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101090 discussions

If C is so evil why is it so successful?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Alfred M. Szmidt > No even the following program: > int main (void) { return 0; } > is guaranteed to work I'm missing something: why not? Noel PS: There probably is something to the sports car analogy, but I'm not going to take a position on that one! :-) Interesting side-question though: is assembler more or less like a sports car than C? :-)

9 years, 5 months

Looking for PDP-8 G603 "Memory Selector Matrix" boards (or dec T-2052 transformers)

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- I recently got insanely lucky and scored a Straight-8 (S/N 14). It made it in nearly one piece from Ohio, but during transit, all of the G603 Memory Selector Matrix boards fell out. It looks like on early revisions, there was no bar in place to hold the boards in (or someone removed the bar from this one, but I see no indications that this was so). So while the rest of the flip chips were secured, I overlooked these in guiding the seller in prepping it for shipping. Two of the boards sustained pretty major damage, about a half a dozen of the little "gum drop" looking transformers (DEC refers to them as T-2052) broke off and most of them fell out and will never be found again. I realize it's a long shot, but does anyone have: - Any spare G603s (working or no, as long as the transformers are there) - Any spare T-2052s (or know of a source) - Any idea what the T-2052 *was* so I can try to replace them. I haven't found much detail as of yet. (The G603 schematic is here: http://svn.so-much-stuff.com/svn/trunk/Eagle/projects/DEC/Gxxx/G603/G603E.p… ) Thanks, all! - Josh

9 years, 5 months

Silent 700 thermal paper

by chd＠chdickman.com

How long does it last? I have two Silent 700 terminals that have not been used since the mid-80's and a box of thermal paper. Is the thermal paper any good or should I get some more before I try to play with the terminals. Is paper that wide available new and not NOS? I bought some TTY paper and it was NOS and so it is just about to disintegrate before I use it. -chuck

9 years, 5 months

Harry Huskey, Bob Taylor -- sad news

by cctalk＠snarc.net

Two computer industry pioneers died in the past week. Harry Huskey worked on ENIAC, the Pilot ACE, SWAC, and the Bendix G-15. He was also known for helping overseas universities start their CS programs. Harry was 101. Bob Taylor was an ARPAnet pioneer and Xerox PARC executive. He was 85. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)3 educational non-profit evan at vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation

9 years, 5 months

Nat Semi 32016 Genix backup floppies available

by elson＠pico-systems.com

As I may have mentioned a while back, I have dug out my backup floppy disks from my National Semiconductor Genix system. In 1984 or so, I built a clone of a Logical Microcomputer 32016 system and copied the OS. I used it for a while, but it was maddeningly slow. This system used a Multibus backplane and a Konan Taisho disk controller, that could handle MFM floppies and hard drives. This backup is >from my copy of the system, and so has a few tidbits of mildly interesting stuff. One thing is I was helping Steve Ciarcia of Circuit Cellar magazine answer his mail, and as this was my only system with 5" floppies, I used it for that. So, this backup probably has some rather amusing replies to the totally INSANE questions he got. One of my favorites was "Steve, can you jot down on the back of an envelope the schematic for an IBM PC so I can hand wire it?" I also wrote a VERY BAD driver for a Versatec printer. It worked, but was insanely inefficient in graphics mode, and took a half hour per page to print. Worked fine in text mode, though. I don't remember what compilers we had on this, obviously C, and maybe Pascal and FORTRAN. Since it worked fine to read and write PC compatible floppies, the floppy format should be easy to read. But, I think this "backup" is a block by block dump of the file system. Notes on the floppies show : cp dc(0,0) on the first, cp dc(0,800) on the second, etc. So, if anyone wants to try to recover the files off this, I'd be glad to donate the set. It appears to be 2 boxes of floppies, 28 in total. I have some more floppies that seem to be the last half of an earlier backup, with less info on how it was written. Thanks, Jon

9 years, 5 months

MISE and M3SE

by bill.gunshannon＠hotmail.com

Well, now that I know there are TRS-80 afficianados here i wonder if there are any MISE/M3SE experts? I have both running here now and really like them. But, back in the "good ole days" I was priomarily a DOSPLUS user with a little NEWDOS80 once in a while. I was wondering if it is possible to get either or both of these DOSes working with the MISE & M3SE. Any suggestions? bill

9 years, 5 months

APL and descendants - was Re: If C is so evil why is it so successful?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

At SMECC we have a very curious laptop with a little tape drive in it that seems to take small dictation size tapes. The little laptop has a rounded top to it. Mfr name on tip of tongue ... but ... It live in one of the Glass chasses .. wonder how scarce they are? only seen the one... Ed# In a message dated 4/14/2017 8:09:32 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, cctalk at classiccmp.org writes: > On Apr 13, 2017, at 7:34 PM, Toby Thain via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > On 2017-04-13 6:54 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: >> ... >> ...or that Iverson language, APL, present on the 5100 and what was >> probably one of the the first microcomputers, the MCM/70. >> >> So, whence APL today? > > Still lives on -- Dyalog, J, K, etc. Recently discovered the #jsoftware channel on Freenode for APL fans. For that matter, APL itself also still exists, the OpenAPL open source implementation for example. Works nicely. paul

9 years, 5 months

DEC Alphaserver 1000 4/266

by aswood＠t-online.de

Hello all, I'm looking for a DEC Alphaserver 1000 4/266 CPU board. Andreas

9 years, 5 months

TRS-80 curiosity

by bill.gunshannon＠hotmail.com

So, I just picked up an MISE from Bartlett Labs (cause I really liked the M3SE I had) and decided to revive one of my TRS-80 MOdel I's. In my box of "stuff" I found an interesting ribbon cable the function of which I don't know. It is a 40 pin to 50 pin ribbon cable with a black box connecting them that is labeled TANDY. I know of nothing the Tandy made that used a 50 pin connector other than a hard disk. Could that be what this is for? Anybody ever seen one? I no longer have any Tandy External HD's but then, with things like MISE and FreHD why would one still want one other than for nostalgia. bill

9 years, 5 months

WTB: BYT-8 Computer/Chassis

by systems.glitch＠gmail.com

All, I'm on the virge of making a deal with vintagecomputermuseum on eBay over his BYT-8 he's had up for years. It's still overpriced but I can probably sell the boards out of it and make it a reasonable purchase. I already have a board set so really I just need the empty chassis. Before I commit to buy from him (gag!) does anyone have a BYT-8 they want to sell me? The turnkey or full front panel versions are both acceptable. It can be totally empty, or if you want to sell the cards with it I can pay accordingly. Thanks, Jonathan

9 years, 5 months

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