HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bibhas@pico.engr.mun.ca (Bibhas Bhattacharya)
Subject: Re: Searching for an IDEAL editor
Keywords: editor
Organization: Memorial University of Newfoundland
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 18:47:07 GMT

fjp@minerva.inesc.pt (Fernando Pereira) writes:

>In article <1igtb4INNrcp@sgi.iunet.it> peanuts@dist.dist.unige.it (Baudino Alberto Bruzzone Gabriele Durante Antonio) writes:
>>
>>Hello, folks !
>>I have a little problem : I must write/modify a lot of C code for a robotic
>>navigation simulation program ( I'm a student in electronic engineering
>>at University of Genoa ) but I'm very tired of VI's mental perversions.
>>Therefore I'm searching for an editor for UNIX and/or X11 which allows :
>>
>>1) to utilize arrow keys (in insert mode !) to position the cursor.
>>2) to utilize DEL key (in insert mode!) to delete character at cursor position.
>>3) to utilize Home,End,PgDn,PgUp keys for a fast change of cursor position.
>>4) to utilize mouse to position the cursor and/or to cut/copy/paste portions oftext.
>>
Except for 4) all others can be done in vi. 
Let me know if you want to use these features in vi.
Bibhas.
--
	+==========================+=========================+
	| login name: DR. Jackyl   |  In real life: Mr. Hyde.|
	+==========================+=========================+
		          bibhas@pico.engr.mun.ca  
Newsgroups: comp.arch
From: wayne@backbone.uucp (Wayne Schlitt)
Subject: Re: A better theory for Endian origins
Organization: The Backbone Cabal
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 01:25:04 GMT

In article <1993Jan8.185448.2405@news.uiowa.edu> jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) writes:

> 
>    Another is to think of the formula for the value of a binary number:
> 
>   V = Sum( b[i]*2**i )
> 
> To make this work for integers, you've got to number the bits as:
> 
>   ... 3 2 1 0
> 

It seems to me that it the formula would work just fine as long as the
order of the bits corresponds with the order of subscripting.  if you
subscript starting at the left, then you could order the bits like
this:

0 1 2 3 4 ... 

with the most significant bit on the right.  This doesn't correspond
with the way that people write numbers, but so what?  It still works
just fine.


-wayne
From: rh@craycos.com (Robert Herndon)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Big and Little Endians
Date: 8 Jan 93 23:37:43 GMT
Organization: Cray Computer Corporation

Can we please kill this thread about Big and Little Endian-ness?
I haven't seen anything here relevant to computers that isn't well
addressed in either the recent Computer issue or Danny Cohen's _On
Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace_.

If there's really that much interest, I'm sure someone can post
the latter (me, for instance).

-r
From: pss1@kepler.unh.edu (Paul S Secinaro)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Def of a workstation (a lark)
Date: 12 Jan 1993 12:19:59 GMT
Organization: University of New Hampshire  -  Durham, NH
NNTP-Posting-Host: kepler.unh.edu

In article <C0pptL.BB7@dscomsa.desy.de> Hallam@zeus02.desy.de writes:

>Mind you ont thing that peeves me. Have you noticed all the pc portables that
>don't have an ethernet card? To get a portable Pc that plugs into the net I
>would have to by something costing almost as much as a workstation,

There are many Ethernet interfaces for laptops that don't cost much
more than a regular Ethernet card.  Some of them plug into the
parallel port.  Others use the PCMCIA interface port.  Of course, they
probably aren't as fast as a regular Ethernet port.

Paul
-- 
Paul Secinaro
pss1@kepler.unh.edu
Synthetic Vision and Pattern Analysis Laboratory
UNH Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Newsgroups: comp.arch
From: kepley@photon.phys.unca.edu (Brad Kepley)
Subject: Re: PCMCIA bus info?
Organization: University of North Carolina at Asheville
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 02:06:10 GMT

In article <1993Jan7.210811.22360@kpc.com> paulk@kpc.com (Paul Kalapathy) writes:
>
>Where can I find some technical information on the PCMCIA interface?
>By technical I mean pinout, timing, protocols, etc.  Is there a SIG, 
>or somesuch?  Send me some email and I'll summarize if there is sufficient
>interest.  Thanks.
>
>	-Paul
>	 paulk@kpc.com

There is a users group on Bix is something like the MCA Developers 
Association which has meetings, etc.  I bought the Microchannel specs
from them.  It gives you absolutely all the details, timing diagrams,
etc..  If you really want it, I could probably let you have it for
$20.00 for S&H and everything.  I can't guarantee that that is not high,
but as I recall, I paid about $35.00 for it.  You can get the price 
from the above group if you know anyone with a Bix account.  Or you
might call Bix at 800-695-4775 to see if anyone can get you the number
for the MCA Developers Association (or whatever their name is).
Newsgroups: comp.arch
From: bds@mbunix.mitre.org (Smith)
Subject: Re: Def  of a workstation (a lark)
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 14:06:15 GMT

In article <1993Jan3.235327.13718@qb.rhein-main.de> vhs@rhein-main.de writes:
>A decent workstation has IMHO *at least* the following items of which the
>software can and does take advantage of:
>	a high-resolution screen
>	a pointing device
>	an ethernet connection (or token ring if your management was bribed ;-)
>	a UN*X operating system with TCP/IP support and a C compiler
>	a boot prom that allows for interactive diagnosis etc.
>	a decent amount of RAM and hard disk space
>	a tape drive for backups and data exchange as opposed to floppy disk
>	other items I may have forgotten (it's already tomorrow...;-)
>
>Volker Herminghaus-Shirai (vhs@qb.rhein-main.de), NeXTmail welcome
>

I'm sure the DEC folks will be delighted to know that the VAXstation
4000 Model 90, which looks like a workstation to all the rest of the
world, but only runs VMS and does not come with a C compiler, is not a
workstation.  Come to think of it, I believe Sun workstations no
longer come with a C compiler.  Are they also not workstations, unless
you pay extra for it?  Actually, the whole lower end Alpha line (DEC
4000) wouldn't fit your criteria unless you happen to choose UNIX and
get a C Compiler.

Barry Smith


Newsgroups: comp.arch
From: thia@sce.carleton.ca (Yong Thia)
Subject: VME bus
Summary: VME bus
Organization: Carleton University
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 00:28:46 GMT

Hi! I would like to know if the VME bus is a synchronous
or asynchronous bus.
ANy pointers will be greatly appreciated

Regards
Jimmy
From: markg@county.lmt.mn.org (Mark Gilbert)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: big + little endian (was: Comparison of Alpha, MIPS ..)
Date: 4 Jan 93 17:49:07 GMT
Organization: LaserMaster R&D, Minneapolis, MN  USA

In article <WAYNE.92Dec30093950@backbone.uucp> wayne@backbone.uucp (Wayne Schlitt) writes:
>From: wayne@backbone.uucp (Wayne Schlitt)
>Subject: Re: big + little endian (was: Comparison of Alpha, MIPS ..)
>Date: 30 Dec 92 15:39:50 GMT

>In article <1hquujINNmov@fido.asd.sgi.com> pj@sam.wpd.sgi.com (Paul Jackson) writes:
>> |> 01101001 may mean `105' (big-endian) or `150' (little-endian)
>> 
>> Big and little endian refer to the order of bytes within words,
>> not to the order of bits within bytes.
>> 

>Big and little endian refer to the order of sub-units within units,
>not just bytes and words.  

>You can order bits within bytes either way, bytes within words, and
>words within double words.  Various computers systems have made
>different choices at all of those levels.  The ordering of bits within
>bytes has pretty much standardized on the little-endian format.


On a system that addresses bytes, the bits within the byte do not have an 
ordering, except in a graphics sub-system, where the msb can be displayed on 
the left or the right.  (Assuming a pixel size smaler than 8 bits.)

Unfortunately, on mainstream PC graphics subsystems, the most significant 
bit of a byte is displayed on the left, even though the system is othewise 
little-endian.  This forces software to perform non-trivial operations on  
raster images a byte at a time.  If a unit larger than a byte is read, the 
bits within that unit are mis-ordered.


I have identified the root of this whole big-endian/little-endian debate.  
The conflict is is between text and numbers.  We read left to right.  But, 
if you were to number the digits of an integer, you would do it right to 
left.  The one's digit would be 0, the ten's digit, 1, etc.

This should never have been the case.  We adopted our number system from the 
Arabs, and the Arabs read right to left.  For them, the direction of reading 
text and numbers is CONSISTENT.  The whole problem arose because we failed 
to reverse the numbering system when we borrowed it from the Arabs.

I propose that we now correct this historical oversight.  Let us write 
numbers least significant digit first.  The bang symbol can be used to 
replace the decimal point, in order to distinguish little-endian numbers 
from big-endian.  The integer six hundred and fifty four should now be 
written !456.  Sixteen dollars and twenty five cents is now $ 52!61.


Sincerely,
Mark Gilbert
From: gottlieb@allan.ultra.nyu.edu (Allan Gottlieb)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: FP-number cache? Unclocked VLSI design.
Date: 10 Jan 93 14:54:05 GMT
	<1993Jan5.170446.15655@Princeton.EDU>
Organization: New York University, Ultracomputer project
NNTP-Posting-Host: allan.ultra.nyu.edu
In-reply-to: awolfe@moo.Princeton.EDU's message of 5 Jan 93 17:04:46 GMT

In article <1993Jan5.170446.15655@Princeton.EDU> awolfe@moo.Princeton.EDU (Andrew Wolfe) writes:

   (Philosophical note.  This experiment also raised the issue of whether or
   not the architecture community will accept the publication of negative
   results.  We could not locate any recent papers in major conferences that
   did not have positive results)

I was the program committee chairman for the 1992 ISCA and would agree
that a paper like the one you describe would have a tough time.  ISCA
cannot publish all the good papers it receives.  HOWEVER, my current
hat is hardware and software systems editor for the Journal of
Parallel and Distributed Computing and for JPDC, unlike ISCA, there is
no page limit to the journal so the situation is different.

Sometimes the negative results paper is the consequent of a trying out
a bad idea; this is a bad paper.  Also any paper of the kind, I did
this and that happened is not so inspiring (but admittedly it can help
others who want to do exactly the same "this").

The paper you describe, which falls into neither of the above two
categories, does seem to be of merit.  Your brief description sounds
like the paper presents an hypothesis, performes a carefully
controlled experiment, obtains a negative result, and offers a
possible explanation.  If in addition the explanation is tested and
found valid, the paper should be considered.  If you do wish to send
the paper to me for JPDC, you might wish to include this posting with
your cover letter and I will pass it on to the subject area editor
assigned to review the paper.

Allan Gottlieb
From: davsmith@nic.cerf.net (David Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Def of a workstation (a lark)
Date: 5 Jan 1993 02:27:39 GMT
Organization: CERFnet Dial n' CERF Customer Group
NNTP-Posting-Host: nic.cerf.net


Top ten differences betweed PC's and workstation's

10. PC's have PowerUsers (tm), workstation's have Guru's
9. Workstations come with powerful backup utilities, like dump/restore and dd
8. Can't buy workstation peripherals at Crazy Al's Discount Computer
7. PC's have better games
6. Humor impaired PC users can't easily post to the net
5. Don't have to log in to PC (Note - this functionality can be reproduced
   on Sun's with the exclusive "L1-A" key combo)
4. "Workstation" implies you actually do something useful with your computer,
   even if yo do only run Xtrek and news all day.
3. Workstations have "field engineers" who will come to your office and break
   it for you.
2. Workstations don't come in those grody PC cases
1. You don't send Bill Gates any money when you buy a workstation

-- 
David L. Smith
smithd@discos.com or davsmith@nic.cerf.net
From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (Jim Haynes)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: A better theory for Endian origins
Date: 8 Jan 93 21:45:40 GMT
Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz
NNTP-Posting-Host: hobbes.ucsc.edu


In article <1993Jan8.185448.2405@news.uiowa.edu> jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) writes:
>The decision whether to go big-endian or little-endian on byte numbering
>has natural ties to the bit numbering in a word, and this is, I think,
>one of the historical forces behind the war of the endians.

Now this opens the can of another bunch of old war stories.  The Burroughs
B5500 had the bits numbered in one direction in the hardware maintenance
manuals and the opposite direction in the software manuals.  If I remember
correctly (at chance!) the numbering was 1 2 3 4 for the hardware people
and 3 2 1 0 for the software, yet the machine was big-endian.

Then the G.E./Honeywell machines had the bits numbered in one direction
in the CPU and in the opposite direction in the I/O controller.  At least
on the G.E. 635 generation
-- 
haynes@cats.ucsc.edu
haynes@cats.bitnet

"Ya can talk all ya wanna, but it's dif'rent than it was!"
"No it aint!  But ya gotta know the territory!"
        Meredith Willson: "The Music Man"
Newsgroups: comp.arch
From: vhs@rhein-main.de (Volker Herminghaus-Shirai)
Subject: Re: Comparison of Alpha, MIPS and PA-RISC-II wanted
Reply-To: vhs@rhein-main.de
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 16:31:25 GMT

In article <C0K4HJ.AEo@dscomsa.desy.de> hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phill  
Hallam-Baker) writes:
> In article <28164@dog.ee.lbl.gov>, torek@horse.ee.lbl.gov (Chris Torek)  
writes:
[stuff deleted]
> |>Some OSes provide an enormous collection of `standard
> |>interpretations', and some provide only a few.  The VMS people insist
> |>that it is better to have 16 built-in record formats; the UNIX people
> |>insist that it is better to have none.
> |>
> |>Both are right, both are wrong; neither way is `better'.
> 
> Not true. UNIX was written in a great hurry and file type was something they
> didn't want to bother with. To cover their tracks Thompson et al created a  
huge
> wadge of waffle pretending that it was a deliberate optimization.

Sorry to break in, but can I cross-post this to rec.humor.funny?
I'm sure I'll get accepted :-)

--
Volker Herminghaus-Shirai (vhs@qb.rhein-main.de), NeXTmail welcome

Looks good on the outside, but -
	intel inside
Newsgroups: comp.arch
From: jpp@StarConn.com (John Pettitt)
Subject: PC Chipsets
Summary: Looking for info on PC chipsets and CPUs
Organization: Starnet-Public Access UNIX--Los Altos, CA  415-949-3133
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 22:30:40 GMT

I'm looking for a PC class solution to an embeded application:

I need an x86 (16 Mhz 286 tops) class CPU and a VGA chipset in a small
space at a low cost with low power requirments.  I'm looking at chips
such as the AMD 286LX (`pc on a chip').  

Has anybody got any other suggestions ?  Any Chip company type out there
want to talk to me under NDA?   Volumes are expected to be 50K yr one
ramping to 150K yr two.

N.B. this is for a client company.



-- 
John Pettitt, CEO, Dolmus Inc.			jpp@starconn.com
Archer N81034					apple!starnet!jpp
Me, say that, never: It's a forged posting!	Fax:   +1 415 390 0581
						Voice: +1 415 390 0693
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.sys.dec,comp.sys.sgi,comp.sys.hp
From: mike@gordian.com (Michael A. Thomas)
Subject: Re: Comparison of Alpha, MIPS and PA-RISC-II wanted
Organization: Gordian; Costa Mesa, CA
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 22:34:47 GMT

  Ooops, looks like my little rant was misdirected. I of course
was talking about the VMS VAXCRTL. One can only hope that the
C RTL for Alpha/VMS was not a direct port...

In article <1993Jan8.222519.6703@gordian.com>, mike@gordian.com (Michael A. Thomas) writes:
> In article <C0K3HC.A8B@dscomsa.desy.de>, hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phill Hallam-Baker) writes:
> > In article <3623363@zl2tnm.gen.nz>, don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (Don Stokes) writes:
> > |>I personally believe VAXCRTL is a serious impediment to DEC's claims of 
> > |>"openness" in VMS.  Life's too short to have to go re-implementing half
> > |>the RTL whenever you try to get anything done because the standard stuff
> > |>is too slow, too buggy or more often than not, both.
> > 
> > Has anyone any idea what the DECC RTL is like? Has anyone tried it on a VAX? (is
> > it avaliable for VAX??) Comparing DECC on Alpha to VAXC is not really on...
> > anything running on the alpha tends to look fast.
> 
>   Yes. The previous author is 100% correct IMHO. I basically gave up
> on them ever getting the standard library routines (such as read(2) and 
> write(2)) being anything other than disgustingly slow (on the order
> of 10-100 times slower then using RMS directly). Worse, it could
> easily write files than *nothing* else could read. That and the early
> coverage of library routines was pretty grim. And another thing is 
> that the damn linker isn't case specific which breaks a lot of ports.
> What is worst part of this entire brain dead situation is that there
> is *no* reason for it. 
>   Don't get me started on this...
-- 

		Michael Thomas	(mike@gordian.com)
	"I don't think Bambi Eyes will get you that flame thrower..."  
		-- Hobbes to Calvin
		USnail: 20361 Irvine Ave Santa Ana Heights, Ca,	92707-5637
		PaBell: (714) 850-0205 (714) 850-0533 (fax)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
From: bret@technix.mn.org (Bret Indrelee)
Subject: Re: A theory for Big & Little Endian's origin
Summary: How do you list addresses in a diagram?
Keywords: address diagram byte-order endian
Organization: Private System - Saint Paul, MN
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 07:15:08 GMT

In article <1iig7aINNtc@spim.mti.sgi.com> jackc@vermont.mti.sgi.com (Jack Choquette) writes:
>
>To me it seems like different endianess came about because of the way
>humans like to see things listed out.  When humans make a list, they
>like to make and read it top to bottom:
>		0  ******
>		1  ******
>		2  ******
>		 etc.

[ Text deleted ]

>Now they want to list out the contents of their memory.  Being human,
>they do it top to bottom, in ascending order so you can read the 
>characters and text stored there:
>	     Location	Bit Value  Ascii
>		0	01001110     H      {I know these are not the correct}
>		1	10100010     E      {  ascii values}
>		2	00010111     L
>		3	00010111     L
>		4	11110111     0
>So text and programs are stored in order of ascending memory locations.

Jack, are you a software person by training?


The reason I ask is something that was noticed where I work.


I have found that just about every hardware engineer at work will
list address 0 at the bottom of a picture.  Almost every software
engineer puts address 0 at the top.

Just how general is this trend?  Anyone observe the opposite?  I'm
wondering if it is just the people I have talked too (mostly ex-CDC),
regional (almost the same for here), or more wide spread than that?

Email would be fine...I doubt there is much general interest in trivia
like this.


-Bret
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bret Indrelee               |         Nature Adores Chaos
email: bret@technix.mn.org  |   
Newsgroups: comp.arch
From: vhs@rhein-main.de (Volker Herminghaus-Shirai)
Subject: Re: Def  of a workstation (a lark)
Reply-To: vhs@rhein-main.de
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 93 21:27:26 GMT

In article <1993Jan8.140615.27801@linus.mitre.org> bds@mbunix.mitre.org (Smith)  
writes:
> In article <1993Jan3.235327.13718@qb.rhein-main.de> vhs@rhein-main.de writes:
> >A decent workstation has IMHO *at least* the following items of which the
> >software can and does take advantage of:
> >	a high-resolution screen
> >	a pointing device
> >	an ethernet connection (or token ring if your management was bribed ;-)
> >	a UN*X operating system with TCP/IP support and a C compiler
> >	a boot prom that allows for interactive diagnosis etc.
> >	a decent amount of RAM and hard disk space
> >	a tape drive for backups and data exchange as opposed to floppy disk
> >	other items I may have forgotten (it's already tomorrow...;-)
> >
> >Volker Herminghaus-Shirai (vhs@qb.rhein-main.de), NeXTmail welcome
> >
> 
> I'm sure the DEC folks will be delighted to know that the VAXstation
> 4000 Model 90, which looks like a workstation to all the rest of the
> world, but only runs VMS and does not come with a C compiler, is not a
> workstation.  Come to think of it, I believe Sun workstations no
> longer come with a C compiler.  Are they also not workstations, unless
> you pay extra for it?  Actually, the whole lower end Alpha line (DEC
> 4000) wouldn't fit your criteria unless you happen to choose UNIX and
> get a C Compiler.

I was admittedly unexact in my posting. With "UN*X Operating System"
I meant the UN*X Operating Environment (from awk to zcat), supported
by a stable multitasking kernel. After all, it's not the core technology
that counts. But I definitely *need* to have a C-Compiler on a computer,
otherwise it wouldn't be a "work station" but a "fiddle place" or equiv.
Or do you enjoy writing terminal emulators in Snobol :-) ?

BTW, since M$ is trying to spread Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt in the
industry with NT, how about calling an R4000 or Alpha-computer running NT
a FUDstation? 

--
Volker Herminghaus-Shirai (vhs@qb.rhein-main.de), NeXTmail welcome

Looks good on the outside, but -
	intel inside
From: sbobadbh@w204zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de (Shashi-Shakher Mishra)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Programming for parallel systems(such as CM-2)
Date: 8 Jan 1993 11:18:15 GMT
Organization: ZRZ der TU-Berlin
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: w204zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de
Keywords: What is the status of programming languages for array processors. I doubt if they can write software for the connection machine in Fortran or C. So how do they do it ? Lisp ? Is it possible to generate code directly from Dependency graphs ? Moreover hhow do they  deal with conditonal brances in the CM-2.

Rohit Sharma
sharma@math.tu-berlin.de
From: tdbear@dvorak.amd.com (Thomas D. Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Holics, Fiber Channel OPEN, et. al.
Date: 5 Jan 93 15:37:56 GMT
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.; Austin, Texas

Does anyone know if there is a newsgroup and/or distribution list
forum in which there are discussions about the Holics fiber optic
backplane efforts in the EC?  

Also... the Fiber Channel OPEN drive interface which is headed by IBM,
Sun, and HP?

If so, please email or post here.  Thanks!

-- 
|Tom Barrett (TDBear), Sr. Engineer|tom.barrett@amd.com|v:512-462-6856 |
|AMD PCD MS-520 | 5900 E. Ben White|Austin, TX  78741  |f:512-462-5155 |
|"No is yes, And we're all free"   |CO made a #2 no-no... PU!          |
|My views are my own and may not be the same as the company of origin  |
From: celliott@BBN.COM (Chip Elliott)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Turing & Big/Little Ends
Date: 8 Jan 93 15:54:15 GMT
Reply-To: celliott@BBN.COM (Chip Elliott)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
NNTP-Posting-Host: bbn.com


Despite some comments, numbers are not "universally" written
big endian.

Our favorite counter example, Alan Turing, would habitually
write numbers left-to-write or vice versa, often in the course
of the same talk. Thus when he wrote "21" on the board it might
mean twenty-one or it might mean twelve.

He thought endian-ness was a trivial detail and was surprised
that anyone would be confused by his using whatever seemed
more natural to the problem at hand.

(And then there are the odd "five-and-twenty" constructions
which I suppose happen in many languages. Vocal, yes, but they
sometimes get written down this way.)


---
Chip Elliott                   UUCP:     {backbone}!bbn!celliott
BBN Systems and Technologies   INTERNET: celliott@bbn.com
Cambridge, MA 02238            
Newsgroups: comp.arch