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Choice of time zone (was: In Memoriam: Edsger Dijkstra, and happy birthday Jon Postel!)

by Greg 'groggy' Lehey

On Tuesday, 7 August 2018 at 10:51:12 +1000, Dave Horsfall wrote: > ...; you won't believe the number of "history" sites I've seen that > directly contradict each other (even when taking UTC/US/local time > into account, and I try and use local time wherever possible). To further confuse the issue? With UTC we know where we are. Greg -- Sent from my desktop computer. Finger grog(a)lemis.com for PGP public key. See complete headers for address and phone numbers. This message is digitally signed. If your Microsoft mail program reports problems, please read http://lemis.com/broken-MUA

6 years, 10 months

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Re: [COFF] [TUHS] In Memoriam: Per Brinch Hansen

by Peter Jeremy

[Moved from TUHS to COFF] On 2018-Aug-02 08:44:56 -0400, Doug McIlroy <doug(a)cs.dartmouth.edu> wrote: >My collection of early computer manuals includes Brinch Hansen's manual >for the RC 4000, which stands out for its precise description of the >CPU logic--in Algol 60! It's the only manual I have seen that offers a >good-to-the-last-bit formal description of the hardware. The book "A Programming Language" by Kenneth Iverson included a formal description of the IBM 7090 in Iverson Notation (now APL). I believe that is the first formal description of any computer. The success of that led IBM to include a formal description of the System/360 architecture in the IBM Systems Journal issue introducing the S/360. I've been told that IBM has since regretted that decision since it opened the way for other manufacturers to clone the S/360. -- Peter Jeremy

6 years, 10 months

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Happy birthday, Harvard Mk I!

by Dave Horsfall

One of the first digital computers in the world[*], the Harvard Mk I, was dedicated on this day in 1944; it was an enormous electromechanical beast. [*] Please, no discussion on what constitutes a "digital computer" as we've pretty much done that to death; it all comes down to a matter of definition to suit one's agenda. -- Dave

6 years, 10 months

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Re: [COFF] [TUHS] Australian Computer Museum Society collection faces bulldozers

by Greg 'groggy' Lehey

[redirected to COFF] On Thursday, 2 August 2018 at 14:25:31 +0000, asbesto wrote: > > IDK if you know this, but > > https://www.itnews.com.au/news/australian-computer-museum-society-collectio… I sent them mail offering to help, but no answer so far. Greg -- Sent from my desktop computer. Finger grog(a)lemis.com for PGP public key. See complete headers for address and phone numbers. This message is digitally signed. If your Microsoft mail program reports problems, please read http://lemis.com/broken-MUA

6 years, 10 months

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Re: [COFF] [TUHS] Looking for final C compiler by Dennis Ritchie

by Dan Cross

[+COFF and TUHS to Bcc:] Okay, here we go: troff vs. TeX food fight. On Mon, Jul 23, 2018 at 11:56 AM Larry McVoy <lm(a)mcvoy.com> wrote: > I actually wacked a bunch of the Unix docs to make them look a little > better, I should see if I can find that. > I'd like to see that; presentation of some of those docs is getting a bit long in the tooth. I agree that roff is awesome, it's a bummer that Latex seems to be > the winner (which I think is purely because the roff/eqn/pic/etc > docs weren't widely available back in the day). > I have to disagree with this, however. TeX (and more specifically LaTeX) won out for technical writing because, frankly, it produces nicer output than *roff did. If I were writing a thesis or paper, I'd frankly rather use LaTeX or AMSLaTeX. I've used eqn to try and typeset math; it's OK if it's all that you've got. An nroff approximation for output to the terminal is kind of nifty, but beyond that it simply pales in comparison to TeX. I know that people have, and perhaps still do, typeset mathematics with eqn/neqn/troff, but given a choice between the two, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a mathematician who would choose troff over TeX; similarly with most technical papers. Now tbl and pic, those are pretty cool. Even then, GNU pic will output TeX for incorporation into other documents, and LaTeX has some very nice table-creation environments that largely subsume the functionality of tbl. Now don't get me wrong, I *like* roff, and I use it occasionally for one-off things, but for serious writing for publication I'd generally chose LaTeX. - Dan C.

6 years, 10 months

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Asking a favour: 1 hour to review a teaching course

by Warren Toomey

Hi all, I'm in need of a favour. I teach at a TAFE in Australia, equivalent to a polytechnic or a community college: below the level of a uni, with some theory and some hands-on skills. I need to find two industry people to review the assessment I have set for two courses. It would take about an hour of your time (I hope!). Would anybody be able to help me out? Many thanks! Warren

6 years, 10 months

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GoTEK SFR1M44-U100...

by Grant Taylor

Does anyone have any experience with the GoTEK SFR1M44-U100 floppy drive emulator that reads ""images from a USB flash drive? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Run for the hills? -- Grant. . . . unix || die

6 years, 10 months

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Other OSes?

by Warren Toomey

OK, I guess I'll be the one to start things going on the COFF list. What other features, ideas etc. were available in other operating systems which Unix should have picked up but didn't? [ Yes, I know, it's on-topic for TUHS but I doubt it will be for long! ] Cheers, Warren

6 years, 10 months

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Today I learned something new about File Transfer Protocol.

by Grant Taylor

Today I learned that File Transfer Protocol supports transferring data between two remote systems without passing the data through a controlling host. The end of § 2.3, The FTP Model, of RFC 959, File Transfer Protocol, states the following: """ In another situation a user might wish to transfer files between two hosts, neither of which is a local host. The user sets up control connections to the two servers and then arranges for a data connection between them. In this manner, control information is passed to the user-PI but data is transferred between the server data transfer processes. Following is a model of this server-server interaction. Control ------------ Control ---------->| User-FTP |<----------- | | User-PI | | | | "C" | | V ------------ V -------------- -------------- | Server-FTP | Data Connection | Server-FTP | | "A" |<---------------------->| "B" | -------------- Port (A) Port (B) -------------- """ I also learned that FTP uses (a subset of) the Telnet protocol for it's control connection. Yet another reason to dislike it. (I strongly prefer 8-bit clean connections and dislike things that need special handling.) -- Grant. . . . unix || die

6 years, 11 months

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New List is Open

by Warren Toomey

Hi all. The new COFF mailing list is open & has about twenty subscribers. Feel free to use it! Cheers, Warren -- Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

6 years, 11 months

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