HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: oberto@genes.icgeb.trieste.it (Jacques Oberto)
Subject: Re: Breaking up a HUGE file safely
Organization: ICGEB
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 09:09:51 GMT

>> -> Is there a safe method for breaking this HUGE file up into
>> -> smaller files like 1.2 meg each?  Then, using a combining method,
>> -> I can combine the smaller files into the original file again? --
>>
>>I use ARJ as a compression program, and it has a nifty feature capable of this.  The format would be something to the effect of
>>
>>ARJ a [path]archivename [path][filespec] -v1200000

>How do you reverse the process and combine the broken files together?

DOD has two commands to do just what you want: 
     BACKUP can easily break up a huge file to fill several disks,
            it will even prompt you to insert a new disk
     RESTORE does the reverse.

Jacques
-- 
Jacques Oberto  <oberto@genes.icgeb.trieste.it>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
From: tsullivan@trentu.ca (God)
Subject: Re: Why I am considering Stony Brooks Pascal+ 6.1 over BP7.0
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Trent University Computer Services Department
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 13:14:00 GMT

In article <NMOUAWAD.92Nov18152918@math.waterloo.edu>, nmouawad@waterloo.edu (Naji Mouawad) writes...
> 
>If you were in my shoes and given the above configurations would you
>choose it instead of BP7.0 or not ?

  Honestly, I'd choose BP. Having used SBP+ 6.0, I'll say that compilation 
time is quite slow in comparison. In fact, when I used it on a program that 
was upwards of 30000 lines, it would take about 7 minutes to compile, 
versus TP6.0, which took just under a minute. For that reason alone, I'd 
say develop in TP, then recompile in SBP+ for the release version.

>How is the environment different from TP ? Is it aukward to use ?

  Very, very, very. In many cases, it is superior, but it takes a good deal 
of time to get used to. It forces a certain type of hierarchy of 
directories (ie prog, prog\source, prog\object, etc).
  One of the better features is that it gives you a view of the entire 
program. Instead of having multi-layered windows and whatnot, it has a sort 
of "choose your file" type of interface. It classifies everything as either 
a .PAS, a .TPU, .OBJ etc, and clicking on the program brings up the source 
if available. It will (if the program is uncomplete), bring up listings for 
dependancies that don't exist yet, etc. Strange, but really cool. Again, it 
take a few hours/days of fiddling to get the hang of it.

>They mention SOURCE compatibility. Does this precludes compiled units?

  No. You cannot use precompiled .TPUs.


   Tim Sullivan
   tsullivan@trentu.ca
   cstes@blaze.trentu.ca

A Disclaimer? Yeah, and people BELIEVE what I write, too...
---
 "Virtual Reality has NOTHING on Calvin."
       - Suzy, from Calvin and Hobbes
From: milton@abyss.wa.com (Steve Milton, Sysop)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: I found a compiler bug in TP6.0, maybe...
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 23:32:18 PST
Organization: ISOMEDIA, Inc.

nobby@byron.u.washington.edu (Vitaly Shmatikov) writes:

> In article <1992Nov22.192602.16440@crash> tech@crash.cts.com (Don Bontemps) w
> >
> >When I attempt to compile the following code, I get a runtime error 202.
[Some lines deleted.]
> >
> >  num : word = 0;
> >
> >
> >begin
> >
> >  writeln(days[num-1]);
> >
> >end.
> >
> >
> 
> Just a guess: when num-1 is evaluated the result is coerced to the
> type of num, i.e. word. -1 is 2^16-1 if treated as word. Range error is
> raised while trying to dereference days[2^16-1]. Looks like perfectly normal
> compiler behaviour.

It is even simpler than that.  WORD is defined as an unsigned value.  
change num to an integer type and it may work.  (I have never used 
negative values for array ranges, so I'm not sure pascal even allows 
them, but try as you like.).


+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Stephen Milton, Sysop of `The Abyss UUCP BBS & Mail Feed'   Bellevue, WA. |
| Internet: milton@abyss.wa.com                  UUCP: nwnexus!abyss!milton |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
From: tullmann@newton.emba.uvm.edu (Patrick A Tullmann)
Subject: Re: I found a compiler bug in TP6.0, maybe...
Organization: University of Vermont, EMBA Computer Facility
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 15:55:05 GMT

Easy, word is defined in Pascal as 0..65535.

Word data types cannot be negative.
From:  ECZ5LRH@mvs.oac.ucla.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: unsubscribe lynn humphrey
Date: 19 Nov 92 17:02:42 GMT

unsubscribe
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
From: highness@nextnet.csus.edu (Rick Highness)
Subject: Pretty Printer for Pascal
Organization: California State University Sacramento
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 15:59:29 GMT

Does anyone know where I can obtain source code to a Pascal pretty printing
program?  When I was a college student in Minnesota, I had access to a
program called Spruce.  This in my mind was the epitome of what a pretty
printing program should be.

I am now looking for a similar version to use on the PC.  Can *ANYONE* help
me find source?  Ideally, the source for Spruce would be ideal.

*ANY* help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
-Rick


Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
From: sakkinen@jyu.fi (Markku Sakkinen)
Subject: Re: Interesting design/implementation dilemma
Organization: University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 11:00:09 GMT

In article <722091628.F00001@contrast.wlink.nl> berend@contrast.wlink.nl (Berend de Boer) writes:
>Lately when designing two objects, a printer object and a (print)job
>object, an interesting design dilemma happened. I could choose:
>1) let the printer object accept jobs, or
>2) let the job print itself on a printer
>
>In Turbo Pascal:
>1) Printer^.PrintJob(Job); or
>2) Job^.Print(Printer);

What about conventional procedural style:
3) Print (printer, job);  ?
As a comparison:
in most purely object-oriented languages, any operation _must_ belong to
one class.  This is rather inconvenient in cases like this where
two or more objects have rather equal roles in the operation.
If you need multiple polymorphism, the problem becomes severe.

>It happened that I could not choose between these two designs. Turbo
>Pascal forced me to take the second. Here's how: I wanted the two
>objects in two seperate units. The printer unit could not be overlaid,
>but the Job unit could. The Job unit needed to use the printer unit
>(else how could it print) If I wrote the units this way, the first
>option gave me an circular reference error.  [...]

IMHO, a language that does not allow cycles in the "uses" relation
between modules is brain-damaged.  A person I know was recently highly
interested in Oberon;  one of the main reasons to drop it was that
Oberon likewise disallows cycles.
(The Extended Pascal standard, which supports modules, seems to allow
cyclic export-import realationships.)
In this special case, one way to eschew the restriction is to apply
alternative 3 above in a third unit that imports both Printer and Job.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Markku Sakkinen (sakkinen@jytko.jyu.fi)
       SAKKINEN@FINJYU.bitnet (alternative network address)
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
University of Jyvaskyla (a's with umlauts)
PL 35
SF-40351 Jyvaskyla (umlauts again)
Finland
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: warlok@rhps.chi.il.us (Jon L Fincher)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Suche nach Dialoged-Source-File
Keywords: Dialoged, Source-File
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 19:19:26 CST
Organization: CrissySoft Incorporated

joksch@ibt013.ibt.kfa-juelich.de (Burkhard Joksch) writes:

> hi
> 
> ich suche dringend den source-file des Programms Dialoged.exe.
> Dieses Programm wurde von Borland als shareware verteilt enthielt jedoch
> keine Source-file. Diese sollte im Buch `turbo-pascal6.0 Turbo-vision` im
> Verlag addison-Wesley erschienen sein.
> Wer kann mir weiterhelfen !!
> 
> Danke 
> 
> Burkhard (joksch @ ibt013.ibt.kfa-juelich.de

Die meiste Leute, sie hier lesen und schreiben, sprechen nur Englisch.
Vielleicht koennen Sie naechstmal in 
Englisch sprechen?  Ich kann Sie verstehen, aber kann keine
Hilfe geben.  Wenn Sie deine Frage auf Englisch schrieben, wurden mehr
Leser darauf antworten.

Ich bin Amerikaner, seit drei Jahren Deutsch am Uni gelernt.  Es tut mir
leid, wenn mein Deutsch nicht so gut ist.

Jon L. Fincher, Warlok.

Sie koennen zu mir schrieben auf Deutsch, wenn Sie wollen.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal,comp.object
From: kooijman@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Harry Kooijman,Peyt314a,3808)
Subject: Re: BP/TP OOP is missing something...
Organization: Clarkson University
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 16:13:17 GMT

From article <dmurdoch.284.722095796@mast.queensu.ca>, by dmurdoch@mast.queensu.ca (Duncan Murdoch):
> In article <1992Nov18.104536.9985@jyu.fi> sakkinen@jyu.fi (Markku Sakkinen) writes:
> 
>>In any flavour of OO Pascal without such parameters, the constructor
>>of a general matrix class (i.e. without fixed dimensions) would most
>>naturally create only a "handle" for an actual matrix.
> 
> This doesn't seem like a very clean solution.  Does it mean that I'd have 
> an array without a size after the automatic initialization?  Then I'd have 
> to send a size message to it before I could use it?  It sounds to me as 
> though the size message is the real initialization; automatic initialization 
> doesn't work here, because it doesn't produce a usable object (i.e. 
> establish the invariants of the class, as you said).
> 

The language does not force you to have an "empty" constructor and that
the actual initialization (here for the matrix size) is done later, but
allows you to do both. Now that's freedom of choice! Actually it allows
classes/objects that size themselves according to the (local) needs. So
you can say I want a vector, use it for an array of size x, then
increase its size to y, use it, then decrease its size to z and use it.
When the vector goes out of scope, it knows what it last size was and
frees the memory it was occupying at destruction.



--
Harry Kooijman: Rigorous dynamic distillation simulation.
Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Clarkson University, Potsdam NY 13699.
kooijman@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
From: sam@csi.jpl.nasa.gov (Sam Sirlin)
Subject: Re: Saplpc vs Inverson vs J
Originator: sam@kalessin
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 22:48:32 GMT


In article <1992Nov19.203203.11732@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, alaroy@nyx.cs.du.edu (Andrew LaRoy) writes:

|> What differences (other than speed and documenttion, as mentioned in the
|> guide to low cost apl's a while back) are there between saplpc and the
|> inversion version.  I am interested in whether or not the extra expense is
|> worth it.  

The major difference I can see is  in available ws size. Is making the
ws limit equal to what the machine has worth $30? I'd say so.
Especially since APL programming style tends to lead to large arrays. 

|> Also, other than the fact that the keyboard is not goofey (at
|> least to a new apl user) what are the advantages / disadvantages of J as
|> opposed to apl.
|> The applications I forsee using apl for are physics lab computations
|> (which I currently complete on a spreadsheet - yuck) and integration of
|> ugly intigrals using brute force.

APL or J can easily do these. Here are some comments:

Advantages of J

availability: source, compiles on probably any machine with C.
portability: the basic program and data storage can be readable ASCII
 script  files, which can be sent anywhere (well,... taking special
 precautions  for IBM mainframes...).
cost: this is probably a wash for pc's, but not so for anything else -
 APLs are typically $Ks for sun's, while J is still free.
standardization: there's only one J I know of, but when it comes to
 arrays of arrays, most apls dissagree (on many other less fundamental
 things as well). This obviously has a big  impact on portability.

Dissadvantages of J

character set: it isn't very nice compared to APL's. I really miss
 times and divide...
speed: I'd guess APLI386 is faster. I haven't tested them though...
programming style: this could be an advantage or dissadvantage
 depending on your point of view. I'd say it's much more
 foreign to a new user than "normal" APL (e.g. selective reassignment
 doesn't exist in J).  
available code: there's more existing stuff written in APL.
 On the other hand it may not be easy to get ahold of electronically. 
available literature: lots more for APL. 
stability: J is still evolving, so current features may dissapear,
 or change, others appear, etc.

Recommendation:
(I assume you have a 386 box)
If you're balking at $30, go for the free APLs and borrow some books
from the library to learn to use them. Ask someone local to help get
you started if you can find an APLer. If you find you can't stand APL,
then you're not out anything, and you probably won't like J either. 

If you a little money, go for APLI386 next if you find yourself
somewhat cramped. Only once you are familiar with APL and if you
really like "neat" mathematical things that take some effort (do you
like Rubick's cube? [this is probably a prerequisite for likeing APL
as well]) would I recommend you get J (definitely get all the
documentation as well though).  

I guess that's enough for now...
-- 
Sam Sirlin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory         sam@kalessin.jpl.nasa.gov
From: gaylord@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Richard J. Gaylord)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
Subject: Re: Re:  What is an APL language?
Date: 18 Nov 92 12:57:00 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois
X-Xxdate: Wed, 18 Nov 92 06:58:44 GMT
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d12
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A72F9A2442019B11@mm-mac17.mse.uiuc.edu>

Subject: Re: Re:  What is an APL language?
From: Mike Kent, 70530.1226@CompuServe.COM
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 05:44:16 GMT
In article <921118054415_70530.1226_DHP44-1@CompuServe.COM> Mike Kent,
70530.1226@CompuServe.COM writes:


what seems to distinguish APL from other
>applicative languages is the centrality of arrays, and in particular the
>rich set of manipulative and extractive functions which produce new
>arrays from old without explicit recalculation of item values.  To a
>degree not possible in most other languages, APL is "about" shape, rank,
>and lately depth --
>

===============

 i think this is correct except that  APL isn't really an applicative
language  and Ken Iverson agrees saying in a back issue of VECTOR  that 
J  incorporates those functional features lacking in APL. 

speaking ofwhich, i posted awhile back a translation of the "What is J?"
tutorial by Lee Dickey into Mathematica showing how to do things like
those mentioned above (rank, shape, depth) in Mathematica. If anyone has
a copy of that could you send it to me. i lost the file in a near-fatal
system crash.  thanks.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
From: hui@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Roger Hui)
Subject: Re: jWin problem
Organization: Iverson Software Inc.
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 06:28:45 GMT

Brian Schott wrote (on November 5th):
> Using j for windows, when I enter (<'screenout')
> 0!:2 <'' I am losing control of the keyboard.  I
> have set up a profile.js file which contains only
> 0!:2 <'wp\j.js' . The profile.js does not seem to do
> anything until after I enter the above command
> manually:  (<'screenout') 0!:2 <'' . Then before the
> keyboard gets crazy, the profile.js seems to act. ...
 
There are two bugs in JWin, both now corrected:
(a) The profile was ignored at the start of a session.
(b) (<'foo') 0!:2 <'' did not work.
Thanks for the report.

------------------------------------
Roger Hui, Iverson Software Inc., 33 Major Street, Toronto, Ontario  M5S 2K9
Phone: (416) 925 6096;  Fax: (416) 488 7559
From: gaylord@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Richard J. Gaylord)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
Subject: Re: What is an APL language?
Date: 17 Nov 92 14:19:13 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.Bxv6G3.K6
Organization: University of Illinois
X-Xxdate: Tue, 17 Nov 92 08:20:48 GMT
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d12
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A72E5BE003019B19@mm-mac25.mse.uiuc.edu>

Subject:  What is an APL language?
From: Paul Robinson, FZC@CU.NIH.GOV
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 04:40:52 GMT
In article <BxsL3r.EG@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca> Paul Robinson,
FZC@CU.NIH.GOV writes:
>
>One example of the power (or complexity) of the language is the means to
>sum a list of numbers.  For example, in any other language, if I wanted
>the variable A to have the average of a list of 20 numbers, I'd have to
>do a loop.  Here's how it's done with APL:
>
>    a <- +/ 10 34 14 12 22 66 99 44 11 21 94
>
>(and so on)  This gives the "average" or "mean" of the numbers.
>Try doing that with less than a loop and a set of data
>statements or arrays, and so on.  Also, the <- in APL is the
>assignment symbol, a single character
=========

this was an unfortunate example to use. 

in mathematica

a = Apply[Plus, {10, 34, 14, 12, 22, 66, 99, 44, 11, 21, 94}]

(note: one can also use   {10, 34, 14, 12, 22, 66, 99, 44, 11, 21,
94}/.List->Plus which using a rule-based programming aproach which
requires more explanation than anyone here probably wants to hear).

also, Maple offers the convert function to change a data structure list
into an addition operation.

in fact, i believe (but may be wrong) that almost all functional
languages [which apl really isn't] will do this sort of thing .
Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
From: gurr@newsparc6 (David Gurr 4-6989 MR Sys)
Subject: Re: APL and IDL
Organization: GE Medical Systems, Magnetic Resonance
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 14:19:36 GMT

rockwell@socrates.umd.edu  writes:

"On the other hand, I don't see the advantage in being contentious with
other languages.  Historically, that's been something of a a dead end.

"If there is one single problem that's hurting the APL community today
it's the difficulty in getting APL systems to take advantage of
advancements from other parts of the computing community."

Hear! Hear!  If I have any gripes about APL and J, it is that while
I save time programming in them, I lose the time getting data in
and out of them.  How about the theme for APL94 being "Communicating,
Cooperating, Competing and Coexisting with the Wider World".

If we think that APL is a better mouse trap than IDL et cetera, then
we need to be able to demonstrate the fact by grabbing IDL data sets
and manipulating them with no fuss.

sam@csi.jpl.nasa.gov  goes further and writes:

"some innovations that I wish APL would have -  extremely easy
extensibility (.m files), and relatively easy (or at
least possible) use of external routines (Fortran, C)".

And I agree entirely.  While shared variables can be used for
this, compare the straight forward use of arrays in APL and
the drudgery of getting a shared variable interface to work.
Compare the difficulty of explaining to a novice reduction
and shared variables.  Not only do I want to process my Excel
spreadsheet files with minimal fuss, I want to use IMSL
functions with minimal fuss.  In previous posts the difficulties
of using Fortran and APL together has been discussed and it
was concluded that using Fortran with APL is very inelegant.
However, compared to using only Fortran, it is very elegant.
I want it to be expedient too.

Unfortunately for me, ISI has forced me to put my programming
where my mouth is (by releasing the source to J).  So I'm trying
to hack some of the above into J.


-David Gurr

Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
From: Tdarcos@f120.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Tdarcos)
Subject: BBS\APL
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 05:30:28 GMT

There was a BBS in Baltimore called "APL" which was siezed by federal 
authorities for the unlawful distribution of Copyrighted Software. 
 
There is a BBS in Silver Spring, MD, called the BBS\APL which deals with issues
involving the APL Programming language.  That BBS, which is called at +1 301 384
3672, is operated by Dick Holt and has no connection whatsoever with the "APL"
bbs that was raided.
 
Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM 
These opinions ARE those of the owner of this account.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
From: Mike Kent <70530.1226@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Retc:  Wretched excess:    What is ...
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 07:47:07 GMT

>> ... how to do things like... (rank, shape, depth) in Mathematica. ...	

You can get good -- really good -- Tex-Mex food in NYC.  But you have to
work some to find it, and otherwise it's hardly like Albuquerque at all.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
From: pmoore@cix.compulink.co.uk (Paul Moore)
Subject: New features implemented in J 5.0, 5.1 and 6.0
Reply-To: pmoore@cix.compulink.co.uk
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 20:20:00 +0000

Sorry if you have seen this post before - as far as I can tell it
didn't make it to the outside world from my system...

Is there any documentation available (preferably electronically)
describing the new features implemented in the recent versions of J
(5.0, 5.1 and 6.0)? I have copies of the Dictionary of J covering
version 3 and version 4.1 (which is, to my knowledge, the latest
dictionary version available - unless a version 5 or 6 dictionary has
become available recently - and the fact that new versions of the
dictionary are not announced makes this difficult to determine...)

At present, I have no documentation on the following features:

    <!.k      Not too hard, tolerance is documented (although it's not
              entirely clear exactly where it applies)
    >!._      Infinite tolerance??
    {.!.f     Fit on {. - is this documented (and if so, I didn't
              realise it had not yet been implemented)

    [:
    ]:
    u@n
    m f.
    2: to 9:  OK, so these are relatively obvious :-)
    c1 v c2

    : 20
    : 21
    : 22
    u :: v
    u b.

Also, the !: cases 6!:2, 5!:5, 9!:2, 9!:3, 0!:4, 0!:5, 4!:56, 11!:0,
and 11!:1 are new, but these are documented in xenos.doc...

I know some of these are more obvious than others, and some are merely
extensions to existing features (eg the new fit options like >!._), but
it would be useful to those of us who have copies of the dictionary, to
be given some idea of what the new features *are*. [On another, related,
note - the description of fit (!.) in the dictionary basically says that
what it does depends on what it is applied to. It would be useful to
have all of the fit effects described in a single place, rather than
having to hunt through the dictionary searching out the reference. This
is especially useful when status.doc says things like >!._ implemented -
I could see at a glance whether this is merely a simple extension of an
existing case, or a totally new case.]

Don't misunderstand me - the regular, rapid, upgrades of J are, to me,
a good thing at the present stage of J's development. I would just like
a little more detail on what the new features *are*, rather than
needing to buy a new copy of the dictionary, and try to locate the
changes (especially when the dictionary, understandably, lags behind
the current version of J, and when new versions of the dictionary are
not announced in the same way as new versions of J are). It's
especially odd in that the documentation of !: (in xenos.doc) is MORE
current than that of the "main" J features!

Paul Moore. (pmoore@cix.compulink.co.uk)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
From: Richard J. Gaylord <gaylord@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: What is an APL language?
X-Xxdate: Wed, 18 Nov 92 05:14:06 GMT
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d12
Organization: University of Illinois
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 11:12:22 GMT
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A72F819E7A039B11@mm-mac17.mse.uiuc.edu>

Subject: Re: What is an APL language?
From: David Gurr 4-6989 MR Sys, gurr@newsparc6
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 13:53:52 GMT
In article <1992Nov17.135352.495@mr.med.ge.com> David Gurr 4-6989 MR Sys,
gurr@newsparc6 writes:
>Umm, speaking loosely, evaluation from right to left 
>allows one to read APL from left to right. Consider
>f(g(x)) which is read "f of g of x" and is 
>calculated reduce x, apply g, apply f.
>

===================

is that right ? i also read  apl from right to left.  i 'read' f(g(x)) as
"take x, then take g of x and then take g of the result".  maybe just too
much time spent in hebrew school.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl