 +0000
                          Re: Qbasic Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-02-12 23:21 +0000
                            Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-12 15:55 -0800
                              Re: Qbasic Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-02-13 00:26 +0000
                              Re: Qbasic scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2016-02-16 15:55 +0000
                        Re: Qbasic scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2016-02-12 21:09 +0000
                          Re: Qbasic Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2016-02-12 17:11 -0600
                            Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-12 23:27 -0800
                              Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-13 06:26 -0500
                                Re: Qbasic scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2016-02-16 15:54 +0000
                                  Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-17 11:34 -0800
                                    Re: Qbasic scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2016-02-17 19:56 +0000
                                      Re: Qbasic Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2016-02-17 12:48 -0800
                                      Re: Qbasic Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2016-02-17 18:52 -0600
                                        Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-17 19:23 -0800
                                          Re: Qbasic "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2016-02-18 12:00 -0600
                                            Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-18 15:02 -0800
                                              Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-18 20:36 -0500
                                                Re: Qbasic Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-02-19 04:14 +0000
                                                  Re: Qbasic "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2016-02-19 20:05 -0600
                                                    Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-19 21:34 -0500
                                                      Re: Qbasic "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-02-20 08:03 -0600
                                                        Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-20 11:09 -0500
                                                        Re: Qbasic JimP <solosam90@gmail.com> - 2016-02-20 10:39 -0600
                                                          Re: Qbasic "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-02-20 12:05 -0600
                                                            Re: Qbasic Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2016-02-20 13:47 -0600
                                                              Re: Qbasic "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-02-20 14:21 -0600
                                                                Re: Qbasic Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2016-02-20 18:06 -0600
                                                    Re: Qbasic Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-02-20 18:57 +0000
                                                      Re: Qbasic Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2016-02-20 14:02 -0600
                                                      Re: Qbasic Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2016-02-20 16:51 -0400
                                          Re: Qbasic Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-02-18 21:34 +0000
                                        Re: Qbasic Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> - 2016-02-18 06:25 +0000
                                        Re: Qbasic scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2016-02-18 14:17 +0000
                                          Re: Qbasic Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2016-02-18 11:33 -0600
                                            Re: Qbasic scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2016-02-18 17:41 +0000
                                            Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-18 14:54 -0800
                                    Re: Qbasic Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-02-17 18:41 -0700
                                    Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-18 20:14 -0500
                                      Re: Qbasic Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2016-02-18 20:54 -0600
                                      Re: Qbasic "gareth" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2016-02-19 11:44 +0000
                              Re: Qbasic Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2016-02-13 12:24 -0600
                          Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-12 23:26 -0800
                            Re: Qbasic Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-02-13 07:43 -0700
                              Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-13 10:29 -0500
                                Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-13 08:20 -0800
                                  Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-13 09:21 -0800
                                  Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-13 12:44 -0500
                                    Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-13 11:31 -0800
                                      Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-13 15:52 -0500
                                        Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-13 13:02 -0800
                                          Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-13 16:58 -0500
                                            Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-13 20:24 -0800
                                              Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-13 21:39 -0800
                                                Re: Qbasic Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-02-14 08:48 -0700
                                          Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-13 14:17 -0800
                                            Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-13 20:00 -0500
                                              Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-13 17:52 -0800
                                                Re: Qbasic Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2016-02-13 19:28 -0800
                                                  Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-13 21:32 -0800
                                                Re: Qbasic David Wade <dave.g4ugm@gmail.com> - 2016-02-14 14:59 +0000
                                                  Re: Qbasic Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-02-14 08:48 -0700
                                                    Re: Qbasic Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2016-02-14 10:15 -0800
                                                  Re: Qbasic Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2016-02-14 09:48 -0800
                                                    Re: Qbasic Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2016-02-14 12:01 -0800
                                                Re: Qbasic Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-02-14 08:48 -0700
                                                  Re: Qbasic Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2016-02-14 19:36 -0500
                                            Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-13 20:35 -0800
                                          Re: Qbasic Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2016-02-14 10:15 -0500
                                            Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-14 08:20 -0800
                                              Re: Qbasic Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2016-02-14 14:31 -0600
                                              Re: Qbasic Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2016-02-14 19:33 -0500
                                                Re: Qbasic Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-02-16 18:52 -0700
                                      Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-13 14:04 -0800
                                        Re: Qbasic Morten Reistad <first@last.name,invalid> - 2016-02-13 23:18 +0100
                                        Re: Qbasic "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-02-13 17:25 -0600
                                        Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-13 19:42 -0500
                                          Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-13 20:30 -0800
                                            Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-13 21:49 -0800
                                              Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-14 06:36 -0800
                                                Re: Qbasic Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-02-14 08:48 -0700
                                                  Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-14 08:23 -0800
                                                    Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-14 08:27 -0800
                                                      Re: Qbasic Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-02-16 18:52 -0700
                                            Re: Qbasic Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-02-14 08:48 -0700
                                              Re: Qbasic Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-02-15 21:27 +0000
                                                Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-15 14:30 -0800
                                                Re: Qbasic Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2016-02-15 23:38 -0500
                                                  Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-17 11:23 -0800
                                                Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-15 20:49 -0800
                                                  Re: Qbasic Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> - 2016-02-16 07:07 +0000
                                                    Re: Qbasic Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-02-16 10:33 +0100
                                                      Re: Qbasic jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-02-16 13:43 +0000
                                                        Re: Qbasic Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-02-16 15:21 +0100
                                                        Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-17 11:30 -0800
                                                          Re: Qbasic scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2016-02-17 19:49 +0000
                                                          Re: Qbasic jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-02-18 13:58 +0000
                                                            Re: Qbasic Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-02-18 16:53 +0100
                                                              Re: Qbasic jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-02-19 14:24 +0000
                                                                Re: Qbasic "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2016-02-20 05:09 +1100
                                                                  Re: Qbasic jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-02-20 15:18 +0000
                                                                    Re: Qbasic "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2016-02-21 03:30 +1100
                                                                      Re: Qbasic Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-02-20 19:06 +0100
                                                                        Re: Qbasic "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2016-02-21 05:55 +1100
                                                                          Re: Qbasic Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-02-20 21:42 +0100
                                                                            Re: Qbasic "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2016-02-21 12:05 +1100
                                                                        Re: Qbasic Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2016-02-20 16:24 -0600
                                                                        Re: Qbasic Anonymous <no_email@invalid.invalid> - 2016-02-21 00:26 +0000
                                                                Re: Qbasic Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-02-19 11:15 -0700
                                                                  Re: Qbasic jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-02-20 15:18 +0000
                                                                    Re: Qbasic "hgww" <hgww@gmail.com> - 2016-02-21 03:43 +1100
                                                                Re: Qbasic scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2016-02-19 18:36 +0000
                                                                  Re: Qbasic jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-02-20 15:18 +0000
                                                                    Re: Qbasic "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2016-02-21 03:31 +1100
                                                                      Re: Qbasic Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-02-20 19:13 +0100
                                                                        Re: Qbasic "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2016-02-21 06:00 +1100
                                                    Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-16 10:10 -0800
                                                      Re: Qbasic scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2016-02-16 18:32 +0000
                                                        Re: Qbasic Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> - 2016-02-16 21:08 +0000
                                                Re: Qbasic Stan Barr <plan.b@bluesomatic.org> - 2016-02-16 08:20 +0000
                                                  Re: Qbasic Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-02-16 18:52 -0700
                                                    Re: Qbasic Lawrence Statton <lawrence@senguio.mx> - 2016-02-16 20:30 -0600
                                                      Re: Qbasic Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-02-17 04:17 +0000
                                                  Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-17 11:25 -0800
                                  Re: Qbasic Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-02-13 17:25 +0100
                                    Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-13 11:34 -0800
                                    Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-13 16:47 -0500
                                  Re: Qbasic Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> - 2016-02-14 04:09 +0000
                                    Re: Qbasic Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-02-14 08:48 -0700
                                      Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-14 12:12 -0500
                                        Re: Qbasic Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2016-02-14 19:39 -0500
                                          Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-14 19:55 -0500
                                            Re: Qbasic Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2016-02-14 20:08 -0500
                                        Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-14 20:41 -0800
                                          Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-15 12:06 -0500
                                            Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-15 09:21 -0800
                                              Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-15 09:29 -0800
                                                Re: Qbasic Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> - 2016-02-15 21:22 +0000
                                              Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-15 13:39 -0500
                                            Re: Qbasic Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> - 2016-02-15 21:20 +0000
                                Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-13 09:18 -0800
                                  Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-13 13:07 -0500
                                    Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-13 10:48 -0800
                                      Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-13 15:49 -0500
                                        Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-13 14:09 -0800
                                          Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-13 19:56 -0500
                                            Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-13 17:43 -0800
                                        Re: Qbasic Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> - 2016-02-14 04:16 +0000
                                      Re: Qbasic Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-02-13 23:35 +0100
                                        Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-13 20:08 -0500
                                          Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-13 17:55 -0800
                                      Re: Qbasic Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> - 2016-02-14 04:14 +0000
                                        Re: Qbasic Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-02-14 08:48 -0700
                              Re: Qbasic Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-02-13 16:13 +0100
                                Re: Qbasic "Blanco" <rko4410@gmail.com> - 2016-02-14 04:44 +1100
                                  Re: Qbasic Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-02-13 23:30 +0100
                                    Re: Qbasic "Blanco" <rko4410@gmail.com> - 2016-02-14 13:27 +1100
                                Re: Qbasic Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2016-02-14 13:43 -0600
                                  Re: Qbasic "hgww" <hgww@gmail.com> - 2016-02-15 07:31 +1100
                    Re: Qbasic pechter@pechter.dyndns.org (William Pechter) - 2016-02-12 17:38 +0000
                      Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-12 19:33 -0500
                    Re: Qbasic Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-12 09:51 -0800
                      Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-12 19:24 -0500
                        Re: Qbasic jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-02-13 14:37 +0000
                          Re: Qbasic "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-02-13 10:24 -0500
                      Re: Qbasic hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-02-12 23:20 -0800
                        Re: Qbasic "gareth" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2016-02-13 11:09 +0000
                          Re: Qbasic Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-02-14 00:53 +0000
                          Re: Qbasic Roberto Waltman <usenet@rwaltman.com> - 2016-02-15 23:30 -0500
                          Re: Qbasic scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2016-02-16 15:56 +0000
                        Re: Qbasic Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2016-02-13 11:33 +0000

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#159361

FromQuadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca>
Date2016-02-14 08:23 -0800
Message-ID<c9e89297-11d0-41eb-b279-427e363a5955@googlegroups.com>
In reply to#159357
On Sunday, February 14, 2016 at 8:48:12 AM UTC-7, Peter Flass wrote:

> Many machines had  software floating-point, such as the SDS940.  I think
> one model in the series had hardware FP, but that  was an exception.

Well, there was the 9300, which was related, but which wasn't really in the 
series.

John Savard

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#159364

FromQuadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca>
Date2016-02-14 08:27 -0800
Message-ID<5f4412af-652c-479c-8fbe-016b01bdd605@googlegroups.com>
In reply to#159361
On Sunday, February 14, 2016 at 9:23:22 AM UTC-7, Quadibloc wrote:
> On Sunday, February 14, 2016 at 8:48:12 AM UTC-7, Peter Flass wrote:
> 
> > Many machines had  software floating-point, such as the SDS940.  I think
> > one model in the series had hardware FP, but that  was an exception.
> 
> Well, there was the 9300, which was related, but which wasn't really in the 
> series.

I just checked. Hardware floating-point was available for the 9300 as an option.

The 930 (and thus the 940) didn't have such an option available.

John Savard

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#159541

FromPeter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com>
Date2016-02-16 18:52 -0700
Message-ID<571483095.477364727.183371.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org>
In reply to#159364
Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:
> On Sunday, February 14, 2016 at 9:23:22 AM UTC-7, Quadibloc wrote:
>> On Sunday, February 14, 2016 at 8:48:12 AM UTC-7, Peter Flass wrote:
>> 
>>> Many machines had  software floating-point, such as the SDS940.  I think
>>> one model in the series had hardware FP, but that  was an exception.
>> 
>> Well, there was the 9300, which was related, but which wasn't really in the 
>> series.
> 
> I just checked. Hardware floating-point was available for the 9300 as an option.
> 
> The 930 (and thus the 940) didn't have such an option available.

The 9300 was the one I was thinking of, although the number escaped me at
the time.  Thanks.

> 
> John Savard
> 



-- 
Pete

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#159355

FromPeter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com>
Date2016-02-14 08:48 -0700
Message-ID<812668888.477156619.586020.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org>
In reply to#159321
Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:
> On Saturday, February 13, 2016 at 5:41:35 PM UTC-7, J. Clarke wrote:
>> In article <beaadb0d-840d-4bc2-bf58-293c8510deab@googlegroups.com>, 
>> hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com says...
> 
>>> *For example, the Z mainframe has a SQRT instruction now.  Does the x86
>>> have one?
> 
>> X86 has had SQRT since the '486.  It had it before that but only in an 
>> add-on chip.
> 
> Yes, pretty well _all_ microprocessor chips with hardware floating-point these 
> days even have instructions for LOG, SIN, and COS. In the case of SQRT, it's 
> almost mandated by the IEEE 784 spec, since an algorithm exists for SQRT that 
> produces the exact most accurate floating-point approximation to the result - 
> just as is the case for the four arithmetic operations.
> 
> This seems strange to a fossil like myself, because no one particularly felt a 
> need to have hardware trig functions and the like even on big mainframe 
> computers back in the old days. But today it's practically _de rigeur_. 

I never did the scientific stuff, but no place I ever worked would have
used them.  Remember, floating-point was an option  on the 360/30, and I
saw few shops that had that.  Hardware was expensive and constrained back
then.

> 
> Presumably it's because techniques such as the CORDIC algorithm allow hardware 
> to do a much better job than a polynomial approximation.
> 
> John Savard
> 



-- 
Pete

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#159446

FromCharlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid>
Date2016-02-15 21:27 +0000
Message-ID<n9tfr911t66@news3.newsguy.com>
In reply to#159355
On 2016-02-14, Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:
>
>> On Saturday, February 13, 2016 at 5:41:35 PM UTC-7, J. Clarke wrote:
>>
>>> In article <beaadb0d-840d-4bc2-bf58-293c8510deab@googlegroups.com>, 
>>> hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com says...
>>> 
>>>> *For example, the Z mainframe has a SQRT instruction now.  Does the x86
>>>> have one?
>> 
>>> X86 has had SQRT since the '486.  It had it before that but only in an 
>>> add-on chip.
>> 
>> Yes, pretty well _all_ microprocessor chips with hardware floating-point
>> these days even have instructions for LOG, SIN, and COS. In the case of
>> SQRT, it's almost mandated by the IEEE 784 spec, since an algorithm exists
>> for SQRT that produces the exact most accurate floating-point approximation
>> to the result - just as is the case for the four arithmetic operations.
>> 
>> This seems strange to a fossil like myself, because no one particularly felt
>> a need to have hardware trig functions and the like even on big mainframe 
>> computers back in the old days. But today it's practically _de rigeur_. 
>
> I never did the scientific stuff, but no place I ever worked would have
> used them.  Remember, floating-point was an option  on the 360/30, and I
> saw few shops that had that.  Hardware was expensive and constrained back
> then.

I'm always somewhat perplexed by this fascination with floating point.
Sure, there are applications where it's needed - but many commercial
shops have little or no use for it.  In my entire career I can count
the number of times I've used floating point on the fingers of one hand -
and this includes stuff I'm working on right now.

YMMV.

-- 
/~\  cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
\ /  I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
 X   Top-posted messages will probably be ignored.  See RFC1855.
/ \  HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored.  Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!

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#159451

FromQuadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca>
Date2016-02-15 14:30 -0800
Message-ID<c227bf22-3354-43e5-b84d-85dac4532ab6@googlegroups.com>
In reply to#159446
On Monday, February 15, 2016 at 2:27:37 PM UTC-7, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

> I'm always somewhat perplexed by this fascination with floating point.
> Sure, there are applications where it's needed - but many commercial
> shops have little or no use for it.  In my entire career I can count
> the number of times I've used floating point on the fingers of one hand -
> and this includes stuff I'm working on right now.

It's certainly true that Windows 3.1 worked just fine on 386 boxes which didn't 
have the 387 coprocessor installed. Ditto for the Macintosh, which was based on 
a 68000 without a 68881.

So it's not as if a computer without hardware floating-point is a fossil stuck 
in the dark ages of the command prompt!

However, floating-point is the fanciest and most demanding type of calculation 
handled by a computer. It requires many more transistors, and takes more 
cycles. So a computer that can do it well is bigger and more impressive than 
one which can "merely" do binary integer arithmetic well.

Database machines should have good *decimal* arithmetic capabilities, and these 
also require extra hardware to get right. (Also an option on the 360.)

Plus, there _are_ some popular applications... even if they're not 
_productivity_ applications... that do make heavy use of floating-point 
arithmetic. Just try playing Crysis without it!

John Savard

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#159465

FromDan Espen <despen@verizon.net>
Date2016-02-15 23:38 -0500
Message-ID<n9u8u5$gle$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to#159446
Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> writes:

> On 2016-02-14, Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:
>>
>>> On Saturday, February 13, 2016 at 5:41:35 PM UTC-7, J. Clarke wrote:
>>>
>>>> In article <beaadb0d-840d-4bc2-bf58-293c8510deab@googlegroups.com>, 
>>>> hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com says...
>>>> 
>>>>> *For example, the Z mainframe has a SQRT instruction now.  Does the x86
>>>>> have one?
>>> 
>>>> X86 has had SQRT since the '486.  It had it before that but only in an 
>>>> add-on chip.
>>> 
>>> Yes, pretty well _all_ microprocessor chips with hardware floating-point
>>> these days even have instructions for LOG, SIN, and COS. In the case of
>>> SQRT, it's almost mandated by the IEEE 784 spec, since an algorithm exists
>>> for SQRT that produces the exact most accurate floating-point approximation
>>> to the result - just as is the case for the four arithmetic operations.
>>> 
>>> This seems strange to a fossil like myself, because no one particularly felt
>>> a need to have hardware trig functions and the like even on big mainframe 
>>> computers back in the old days. But today it's practically _de rigeur_. 
>>
>> I never did the scientific stuff, but no place I ever worked would have
>> used them.  Remember, floating-point was an option  on the 360/30, and I
>> saw few shops that had that.  Hardware was expensive and constrained back
>> then.
>
> I'm always somewhat perplexed by this fascination with floating point.
> Sure, there are applications where it's needed - but many commercial
> shops have little or no use for it.  In my entire career I can count
> the number of times I've used floating point on the fingers of one hand -
> and this includes stuff I'm working on right now.
>
> YMMV.

25 years in consulting as part of a 50 year career.
The only floating point I remember was some tyro coding up some
formulas in COBOL that convinced COBOL it needed floating point.
One of things I fixed there was stopping COBOL from using
floating point.

Seems to me, any user facing machine needs to do decimal arithmetic
quickly.

-- 
Dan Espen

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#159598

FromQuadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca>
Date2016-02-17 11:23 -0800
Message-ID<d157d32f-c8c8-4cab-b04b-f860a6758497@googlegroups.com>
In reply to#159465
On Monday, February 15, 2016 at 9:38:15 PM UTC-7, D_J_E wrote:

> Seems to me, any user facing machine needs to do decimal arithmetic
> quickly.

Define "quickly". A PDP-8/S, a rather slow machine with only the ability to do 
binary integer arithmetic, would be able to convert from binary to decimal in 
the blink of an eye, even if it would be slow enough to annoy users if it had a 
lot of *other* calculations to do first.

So I'd think that doing decimal conversion in software on, say, a quad-core 
Core i7 running at over 2 GHz, wouldn't be neglectful of speed requirements for 
user-facing equipment.

John Savard

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#159469

Fromhancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Date2016-02-15 20:49 -0800
Message-ID<468779aa-46a1-4b28-b6b0-bd03750b9089@googlegroups.com>
In reply to#159446
On Monday, February 15, 2016 at 4:27:37 PM UTC-5, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

> I'm always somewhat perplexed by this fascination with floating point.
> Sure, there are applications where it's needed - but many commercial
> shops have little or no use for it.  In my entire career I can count
> the number of times I've used floating point on the fingers of one hand -
> and this includes stuff I'm working on right now.

FWIW, our S/360-40 turned out to have floating point on it.  We didn't
even know until someone tried to run a job on it, and it worked.

Anyway, likewise, I never had the need to use floating point once I
got out of college.  However, most of my employers had research
or engineering groups who did use Fortran for their work, and I
presume that means the computer had to have floating point to support
the Fortran, unless everything was done as an Integer, which I doubt.
(In Fortran, all 'real' variables are floating point, right?)

However, admittedly I don't think the researchers where I worked were
doing heavy-duty number crunching.  Much of the time they were just
doing Fortran because they knew it (almost everybody took it in college)
and it suited their needs better than COBOL.

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#159475

FromAndrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com>
Date2016-02-16 07:07 +0000
Message-ID<wKydnfc7-q4dV1_LnZ2dnUU78aWdnZ2d@giganews.com>
In reply to#159469
On 16/02/2016 04:49, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> On Monday, February 15, 2016 at 4:27:37 PM UTC-5, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>
>> I'm always somewhat perplexed by this fascination with floating point.
>> Sure, there are applications where it's needed - but many commercial
>> shops have little or no use for it.  In my entire career I can count
>> the number of times I've used floating point on the fingers of one hand -
>> and this includes stuff I'm working on right now.
>
> FWIW, our S/360-40 turned out to have floating point on it.  We didn't
> even know until someone tried to run a job on it, and it worked.
>
> Anyway, likewise, I never had the need to use floating point once I
> got out of college.  However, most of my employers had research
> or engineering groups who did use Fortran for their work, and I
> presume that means the computer had to have floating point to support
> the Fortran, unless everything was done as an Integer, which I doubt.
> (In Fortran, all 'real' variables are floating point, right?)
>
> However, admittedly I don't think the researchers where I worked were
> doing heavy-duty number crunching.  Much of the time they were just
> doing Fortran because they knew it (almost everybody took it in college)
> and it suited their needs better than COBOL.
>

COBOL found calculating sin, cos, tan and fast Fourier transforms difficult.

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#159482

FromMorten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid>
Date2016-02-16 10:33 +0100
Message-ID<q07bpc-son.ln1@sambook.reistad.name>
In reply to#159475
In article <wKydnfc7-q4dV1_LnZ2dnUU78aWdnZ2d@giganews.com>,
Andrew Swallow  <am.swallow@btinternet.com> wrote:
>On 16/02/2016 04:49, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>> On Monday, February 15, 2016 at 4:27:37 PM UTC-5, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>>
>>> I'm always somewhat perplexed by this fascination with floating point.
>>> Sure, there are applications where it's needed - but many commercial
>>> shops have little or no use for it.  In my entire career I can count
>>> the number of times I've used floating point on the fingers of one hand -
>>> and this includes stuff I'm working on right now.
>>
>> FWIW, our S/360-40 turned out to have floating point on it.  We didn't
>> even know until someone tried to run a job on it, and it worked.
>>
>> Anyway, likewise, I never had the need to use floating point once I
>> got out of college.  However, most of my employers had research
>> or engineering groups who did use Fortran for their work, and I
>> presume that means the computer had to have floating point to support
>> the Fortran, unless everything was done as an Integer, which I doubt.
>> (In Fortran, all 'real' variables are floating point, right?)
>>
>> However, admittedly I don't think the researchers where I worked were
>> doing heavy-duty number crunching.  Much of the time they were just
>> doing Fortran because they knew it (almost everybody took it in college)
>> and it suited their needs better than COBOL.
>>
>
>COBOL found calculating sin, cos, tan and fast Fourier transforms difficult.

No, it is just cumbersome, not difficult. COMP-3 and COMPUTE should
help a lot, plus some external libraries doing the trig functions 
and fft's (in some other language, e.g. C).

-- mrr

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#159486

Fromjmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com>
Date2016-02-16 13:43 +0000
Message-ID<PM00052BE32A447276@aca40675.ipt.aol.com>
In reply to#159482
Morten Reistad wrote:
> In article <wKydnfc7-q4dV1_LnZ2dnUU78aWdnZ2d@giganews.com>,
> Andrew Swallow  <am.swallow@btinternet.com> wrote:
>>On 16/02/2016 04:49, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>>> On Monday, February 15, 2016 at 4:27:37 PM UTC-5, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm always somewhat perplexed by this fascination with floating point.
>>>> Sure, there are applications where it's needed - but many commercial
>>>> shops have little or no use for it.  In my entire career I can count
>>>> the number of times I've used floating point on the fingers of one hand -
>>>> and this includes stuff I'm working on right now.
>>>
>>> FWIW, our S/360-40 turned out to have floating point on it.  We didn't
>>> even know until someone tried to run a job on it, and it worked.
>>>
>>> Anyway, likewise, I never had the need to use floating point once I
>>> got out of college.  However, most of my employers had research
>>> or engineering groups who did use Fortran for their work, and I
>>> presume that means the computer had to have floating point to support
>>> the Fortran, unless everything was done as an Integer, which I doubt.
>>> (In Fortran, all 'real' variables are floating point, right?)
>>>
>>> However, admittedly I don't think the researchers where I worked were
>>> doing heavy-duty number crunching.  Much of the time they were just
>>> doing Fortran because they knew it (almost everybody took it in college)
>>> and it suited their needs better than COBOL.
>>>
>>
>>COBOL found calculating sin, cos, tan and fast Fourier transforms difficult.
>
> No, it is just cumbersome, not difficult. COMP-3 and COMPUTE should
> help a lot, plus some external libraries doing the trig functions
> and fft's (in some other language, e.g. C).

But it wasn't simple to call other languages' libraries with COBOL.
The calling sequences were dissimilar; the OTS of each lanugage
was a segment.  It wasn't until much later that two OTS might
be able to reside in one user's address sapce.  Also languages
usually were bought separately so the calls had to occur on systems
which had both installed.

/BAH

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#159487

FromMorten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid>
Date2016-02-16 15:21 +0100
Message-ID<ernbpc-f2q.ln1@sambook.reistad.name>
In reply to#159486
In article <PM00052BE32A447276@aca40675.ipt.aol.com>,
jmfbahciv  <See.above@aol.com> wrote:
>Morten Reistad wrote:
>> In article <wKydnfc7-q4dV1_LnZ2dnUU78aWdnZ2d@giganews.com>,
>> Andrew Swallow  <am.swallow@btinternet.com> wrote:
>>>On 16/02/2016 04:49, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>>>> On Monday, February 15, 2016 at 4:27:37 PM UTC-5, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I'm always somewhat perplexed by this fascination with floating point.
>>>>> Sure, there are applications where it's needed - but many commercial
>>>>> shops have little or no use for it.  In my entire career I can count
>>>>> the number of times I've used floating point on the fingers of one hand -
>>>>> and this includes stuff I'm working on right now.
>>>>
>>>> FWIW, our S/360-40 turned out to have floating point on it.  We didn't
>>>> even know until someone tried to run a job on it, and it worked.
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, likewise, I never had the need to use floating point once I
>>>> got out of college.  However, most of my employers had research
>>>> or engineering groups who did use Fortran for their work, and I
>>>> presume that means the computer had to have floating point to support
>>>> the Fortran, unless everything was done as an Integer, which I doubt.
>>>> (In Fortran, all 'real' variables are floating point, right?)
>>>>
>>>> However, admittedly I don't think the researchers where I worked were
>>>> doing heavy-duty number crunching.  Much of the time they were just
>>>> doing Fortran because they knew it (almost everybody took it in college)
>>>> and it suited their needs better than COBOL.
>>>>
>>>
>>>COBOL found calculating sin, cos, tan and fast Fourier transforms difficult.
>>
>> No, it is just cumbersome, not difficult. COMP-3 and COMPUTE should
>> help a lot, plus some external libraries doing the trig functions
>> and fft's (in some other language, e.g. C).
>
>But it wasn't simple to call other languages' libraries with COBOL.
>The calling sequences were dissimilar; the OTS of each lanugage
>was a segment.  It wasn't until much later that two OTS might
>be able to reside in one user's address sapce.  Also languages
>usually were bought separately so the calls had to occur on systems
>which had both installed.

You would need to do some assembly hacking for Tops10, cics and
other one-memory-map systems. The usual method was to write the 
subroutine as a dummy in cobol, and the contents in the other
language; and build assembly instead of code, and then you got to
integrate the code manually. 

It was about a weeks work, but it was definatly possible. I have
done it on both CICS (1.7) and Tops20(4.2, with full pa1050 cobol and
fortran; i.e. identical to tops10).

For native tops20, primos, unix this was a lot more straightforward, 
the ots systems needed at most an init-call; normally done in the
main of every program language.

But cobol to fortran needed compiler support or special assembly
integration. Still does.

-- mrr

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#159600

FromQuadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca>
Date2016-02-17 11:30 -0800
Message-ID<968ae2b3-3798-427a-831e-6259682eaa90@googlegroups.com>
In reply to#159486
On Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 6:42:06 AM UTC-7, jmfbahciv wrote:

> But it wasn't simple to call other languages' libraries with COBOL.
> The calling sequences were dissimilar; the OTS of each lanugage
> was a segment.  It wasn't until much later that two OTS might
> be able to reside in one user's address sapce.  Also languages
> usually were bought separately so the calls had to occur on systems
> which had both installed.

This isn't a universal rule for all mainframe computers.

With some, you don't need to own the language to run a binary program compiled 
from that language, because the only library calls are to standard libraries 
included in the operating system.

As well, calling conventions do differ between languages, but some languages 
shared conventions - thus, PL/I had extra features that required a special 
calling convention, but FORTRAN and COBOL might use the old standard calling 
convention.

And on some machines, the address space is linear, and the issue of segments 
does not arise.

John Savard

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#159604

Fromscott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal)
Date2016-02-17 19:49 +0000
Message-ID<a94xy.5307$FL.4403@fx20.iad>
In reply to#159600
Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> writes:
>On Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 6:42:06 AM UTC-7, jmfbahciv wrote:
>
>> But it wasn't simple to call other languages' libraries with COBOL.
>> The calling sequences were dissimilar; the OTS of each lanugage
>> was a segment.  It wasn't until much later that two OTS might
>> be able to reside in one user's address sapce.  Also languages
>> usually were bought separately so the calls had to occur on systems
>> which had both installed.
>
>This isn't a universal rule for all mainframe computers.

True.  It was pretty straightforward to call fortran or BPL subroutines
from COBOL in the burroughs medium systems.  It was also straighforward
to embed assembler (ENTER SYMBOLIC) in COBOL68 programs (that capability
was removed from the COBOL85 compiler).

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#159668

Fromjmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com>
Date2016-02-18 13:58 +0000
Message-ID<PM00052C0BC1B79E67@aca4282e.ipt.aol.com>
In reply to#159600
Quadibloc wrote:
> On Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 6:42:06 AM UTC-7, jmfbahciv wrote:
>
>> But it wasn't simple to call other languages' libraries with COBOL.
>> The calling sequences were dissimilar; the OTS of each lanugage
>> was a segment.  It wasn't until much later that two OTS might
>> be able to reside in one user's address sapce.  Also languages
>> usually were bought separately so the calls had to occur on systems
>> which had both installed.
>
> This isn't a universal rule for all mainframe computers.

Sorry.  I was talking about old DEC.

>
> With some, you don't need to own the language to run a binary program
compiled
> from that language, because the only library calls are to standard libraries
> included in the operating system.

Every one had their own revision of "standard libraries".  Even the same
OS would have updates or replacements.
>
> As well, calling conventions do differ between languages, but some languages
> shared conventions - thus, PL/I had extra features that required a special
> calling convention, but FORTRAN and COBOL might use the old standard calling
> convention.

Having the same calling conventions is a drip in the bit bucket.  The problem
is addressing and memory management which are not done similarly.

>
> And on some machines, the address space is linear, and the issue of segments
> does not arise.

WEll, that is one tactic but is so wastefully slow and a PITA to administer
updates to the software.

/BAH

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#159675

FromMorten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid>
Date2016-02-18 16:53 +0100
Message-ID<c06hpc-531.ln1@sambook.reistad.name>
In reply to#159668
In article <PM00052C0BC1B79E67@aca4282e.ipt.aol.com>,
jmfbahciv  <See.above@aol.com> wrote:
>Quadibloc wrote:
>> On Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 6:42:06 AM UTC-7, jmfbahciv wrote:
>>
>>> But it wasn't simple to call other languages' libraries with COBOL.
>>> The calling sequences were dissimilar; the OTS of each lanugage
>>> was a segment.  It wasn't until much later that two OTS might
>>> be able to reside in one user's address sapce.  Also languages
>>> usually were bought separately so the calls had to occur on systems
>>> which had both installed.
>>
>> This isn't a universal rule for all mainframe computers.
>
>Sorry.  I was talking about old DEC.


This was why the VMS cusp developers used _all_ the languages to 
develop their stuff, so all the language runtimes had to be included
bu default. Prime also had a policy of supplying all the standard 
language runtimes.

>> With some, you don't need to own the language to run a binary program
>compiled
>> from that language, because the only library calls are to standard libraries
>> included in the operating system.
>
>Every one had their own revision of "standard libraries".  Even the same
>OS would have updates or replacements.
>>
>> As well, calling conventions do differ between languages, but some languages
>> shared conventions - thus, PL/I had extra features that required a special
>> calling convention, but FORTRAN and COBOL might use the old standard calling
>> convention.
>
>Having the same calling conventions is a drip in the bit bucket.  The problem
>is addressing and memory management which are not done similarly.

A lot of this is supported by having some magic words in the declaration;
procedure foo(int bar) external fortran; .. or something like this.

>> And on some machines, the address space is linear, and the issue of segments
>> does not arise.
>
>WEll, that is one tactic but is so wastefully slow and a PITA to administer
>updates to the software.

Or, plain dynamic linking. Like Multics, or the bowlderised version; Primos.

And like Linux got in version 1.0.10, FreeBSD in version 2.4, and windows
has halfway had (ex version control, they screwed up on that one) all
the time.

-- mrr

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#159793

Fromjmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com>
Date2016-02-19 14:24 +0000
Message-ID<PM00052C2025C99257@aca432ec.ipt.aol.com>
In reply to#159675
Morten Reistad wrote:
> In article <PM00052C0BC1B79E67@aca4282e.ipt.aol.com>,
> jmfbahciv  <See.above@aol.com> wrote:
>>Quadibloc wrote:
>>> On Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 6:42:06 AM UTC-7, jmfbahciv wrote:
>>>
>>>> But it wasn't simple to call other languages' libraries with COBOL.
>>>> The calling sequences were dissimilar; the OTS of each lanugage
>>>> was a segment.  It wasn't until much later that two OTS might
>>>> be able to reside in one user's address sapce.  Also languages
>>>> usually were bought separately so the calls had to occur on systems
>>>> which had both installed.
>>>
>>> This isn't a universal rule for all mainframe computers.
>>
>>Sorry.  I was talking about old DEC.
>
>
> This was why the VMS cusp developers used _all_ the languages to
> develop their stuff, so all the language runtimes had to be included
> bu default. Prime also had a policy of supplying all the standard
> language runtimes.

A customer had to buy FORTRAN to get any of the FORTRAN library
functions.  The same was true for COBOL and any other language.
BLISS was also a bitch.


>
>>> With some, you don't need to own the language to run a binary program
>>compiled
>>> from that language, because the only library calls are to standard
libraries
>>> included in the operating system.
>>
>>Every one had their own revision of "standard libraries".  Even the same
>>OS would have updates or replacements.
>>>
>>> As well, calling conventions do differ between languages, but some
languages
>>> shared conventions - thus, PL/I had extra features that required a special
>>> calling convention, but FORTRAN and COBOL might use the old standard
calling
>>> convention.
>>
>>Having the same calling conventions is a drip in the bit bucket.  The
problem
>>is addressing and memory management which are not done similarly.
>
> A lot of this is supported by having some magic words in the declaration;
> procedure foo(int bar) external fortran; .. or something like this.
>
>>> And on some machines, the address space is linear, and the issue of
segments
>>> does not arise.
>>
>>WEll, that is one tactic but is so wastefully slow and a PITA to administer
>>updates to the software.
>
> Or, plain dynamic linking. Like Multics, or the bowlderised version; Primos.

There are problems with dynamic linking when library files on the disk
change even if a customer has bought all of the products.  Libraries back
then were part of the final EXE.  If they were not, then the code had
to be GETSEGed during execution.  We did finally implement a MERGE when
the hardware supported extended sections.  There wasn't enough physical
nor virutal core to include all libraries at runtime.

>
> And like Linux got in version 1.0.10, FreeBSD in version 2.4, and windows
> has halfway had (ex version control, they screwed up on that one) all
> the time.

Dynamic linking became possible when the software development was
completely divorced from the hardware development.

/BAH

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#159825

From"Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com>
Date2016-02-20 05:09 +1100
Message-ID<dip43pFtr3bU1@mid.individual.net>
In reply to#159793

"jmfbahciv" <See.above@aol.com> wrote in message 
news:PM00052C2025C99257@aca432ec.ipt.aol.com...
> Morten Reistad wrote:
>> In article <PM00052C0BC1B79E67@aca4282e.ipt.aol.com>,
>> jmfbahciv  <See.above@aol.com> wrote:
>>>Quadibloc wrote:
>>>> On Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 6:42:06 AM UTC-7, jmfbahciv wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> But it wasn't simple to call other languages' libraries with COBOL.
>>>>> The calling sequences were dissimilar; the OTS of each lanugage
>>>>> was a segment.  It wasn't until much later that two OTS might
>>>>> be able to reside in one user's address sapce.  Also languages
>>>>> usually were bought separately so the calls had to occur on systems
>>>>> which had both installed.
>>>>
>>>> This isn't a universal rule for all mainframe computers.
>>>
>>>Sorry.  I was talking about old DEC.
>>
>>
>> This was why the VMS cusp developers used _all_ the languages to
>> develop their stuff, so all the language runtimes had to be included
>> bu default. Prime also had a policy of supplying all the standard
>> language runtimes.
>
> A customer had to buy FORTRAN to get any of the FORTRAN library
> functions.  The same was true for COBOL and any other language.
> BLISS was also a bitch.
>
>
>>
>>>> With some, you don't need to own the language to run a binary program
>>>compiled
>>>> from that language, because the only library calls are to standard
> libraries
>>>> included in the operating system.
>>>
>>>Every one had their own revision of "standard libraries".  Even the same
>>>OS would have updates or replacements.
>>>>
>>>> As well, calling conventions do differ between languages, but some
> languages
>>>> shared conventions - thus, PL/I had extra features that required a 
>>>> special
>>>> calling convention, but FORTRAN and COBOL might use the old standard
> calling
>>>> convention.
>>>
>>>Having the same calling conventions is a drip in the bit bucket.  The
> problem
>>>is addressing and memory management which are not done similarly.
>>
>> A lot of this is supported by having some magic words in the declaration;
>> procedure foo(int bar) external fortran; .. or something like this.
>>
>>>> And on some machines, the address space is linear, and the issue of
> segments
>>>> does not arise.
>>>
>>>WEll, that is one tactic but is so wastefully slow and a PITA to 
>>>administer
>>>updates to the software.
>>
>> Or, plain dynamic linking. Like Multics, or the bowlderised version; 
>> Primos.
>
> There are problems with dynamic linking when library files on the disk
> change even if a customer has bought all of the products.  Libraries back
> then were part of the final EXE.  If they were not, then the code had
> to be GETSEGed during execution.  We did finally implement a MERGE when
> the hardware supported extended sections.  There wasn't enough physical
> nor virutal core to include all libraries at runtime.
>
>>
>> And like Linux got in version 1.0.10, FreeBSD in version 2.4, and windows
>> has halfway had (ex version control, they screwed up on that one) all
>> the time.
>
> Dynamic linking became possible when the software development was
> completely divorced from the hardware development.

Bullshit. It was always possible before that. 

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#159927

Fromjmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com>
Date2016-02-20 15:18 +0000
Message-ID<PM00052C3450DEF437@aca405fb.ipt.aol.com>
In reply to#159825
Rod Speed wrote:
>
>
> "jmfbahciv" <See.above@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:PM00052C2025C99257@aca432ec.ipt.aol.com...
>> Morten Reistad wrote:
>>> In article <PM00052C0BC1B79E67@aca4282e.ipt.aol.com>,
>>> jmfbahciv  <See.above@aol.com> wrote:
>>>>Quadibloc wrote:
>>>>> On Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 6:42:06 AM UTC-7, jmfbahciv wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> But it wasn't simple to call other languages' libraries with COBOL.
>>>>>> The calling sequences were dissimilar; the OTS of each lanugage
>>>>>> was a segment.  It wasn't until much later that two OTS might
>>>>>> be able to reside in one user's address sapce.  Also languages
>>>>>> usually were bought separately so the calls had to occur on systems
>>>>>> which had both installed.
>>>>>
>>>>> This isn't a universal rule for all mainframe computers.
>>>>
>>>>Sorry.  I was talking about old DEC.
>>>
>>>
>>> This was why the VMS cusp developers used _all_ the languages to
>>> develop their stuff, so all the language runtimes had to be included
>>> bu default. Prime also had a policy of supplying all the standard
>>> language runtimes.
>>
>> A customer had to buy FORTRAN to get any of the FORTRAN library
>> functions.  The same was true for COBOL and any other language.
>> BLISS was also a bitch.
>>
>>
>>>
>>>>> With some, you don't need to own the language to run a binary program
>>>>compiled
>>>>> from that language, because the only library calls are to standard
>> libraries
>>>>> included in the operating system.
>>>>
>>>>Every one had their own revision of "standard libraries".  Even the same
>>>>OS would have updates or replacements.
>>>>>
>>>>> As well, calling conventions do differ between languages, but some
>> languages
>>>>> shared conventions - thus, PL/I had extra features that required a
>>>>> special
>>>>> calling convention, but FORTRAN and COBOL might use the old standard
>> calling
>>>>> convention.
>>>>
>>>>Having the same calling conventions is a drip in the bit bucket.  The
>> problem
>>>>is addressing and memory management which are not done similarly.
>>>
>>> A lot of this is supported by having some magic words in the declaration;
>>> procedure foo(int bar) external fortran; .. or something like this.
>>>
>>>>> And on some machines, the address space is linear, and the issue of
>> segments
>>>>> does not arise.
>>>>
>>>>WEll, that is one tactic but is so wastefully slow and a PITA to
>>>>administer
>>>>updates to the software.
>>>
>>> Or, plain dynamic linking. Like Multics, or the bowlderised version;
>>> Primos.
>>
>> There are problems with dynamic linking when library files on the disk
>> change even if a customer has bought all of the products.  Libraries back
>> then were part of the final EXE.  If they were not, then the code had
>> to be GETSEGed during execution.  We did finally implement a MERGE when
>> the hardware supported extended sections.  There wasn't enough physical
>> nor virutal core to include all libraries at runtime.
>>
>>>
>>> And like Linux got in version 1.0.10, FreeBSD in version 2.4, and windows
>>> has halfway had (ex version control, they screwed up on that one) all
>>> the time.
>>
>> Dynamic linking became possible when the software development was
>> completely divorced from the hardware development.
>
> Bullshit. It was always possible before that.

What memory mangement was used?

/BAH

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