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Re: Is MIX utterly silly?

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On 20.08.2019 14:49, David Brown wrote:
> On 20/08/2019 14:15, Peter Percival wrote:
>> Robert Wessel wrote:
>>> On Mon, 19 Aug 2019 22:52:54 +0100, Peter Percival
>>> <peterxpercival@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> That's MIX as in vol 1 of AoCP.  I know Knuth and his books are highly
>>>> regarded, but MIX is an April fool's joke, isn't it?  (Fool's/fools' not
>>>> sure which.)
>>>
>>>
>>> No, it's not.  But he has come up with a more modern ISA (RISC-ish)
>>> for newer editions of the books, MMIX.
>>>
>>> He offers a justification for MIX in the beginning of volume 1.
>>
>> I find it unconvincing!
> 
> Me too.  The MIX is a hideous design, totally at odds with its purpose.
>   MMIX is better, but still pointlessly restricted and overly complicated.
> 
> For the purposes of demonstrating algorithms or calculating complexity,
> there is little reason to have an assembly at all - a low level language
> for an abstract machine would be better.  An unlimited register bank
> with unlimited sized registers would be more useful.  Any limitations in
> the artificial machine would be completely arbitrary - making the
> algorithms in the book far more complicated than necessary, and failing
> to match real systems.
> 
> The result of the MIX and MMIX designs is that most readers gloss over
> the MIX programs in the book without a second glance - it's easier to
> work from the text and the mathematics than to try to comprehend the MIX
> nonsense and then translate it into something useful on real computers.
> 
> I'm a Knuth fan and admirer, with volumes 1 to 3 on my bookshelf as well
> as a well-read TeXBook (I had the METAFONTbook too, but I seem to have
> lost it).  But MIX was a big mistake.  IMHO, of course.

It was a child of its time.

One nice thing was that it worked with both decimal and binary. Another 
that it didn't directly support any particular calling convention. I 
remember reacting to one (possibly the first) calling convention he 
exemplified, that of the caller storing the return address in the called 
routine's return instruction...

I once interviewed at Norsk Regnesentral (near Oslo) and they asked me 
why I wanted to work there. Well, when I saw the ad I was reminded of 
Knuth, that he started his books there. I didn't get past explaining 
that, to the part about also being reminded of the Simula work, because 
they were completely perplexed: “Knut?!?”. They then paid for a second 
interview round with a former captain of one of the coast guard ships, 
now employed by a recruiting bureau. He was extremely adversarial, 
focusing on my smoking (this was before I forgot to smoke, and quit) and 
my sex life, or possibly lack of it. I didn't get the job. Strange.

And so it goes.

The world evolves, and so do we, but sloooowly.


Cheers!,

- Alf

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Is MIX utterly silly? Peter Percival <peterxpercival@hotmail.com> - 2019-08-19 22:52 +0100
  Re: Is MIX utterly silly? Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2019-08-19 21:14 -0500
    Re: Is MIX utterly silly? Peter Percival <peterxpercival@hotmail.com> - 2019-08-20 13:15 +0100
      Re: Is MIX utterly silly? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2019-08-20 14:49 +0200
        Re: Is MIX utterly silly? "Alf P. Steinbach" <alf.p.steinbach+usenet@gmail.com> - 2019-08-21 07:35 +0200
          Re: Is MIX utterly silly? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2019-08-21 14:08 +0200
            Re: Is MIX utterly silly? "Alf P. Steinbach" <alf.p.steinbach+usenet@gmail.com> - 2019-08-21 17:10 +0200
              Re: Is MIX utterly silly? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2019-08-22 15:11 +0200
          Re: Is MIX utterly silly? Louis Valence <lvalence@example.com> - 2019-08-23 17:13 -0300
            Re: Is MIX utterly silly? Peter Percival <peterxpercival@hotmail.com> - 2019-08-24 20:53 +0100
              Re: Is MIX utterly silly? luser droog <mijoryx@yahoo.com> - 2019-09-08 12:50 -0700
      Re: Is MIX utterly silly? Louis Valence <lvalence@example.com> - 2019-08-23 17:01 -0300

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