🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <45...@apple.Apple.COM> j...@Apple.COM (John Peterson) writes:
>To this I would add the Unix Mail error if the passwd file is trashed:
>	No mail for ubluit

	How about the infamous
	Thou hast new mail (core dumped)
\    /\    /\    /\/\/\/\/\/\/\.-.-.-.-.......___________
 \  /  \  /  \  /Dept of Geophysics, Stanford University \/\/\.-.-....___
  \/    \/    \/Joe Dellinger j...@hanauma.stanford.edu  apple!hanauma!joe\/\.-._
************** Reading News again, when I should be writing my thesis... *******

j...@Apple.COM (John Peterson) writes:

> >>>I'd have to nominate [...] RSTS/E's "?Program lost, sorry

It was still in VAX BASIC until fairly recently.  These days, the error
message appears as:

  %BAS-F-PROLOSSOR, Internal error in VAX BASIC Run-Time Library.  Please
  submit an SPR

but I have definitely seen:

  %BAS-F-PROLOSSOR, Program lost-sorry

after something I was working on went *very* awry in VAX BASIC
V2.something (current version is V3.3).  Of course I saw it quite a lot
in my RSTS days....

Don Stokes, ZL2TNM  /  /                            Home: d...@zl2tnm.gp.govt.nz
Systems Programmer /GP/ Government Printing Office  Work:        d...@gp.govt.nz
__________________/  /__Wellington, New Zealand_____or:_PSI%(5301)47000028::DON

The ancient Bell Labs BESYS-7 Fortran II compiler (ca. 1966), for the
even more ancient IBM 7094, would, if sufficiently provoked, tell you:
	PLEASE RUN THIS PROGRAM ON SOME OTHER MACHINE
This was a batch system with 2-hour turnaround, so Fortran "syntax error"
diagnostics could get pretty oppressive.  At least this one was amusing.
				M. Yamin  m...@syscad.att.com

In article <45...@apple.Apple.COM>, j...@Apple.COM (John Peterson) writes:
> 
> >>>Given all the weird messages in the machine, what about the error messages
> >>>that get printed from time to time?  I've seen some really bad ones.
> >>>
> >>>I'd have to nominate UNIX's "Not a TTY" and RSTS/E's "?Program lost, sorry"
> >>
> >>I nominate Unix's "Intruder Alert!" and Pick's "This error cannot occur"
> >>	- Brian
> > 
> > I add to the list something BSD 4.3 talk has given me a few times:
> >   "You don't exist. Go away."
> > 
> 
> To this I would add the Unix Mail error if the passwd file is trashed:
> 
> 	No mail for ubluit


UNIX is absolutely chock full of neat messages. There was
one that apparently made it onto a T-Shirt at one of the
USEnix conferences. The picture is of a small bird hanging
from a parachute, and a plane going down in flames. The
caption was:

	"Awk! Bailing out near line 3"

(In case you don't recognize this, "awk" is a
pattern-matching language. Why "AWK"? That's the initials
of the three guys who wrote it - Aho, Weinberger and
Kernigan!)


Another favorite, "Can't grok <string>" I believe this was
"lex"? Maybe "yacc"? ("LEX" is the Lexical analyser generator
program. "YACC" is "Yet Another Compiler Compiler").
Anyways, "grok" hasd found its way into the UNIX lexicon
as a general "I don't understand" lament.

In article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca> pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:
=> Another favorite, "Can't grok <string>" I believe this was
=> "lex"? Maybe "yacc"? ("LEX" is the Lexical analyser generator
=> program. "YACC" is "Yet Another Compiler Compiler").
=> Anyways, "grok" hasd found its way into the UNIX lexicon
=> as a general "I don't understand" lament.

	Just for the expansion of common knowledge, the term "grok"
originated in R.A. Heinlein's messianic "Stranger in a Strange Land."
It had a semi-mystical aura about it which probably explains why
the unix community adopted the term... 8)
(Good book too)
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
whelan@  (uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu || uhccux.BITNET || nextsrv.wslab.hawaii.edu)

In article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca> pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:
>
>Another favorite, "Can't grok <string>" I believe this was
>"lex"? Maybe "yacc"? ("LEX" is the Lexical analyser generator
>program. "YACC" is "Yet Another Compiler Compiler").
>Anyways, "grok" hasd found its way into the UNIX lexicon
>as a general "I don't understand" lament.

This message was (is?) generated by BSD mt command.


-- 
Dmitry V. Volodin <d...@hq.demos.su>     |
fax:    +7 095 233 5016                 |    We are smart guys, ain't we?
phone:  +7 095 231 2129                 |

In article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>, pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:
>
>Another favorite, "Can't grok <string>" I believe this was
>"lex"? Maybe "yacc"? ("LEX" is the Lexical analyser generator
>program. "YACC" is "Yet Another Compiler Compiler").
>Anyways, "grok" hasd found its way into the UNIX lexicon
>as a general "I don't understand" lament.

To the contrary, "grok" means "to understand fully".  From the Jargon
file: 

GROK (grok) [from the novel "Stranger in a Strange Land", by Robert
   Heinlein, where it is a Martian verb meaning literally "to drink"
   and metaphorically "to be one with"] v. To understand, usually in a
   global sense. Connotes intimate and exhaustive knowledge.

-- 
Dave Sill (d...@ornl.gov)
Martin Marietta Energy Systems
Workstation Support

In article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca> pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:

   Another favorite, "Can't grok <string>" I believe this was
   "lex"? Maybe "yacc"?

I believe this one is from mt, the command which controls the tape
drive.  I've seen it in both BSD and System V Unixes.  However, stodgy
old Sun (booo!! hisss!!) in another display of lack of humour,
replaced the grok error message with a bland "unknown command"
instead.


--
|    flame me at: len...@minilove.diag.stratus.com, (Craig Scott Lennox)    |
|"Oh boy, virtual memory! Now I'm gonna make myself a REALLY BIG ram disk!" |
|   Disclaimer:  My opinions are covered by section 2b of the Gnu Public    |
|                License and thus do not belong to Stratus Computer.        |

In article <1990Sep26....@cs.utk.edu>, d...@de5.ctd.ornl.gov (Dave Sill) writes:
> In article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>, pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:
.  .  .
> >Anyways, "grok" hasd found its way into the UNIX lexicon
> >as a general "I don't understand" lament.
> 
> To the contrary, "grok" means "to understand fully".  From the Jargon
> file: 

Okay, I should have said "I can't grok" has found its
way...etc, etc. Jeesh, don't read what I type, read what I
mean!  ;^)

So, since I can't just post such a simple clarification
(my scoldy newsreader keeps reminding me how much all of
this costs to send to a Trailblazer to Upper Volta) I'll
see if I can kick off a new thread.

I mentioned "awk", and yacc in a previous posting as
being strangely named UNIX programs. (Awk is the initials
of the guys who wrote it, Yacc is "Yet Another Compiler
Compiler"). How about other creatively named programs?
Perhaps (and preferably) with a joke in the name or
otherwise suitably obscure? I know lots in UNIX, others?
Maybethose with nested recursive acronyms (HASP - Houston
Automated Spool Program, SPOOL - Simultaneous Operations
[On|Off] Line. Something like that). Anyways, what's the
weirdest _you've_ heard or seen?


			- peterd

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------+ 	Peter Deutsch		McGill University
| u # u |	pet...@cs.mcgill.ca	School of Computer Science
|/\/\/\/|	
|  a  a |	No, I'm not _THE_ Peter Deutsch, I'm _ANOTHER_ Peter Deutsch.
 \  a  /	I receiv mail for the other guy. I wonder if he gets my
  \___/         mail, too?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Craig Scott Lennox (len...@minilove.diag.stratus.com) writes:
+--
| ...stodgy old Sun (booo!! hisss!!) in another display of
| lack of humour, replaced the grok error message with a
| bland "unknown command" instead.
+--

[ curmudgeon mode ON ]

I've been enjoying this thread, but I agree with Sun here.
You have to look at from the point of view of the users (and
the suppliers) too.  Seems to me that the ``can't grok''
message is bound to cause a lot of grief for the majority of
customers who have NOT memorized the jargon file yet, and
for the suppliers' chronically overtaxed customer support
people who have to explain to customers why a common error
message contains a word not found in English dictionaries.

It's not so bad when cutesy jokes are found in source files,
because the majority of their readers WILL be hackers, but
I urge you implementors to resist the urge to cuteify error
messages.

[ curmudgeon mode OFF ]

And now a confession.  The worst error message I've ever
seen was my own damned fault.  When I was a cocky
undergraduate systems programmer, we ran a 360/44 PS shop,
and when a FORTRAN program failed, 90% of the time it would
write the same message:

  OA210I: PROG CK IRPT, OLD PSW WAS <string of 16 hex digits>

I got very tired of explaining to scores of novice FORTRAN
users that PS was too brain-dead to give the user any more
detail about what went wrong, and that 99.9% of the time it
was their fault, not hardware error.  So I changed this
message to a simple

  OA210I: YOU BLEW IT, OLD PSW WAS ...

The business of programming is frustrating enough without
arrogant, insulting messages like this one (however true it
was).  I forgot about this until one of my classmates
brought it up at my 10th college reunion.  It was a humbling
reminder of how cocky I was as a student, and how irritating
I must have been.
-- 
John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, NM/jo...@jupiter.nmt.edu
``Let's go outside and commiserate with nature.''  --Dave Farber

>In article <1990Sep27.1...@cs.utk.edu> d...@de5.CTD.ORNL.GOV (Dave Sill) writes:
>How about "dd"?  Can anyone guess how it got its name?  (I have a
>plausible explanation, but I want to see if anyone can confirm it.)
>
>-- 
>Dave Sill (d...@ornl.gov)
>Martin Marietta Energy Systems
>Workstation Support

That's easy. dd is named after the IBM JCL statement of the same name.
Kernighan and Pike even mention this in _The UNIX Programming environment_.

--
| ben@epmooch.UUCP   (Ben Mesander)       | "Cash is more important than |
| ben%serv...@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu |  your mother." - Al Shugart, |
| !chinet!uokmax!servalan!epmooch!ben     |  CEO, Seagate Technologies   |

In article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>, pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:
>
>Okay, I should have said "I can't grok" has found its
>way...etc, etc. Jeesh, don't read what I type, read what I
>mean!  ;^)

I figured you knew what it meant, I just didn't want anyone who didn't
already know what "grok" meant to learn it wrong.

>How about other creatively named programs?
>Perhaps (and preferably) with a joke in the name or
>otherwise suitably obscure?

How about "dd"?  Can anyone guess how it got its name?  (I have a
plausible explanation, but I want to see if anyone can confirm it.)

-- 
Dave Sill (d...@ornl.gov)
Martin Marietta Energy Systems
Workstation Support

pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:
>            How about other creatively named programs?
>Perhaps (and preferably) with a joke in the name or
>otherwise suitably obscure? I know lots in UNIX, others?
>Maybethose with nested recursive acronyms (HASP - Houston
>Automated Spool Program, SPOOL - Simultaneous Operations
>[On|Off] Line. Something like that). Anyways, what's the
>weirdest _you've_ heard or seen?
I used to work in Leeds.
I was helping with a Unix port to a machine which had a rather unusual
disk/tape controller. You couldn't write direct to tape (!), but could
only tell it a list of device/block numbers, which it would then
copy to tape. Thus, cpio and tar (trademarks acknowledged) weren't
any use to us. So, I wrote Eccup. (sounds a bit like backup, but
isn't the same thing at all). Eccup walked file trees, matching
names (so it could take cpio-like input), creating block lists
straight from the soul of the file system.

Eccup is a reservoir north of Leeds. It is a place of beauty
and for relaxation or recreation. Eccup is a place of tranquility.

None of this applied to the backup program, Eccup, of course.

Fortunately, the hardware vendors implemented a tape write routine
on the controller card fairly shortly after they started using Eccup.

(I also worked on backup software called Blog, Blup, Cresta and Cobra)

Jon?
-- 
Here I speak neither for Specialix, nor myself. What you see is all you get.
Jon Brawn, jo...@specialix.co.uk  (or for you bangers: ..!mcsun!ukc!slxsys!jonb)
  ``Once upon a time, not so very long ago, on a network not so very far away''

The IBM 7072 (what's that?) I used to play on actually used a third
party OS rather than the standard issue IBSYS (or whatever it was
called on that machine) from some folks in the Keystone State:

the Pittsburgh Executive System Tape, or PEST.

Anyone else ever hear of it?

	/JBL
=

Nets: le...@bbn.com  | "How does a mouse let me move the cursor anywhere 
 or {...}!bbn!levin  |  I want?"  "What are address busses?"  "How do 
pots: (617)873-3463  |  icons work?"              --Time-Life Books

In article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca> pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:

   I mentioned "awk", and yacc in a previous posting as
   being strangely named UNIX programs. (Awk is the initials
   of the guys who wrote it, Yacc is "Yet Another Compiler
   Compiler"). How about other creatively named programs?

A friend of mine worked as a student employee as a programmer for the
institute of mining at the TU Berlin. One of the programs she wrote
was a mesh generator which generated an input file for the FEA program
ADINA. She tried several days to find a name for her program that
would fit the acronym "ANGINA", but no success.

At last the user of her program came up with "Multilayered Assembler
Regarding Environment Networks". The second part of the programms'
name was "Maren".


--
-----------------
Juergen Nickelsen
nic...@w104zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de
nick...@mikroperipherik.e-technik.tu-berlin.dbp.de

	Uuu! I used to hack a Soviet PDP-11/34 clone named SM-4.
	On this box an anonimous hacker hung an ad of
	"sperm-sucking machine SM-4" :-) :-) :-) oh, poor bulls!

	Later I bought a washing machine named (try to guess :-)
	SM-4.

	BTW, the common way to say for what BESM is stands for is
	"Bolyshaya Elektronnaya Stiral'naya Mashina" (Big Electronic
	Washing Machine) followed by "otlichno stiraet vashy faily!"
	(cleans (and removes) your files perfectly!).

	Vadim Antonov
	DEMOS, Moscow, USSR
	(It is NOT a joke!)

In article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca> pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:
>Anyways, "grok" hasd found its way into the UNIX lexicon
>as a general "I don't understand" lament.

Actually "Can't grok" is equated to an inability to understand.  The term grok
comes from _Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land_ by Robert Hienlien.  To grok something
is to understand it in its fullness or completeness.

Ken

-- 
** Ken Brucker -- VMS Systems Programmer/Mangler 
** Calma   9805 Scranton Road, San Diego CA 92121-1765  (619)587-3000
** Internet: k...@calmasd.Prime.COM  UUCP: {decvax,ucbvax}!sdcsvax!calmasd!kjb

> How about "dd"?  Can anyone guess how it got its name?  (I have a
> plausible explanation, but I want to see if anyone can confirm it.)


It stands for Copy and Convert (but you see, ``cc'' was in use, so our
pet programmer just bumped each letter up a notch...)

Now all we need is a program to do safe compresses.  This is not so
easy if you're over quota at the time on a fascist filesystem.  We
describe it as ``compress and check'' and name it...


	... ``ee'' ?  :-)


--
______________________________________________________________________________
Christopher Alex.North-Keys                          Associate Systems Analyst
Group Talisman                                                  Harp[@Mcc.Com]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>, pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:
|> How about other creatively named programs?

When the University of Cambridge was putting together a time-sharing
service in the mid 60's, they listed the basic software they'd need:
something like "an editor, a load-and-go assembler, a relocatable
Fortran compiler, a relocatable loader, et al."

But they forgot to put "a relocatable assembler" on the list.  So when
it was written it was called ETAL.
-- 
David Brooks				dbr...@osf.org
Systems Engineering, OSF		uunet!osf.org!dbrooks
"A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine, and Six Spades Redoubled" -- Omar somebody.

In article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>, pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:
> I mentioned "awk", and yacc in a previous posting as
> being strangely named UNIX programs. (Awk is the initials
> of the guys who wrote it, Yacc is "Yet Another Compiler
> Compiler"). How about other creatively named programs?
> Perhaps (and preferably) with a joke in the name or
> otherwise suitably obscure? I know lots in UNIX, others?
> Maybethose with nested recursive acronyms (HASP - Houston
> Automated Spool Program, SPOOL - Simultaneous Operations
> [On|Off] Line. Something like that). Anyways, what's the
> weirdest _you've_ heard or seen?

I once wrote a program called MK for Minimal Kohnhedd. You see, the object
of this program was to provide a quick and dirty interface to the 1553
avionics bus from the VAX. I was told "Make it just like the CONIC [a 1553
test box] only on the VAX". So I called it Kohnhedd as a play on CONIC. I
added Minimal to emphasize to the users that it was a first version and they
were free to make suggestions.

Last time I was there, I saw MK running on a terminal. It'll probably live
forever.
-- 
===============================================================================
Roger Ivie

35 S 300 W
Logan, Ut.  84321
(801) 752-8633
===============================================================================

I remember 10 years ago, when I was 7, using a CP/M machine and getting the
famous "BDOS ERROR ON A:" message.  This was an uninformative catch-all
error message, covering everything from no disk in the drive, to an LP stuck
in the drive.  Nowadays, I use a PC, and can remember the amazement some 
people felt at the range of error messages, when first it was introduced.

For the COMP courses at university, however, they make us use Macintoshes.
The error message I see most often is "This is not a Macintosh disk ... do
you want to initialize it?"   And, you guessed it, this covers everything
from no disk in the drive to someone sticking an LP in ...

And they claim Macintoshes are an improvement!  :)

Nathan Torkington.
--
#define  <black...@st1.vuw.ac.nz> Nathan Torkington.
#include <stdisclaim.h> #include <dorky_quote.h>  #include <pretty_pic.h>

Once upon a time I wrote a line printer plotting package which had
what may have been the most obsequious error messages of all time.
Typical messages ran like this

Honored and revered sir, this unworthy program is desolated to inform
you that it can not properly use your range coordinate of -37.  The
base and thoughtless programmer who composed this program has restricted
it to values lying between 0 and 100.

The program, which was written in fortran, was about 80% format statements.
As I recall people used to deliberately run jobs with errors in them just
to see what the diagnostics would be.

-- 
Richard Harter, Software Maintenance and Development Systems, Inc.
Net address: jjmhome!smds!rh Phone: 508-369-7398 
US Mail: SMDS Inc., PO Box 555, Concord MA 01742
This sentence no verb.  This sentence short.  This signature done.

No one has yet mentioned our friend 'grep'.
I've heard (at least) two versions of where grep got its name.
What's the correct (third?) one?
-- 
C C Evert 
Western Geophysical - A division of Western Atlas International,
A Litton/Dresser Company           DOMAIN addr: cev...@airgun.wg.waii.com
				   UUNET address:  uunet!airgun!cevert

In article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>, pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:

<> How about other creatively named programs?

jove	Jonathon's Own Version of Emacs
twm	Tom's window manager (?)

	... and wasn't the debugger on TOP-20 called `ddt' !!

-- 
Philip Katz,                          :|: e-mail   PK...@axion.bt.co.uk
British Telecom Research Laboratories :|: 'phone + 44 473 642682
RT3131, SSTF 310, Martlesham Heath    :|: fax    + 44 473 637619
Ipswich, Suffolk, England IP5 7RE     :|: pager  + 44 81 840 7000 unit 4257598

"Beat on the brat, beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat ..."

In article <1990Sep2...@Pkg.Mcc.COM> ha...@Pkg.Mcc.COM
(Christopher North-Keys) writes:

| > How about "dd"?  Can anyone guess how it got its name?  (I have a
| > plausible explanation, but I want to see if anyone can confirm it.)
| 
| 
| It stands for Copy and Convert (but you see, ``cc'' was in use, so our
| pet programmer just bumped each letter up a notch...)

I strongly suspect it came from a play of the JCL dd command line (dd
does all sorts of munging on IBM datasets in preparation to execute a
command).  The options of dd certainly have a strong JCL connection
(ie, switch=value).
--
Michael Meissner	email: meis...@osf.org		phone: 617-621-8861
Open Software Foundation, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA, 02142

Do apple growers tell their kids money doesn't grow on bushes?

Back when I was a grad student, more years ago than I like to think
about, I wrote a program related to my research.  I was not then and
still am not a touch typer, and I called it QWERT.  Later I wrote
another program, which massaged QWERT's output; I moved over a bit and
called it YUIOP.  Still later some other folks wrote a program related
somehow to QWERT, and called it TREWQ.

For a long time the TOPS-10 at Carnegie Mellon Uinversity had an editor
called FINE.  FINE Is Not EMACS.  It wasn't, either.

Art Evans

In article <8...@airgun.wg.waii.com> cev...@airgun.wg.waii.com (C E Evert) writes:

   No one has yet mentioned our friend 'grep'.
   I've heard (at least) two versions of where grep got its name.
   What's the correct (third?) one?


According to the official USENET list of "Commonly asked UNIX weenie
questions", grep stands for g/<re>/p ("global"/"regular
expression"/"print") which is the way to do regexp seaches under ex
and vi.

--
|    flame me at: len...@minilove.diag.stratus.com, (Craig Scott Lennox)    |
|"Oh boy, virtual memory! Now I'm gonna make myself a REALLY BIG ram disk!" |
|   Disclaimer:  My opinions are covered by section 2b of the Gnu Public    |
|                License and thus do not belong to Stratus Computer.        |

pk...@axion.bt.co.uk (Philip Katz) writes:

>In article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>, pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:

><> How about other creatively named programs?

>jove	Jonathon's Own Version of Emacs
>twm	Tom's window manager (?)

>	... and wasn't the debugger on TOP-20 called `ddt' !!

Well, on the Univac 1100's the debugger is/was called FLIT. Which ostensibly
stood for Fault Location by Interpretive Testing. But many also new it
to be a brand-name for a fly-spray.

>From article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>,
by pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch):
> 
> How about other creatively named programs?
>


A database retrieval language I used to work with in the Air Force was
known as VIRUS - Versatile Information Retrieval and Update System.

I've also written a set of macros for the Microsoft Assembler that implement
a number of structured programming constructs to MASM - IF/THEN/ELSE,
DO WHILE, etc.  I affectionately refer to these macros as SPAM - Structured
Programming Assembler Macros.
-- 
								   Pete Hanson
							 pha...@well.sf.ca.us
				    {apple,pacbell,hplabs,ucbvax}!well!phanson

meis...@osf.org (Michael Meissner) writes:

>In article <1990Sep2...@Pkg.Mcc.COM> ha...@Pkg.Mcc.COM
>(Christopher North-Keys) writes:

>| > How about "dd"?  Can anyone guess how it got its name?  (I have a
>| > plausible explanation, but I want to see if anyone can confirm it.)

>I strongly suspect it came from a play of the JCL dd command line (dd
>does all sorts of munging on IBM datasets in preparation to execute a
>command).  The options of dd certainly have a strong JCL connection
>(ie, switch=value).

Speaking of JCL (and IBM programs), remember DEBE?

Does Everything But Eat.

- paul

INTERNET:  pa...@devon.lns.pa.us        |      If life's a bitch, then
UUCP:      ...!rutgers!devon!paul      |      we must be her puppies.

In article <1990Sep2...@axion.bt.co.uk> PK...@axion.bt.co.uk writes:
>	... and wasn't the debugger on TOP-20 called `ddt' !!

DDT - Dynamic Debugging Tool

I seem to recall this from CP/M or HDOS (the Heath Disk Operating System),
I think there was one in Tops-20 too ;-) ;-) ;-)
                                                        reb
 
*-=#= Phydeaux =#=-*      r...@ingres.com    reb%ing...@lll-winken.llnl.GOV
ICBM:  40.55N 74.11W      h:182 Market St. Saddle Brook, NJ 07662 201-845-0256

Home FAX! 201-845-0258 Send neat stuff!     In the Bay Area from 10/5 to 10/14

In article <20...@well.sf.ca.us> pha...@well.sf.ca.us (Pete Hanson) writes:
}I've also written a set of macros for the Microsoft Assembler that implement
}a number of structured programming constructs to MASM ...
}... I affectionately refer to these macros as SPAM - Structured
}Programming Assembler Macros.

Then there's the Single Pass ASseMbler in use on UC mainframes:  SPASM.

-- 
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, M.A., CDP, aka: holl...@ttidca.tti.com)
Head Robot Wrangler at Citicorp(+)TTI             Illegitimis non
3100 Ocean Park Blvd.   (213) 450-9111, x2483       Carborundum
Santa Monica, CA  90405 {csun | philabs | psivax}!ttidca!hollombe

In article <LENNOX.90S...@minilove.diag.stratus.com>,
len...@minilove.diag.stratus.com (Craig Scott Lennox) writes:
 
|> According to the official USENET list of "Commonly asked UNIX weenie
|> questions", grep stands for g/<re>/p ("global"/"regular
|> expression"/"print") which is the way to do regexp seaches under ex
|> and vi.

I have an early UNIX command summary (August 1975) which gives:

GREP	Print all the lines in a file that satisfy a pattern of the
	kinf used in the editor ED

No mention of 'ex' or 'vi' there as they weren't around. (Was the name
'vi' chosen so people could say "You can't spell 'vile' without using
'vi'"?)

Also it gives:

DD	Physical file format translator, for exchanging data with foreign
	systems, especially OS/360

At this stage TAR did not exist instead there was a command:

TP	Manage file archives on magnetic tape or DECtape.

The hardware configuration is fun - DEC PDP11/40, 11/45 or 11/70 with at
least the following equipment:

	48K to 1M words of managed memory: parity not used,
	disk: RP03, RP04, RK05(preferably 2) or equivalent
	etc.

(An RK05 holds 5M)

Things weren't quite so large then!

	The resident code of UNIX occupies 20-22K depending on
	configuration.

In article <58...@rtech.Ingres.COM> reb@squid.UUCP (Phydeaux) writes:
>In article <1990Sep2...@axion.bt.co.uk> PK...@axion.bt.co.uk writes:
>>	... and wasn't the debugger on TOP-20 called `ddt' !!
>
>DDT - Dynamic Debugging Tool
>
>I seem to recall this from CP/M or HDOS (the Heath Disk Operating System),
>I think there was one in Tops-20 too ;-) ;-) ;-)
>                                                        reb


I first ran into DDT on the PDP-1 (yes, "1".  Serial #6, in fact.)

Back then, it was claimed to stand for "DEC Debugging Tape".

/Seth               se...@fir.morgan.com

In article <58...@rtech.Ingres.COM> reb@squid.UUCP (Phydeaux) writes:
|In article <1990Sep2...@axion.bt.co.uk> PK...@axion.bt.co.uk writes:
|>	... and wasn't the debugger on TOP-20 called `ddt' !!
|
|DDT - Dynamic Debugging Tool
|
|I seem to recall this from CP/M or HDOS (the Heath Disk Operating System),
|I think there was one in Tops-20 too ;-) ;-) ;-)

A knowledgeable answer has already been given (Hi, Fred!) -- Digital
Debugging Tape appeared in about 1965 for the PDP-5 (and -8),
successor to the more simple minded ODT (Octal Debugging Tape).  So
ddt is nearly thirty years old.

A footnote on the name found in the old phonebook manuals for the
PDP-10 (pre-"TOPS-10") would be mildly amusing, if you could find a
copy.

	/JBL
=
Nets: le...@bbn.com  | "How does a mouse let me move the cursor anywhere 
 or {...}!bbn!levin  |  I want?"  "What are address busses?"  "How do 
pots: (617)873-3463  |  icons work?"              --Time-Life Books

In article <58...@rtech.Ingres.COM> reb@squid.UUCP (Phydeaux) writes:
>DDT - Dynamic Debugging Tool

I thought it was Dynamic Debugging Technique (I maybe wrong), but I
do remember some documentation saying that it was as effective on
computer bugs as dichloro d..... (what ever ddt stood for chemicaly)
was on organic bugs.

Stephen

In article <8...@sol.deakin.OZ.AU> s...@deakin.OZ.AU (Stephen Percy Larcombe) writes:
>I thought it was Dynamic Debugging Technique (I maybe wrong), but I
>do remember some documentation saying that it was as effective on
>computer bugs as dichloro d..... (what ever ddt stood for chemicaly)
>was on organic bugs.

An insect was heard to complain,
That chemists had poisoned his brain.
    The cause of his sorrow,
    Was para-dichloro-
Diphenyltrichloroethane.

(This is not original, but I haven't a clue who wrote it.)

Graeme
-- 
Graeme Thomas          Santa Cruz Operation London

In article <markd.654652851@sunchat> ma...@iti.org (Mark Delany) writes:
>pk...@axion.bt.co.uk (Philip Katz) writes:
>
>>In article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>, pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:
>
>><> How about other creatively named programs?
>
>>jove	Jonathon's Own Version of Emacs
>>twm	Tom's window manager (?)

JOVIAL	Jule's own version of Algol.
--
Kees Goossens                       Keep in Touch with the Dutch:
LFCS, Dept. of Computer Science     JANET: k...@lfcs.ed.ac.uk
University of Edinburgh             UUCP:  ..!ukc!lfcs!kgg
Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, UK.              ARPA:  kgg%lfcs...@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk

In article <20...@ttidca.TTI.COM>, holl...@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath)
writes:
|> 
|> Since no one's mentioned it yet:
|> 
|> The CP/M debugger was called the Dynamic Debugging Tool, better known as
|> DDT.
   ^^^
   Which reachecs back tothe PDP-10 and I believe the PDP-6 which were
   also in the era of Rachael Carson's Silent Spring.

   Then Stanford AI lab came up with SAIL and FAIL as high level and
    assempler languages.   They needed a debugger and of course called
    if RAID.

|> 
|> -- 
|> The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, M.A., CDP, aka: holl...@ttidca.tti.com)
|> Head Robot Wrangler at Citicorp(+)TTI             Illegitimis non
|> 3100 Ocean Park Blvd.   (213) 450-9111, x2483       Carborundum
|> Santa Monica, CA  90405 {csun | philabs | psivax}!ttidca!hollombe
|> 
--
Bill Parke 			parke%sta...@decwrl.dec.com
VMS Development			decwrl!star.enet.dec.com!parke
Digital Equipment Corp		pa...@star.enet.dec.com
110 Spit Brook Road ZK01-1/F22, Nashua NH 03063

The views expressed are my own.

In article <58...@rtech.Ingres.COM> reb@squid.UUCP (Phydeaux) writes:
>In article <1990Sep2...@axion.bt.co.uk> PK...@axion.bt.co.uk writes:
>>	... and wasn't the debugger on TOP-20 called `ddt' !!
>
>DDT - Dynamic Debugging Tool
>
>I seem to recall this from CP/M or HDOS (the Heath Disk Operating System),
>I think there was one in Tops-20 too ;-) ;-) ;-)

The University of Michigan College of Engineering's Computer Engineering Program
had a Real Time Programming class that used a model train set controlled by some
LSI 11/02s. The debugger was called RAID (Realtime Automatic(?) Interactive
Debugger). There was something (I'm not sure if it was the OS or the language)
called CRASH (Computerized Realtime Applications SHop), and there was yet 
another acyronym for the language (or OS).  If I root around in my old stuff,
I can probably resurrect it from paper.

--- Richard

In article <20...@well.sf.ca.us>, pha...@well.sf.ca.us (Pete Hanson) writes:
> 
> From article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>,
> by pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch):
>> 
>> How about other creatively named programs?
>>
> 
> 

[unneeded stuff deleted, i just wanted that bit...]

I once worked in a department where there was a statistically-based fire-spread
model being developed.  It was decided to call it ARSSUN, and there was an 
informal 'competion' to think up an expansion for the acronym.  cant remember
what was settled on though.

Pax vobiscum
White Rabbit

Well more acronyms:

emacs = Emacs Makes A Computer Slow | Eight Megabytes And Still Swapping

Both refer to emacs voracious appetite for resources, but that does matter
these days as you have a workstation on your desk :-)

Kevin G. Purcell       | kpur...@liverpool.ac.uk
Surface Science,       |
Liverpool University   | Programming the Macintosh is easy if you understand
Liverpool L69 3BX      | how the Mac works and hard if you don't. -- Dan Allen

le...@bbn.com (Joel B Levin) writes:

}In article <58...@rtech.Ingres.COM> reb@squid.UUCP (Phydeaux) writes:
}|In article <1990Sep2...@axion.bt.co.uk> PK...@axion.bt.co.uk writes:
}|>	... and wasn't the debugger on TOP-20 called `ddt' !!
}|
}|DDT - Dynamic Debugging Tool
}|
}|I seem to recall this from CP/M or HDOS (the Heath Disk Operating System),
}|I think there was one in Tops-20 too ;-) ;-) ;-)

}A knowledgeable answer has already been given (Hi, Fred!) -- Digital
}Debugging Tape appeared in about 1965 for the PDP-5 (and -8),
}successor to the more simple minded ODT (Octal Debugging Tape).  So
}ddt is nearly thirty years old.

Indeed.  Fred was quite right: DDT was developed by the hackers at the RLE
lab at MIT on their PDP-1.  By 1965 it was (relatively) old stuff: 
1961 on the PDP-1 is a closer estimate.

  /Bernie\