HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: The need for an assembler
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 08:42:01 GMT

In article <1992Aug23.192731.1@cc.curtin.edu.au> zrepachol@cc.curtin.edu.au (Paul Repacholi) writes:
>
>Some have claimed that C is all they need for "any" problem, and that they turn
>out 'portable' code as a result. OK, a challenge to those... write a C program
>that will read 2 blocks off a Dectape/linktape/microtape ( Charles will give you
>the details of the interface and the tape formats... :-)) ) and output them
>to a 8 bit wide port "FOO". you may assume FOO will swallow the low order 8 bits
>of anything you write to it in 0 time, with no side effects. When you have
>written your 'portable' C program, I will tell you if its for a 12, 16, 18, 32,
>36 or 64 bit machine.
>
>~Paul
>

Specs for DECtape and LINCtape available on request.

BTW, these can wind up anywhere a Unibus convertor is viable, although
third-party vendors did make a Q-bus and a {any-buss} version as well.  Also
winds up on almist anything else DEC did before SCSI if you are willing to
play some bizarre buss games.  C code? NOT!

cjl


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: ckd@eff.org (Christopher Davis)
Subject: Re: You know when you're hacking too long when...
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation Tech Central
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 11:58:45 GMT

Rich> == Rich Greenberg <richg@hatch.socal.com> 

 Rich> . . . instead of phoning someone local (same company, same city) you
 Rich> send email even when you know they have voicemail/answering machine.

This is bad?  No.  Chasing down his character in a MUD to talk to him,
when he's at the next terminal, *and the MUD is in Finland and you're in
Boston*, now *that* is bad.

Worse if you're talking to him about your play-by-email Diplomacy game.
--
Christopher Davis * ckd@eff.org * System Administrator, EFF * +1 617 864 0665
            ``Ed Gruberman, you fail to grasp Ti Kwan Leep.
            Approach me that you might see.'' -- The Master
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:12943 comp.lang.misc:2773
From: rupert@europa.inmos.co.uk (Rupert Pigott (PFUE))
Subject: Re: Computers killing people?  (WAS Re: 9 track data storage???)
Organization: INMOS Limited, Bristol, UK
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 16:08:03 GMT

In article <1992Aug19.105729.3084@tigger.jvnc.net>, keithd@bigguy.timeplex.com (Keith Dickinson) writes:
|> In article <1400@newsserver.cs.uwindsor.ca> oliver@cs.uwindsor.ca (Timothy Oliver) writes:
|> >>I remember hearing a rumor that printers sent to Iraq were programmed to
|> >>upload (something) into radar installations to give erroneous data.
|> >>
|> >>First, is it possible?  Second, anyone else heard such a thing?
|> >
|> >No, it is NOT possible.  There are not data lines that go FROM the
|> >printer TO the computer. The only line that go to the computer 
|> >are status lines (in a PARELLEL port).
|> 
|> Actualy most Serial printer _do_ have it hooked up.  That's how they use
|> the Xon/Xoff protocol for handshaking with Unix machines that don't understand
|> EIA lead functions.
|> 
|> Also, again, some PostScript printers communicate in both directions.
|> 
Someone mentioned this rumour to me sometime ago... I assume that if such
a thing ever existed it either triggered some code in the PC's OS/BIOS, OR
by some strange turn of events the PC suddenly decided to download a binary
from the printer port and execute it... This leads me to two conclusions,
either:
  a) Someone is lying/exagerating
  b) Someone has put a big security headache into the PC system software...
I would personally go for a) as the latter should have been discovered,
exploited and fixed by now.
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:13532 comp.unix.misc:3483
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.misc
Subject: Re: The need for an assembler (was: Favorite CPU)
From: scott@yarc.uucp (Scott Beckstead)
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1992 16:32:46 GMT
Reply-To: scott@yarc.UUCP (Scott Beckstead)
Organization: Yarc Systems

In article <1992Aug31.162630.23913@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>In article <1992Aug28.222616.2251@merlin.dev.cdx.mot.com> lezz@merlin.dev.cdx.mot.com (Lezz Giles) writes:
>>
>>Once again, I don't want to say that assembler is a Bad Thing.  Also
>>notice that I'm not saying anything about ease of programming, speed,
>>or anything else.  I'm just saying that if you program in assembler for
>>an 80386 then your program will run well on an 80386, sub-optimally on
>>an 80486 and not at all on an 80286 (and forget about a 68030).  If you
>
>This is patently wrong.  I write for the 8086/8088 model as do most people.
>It runs on 8088, 8086, 80186, 80188, 80286, 80386SX, 80386DX, 80486SX,
>80486DX, 80486DX2, and about 20 non-Intel clones from AMD, NEC, ULSI, TI,
>and a few other cpu clone maker's cpu's.  I can choose to exclude the 8088
>and 8086 with a simple assembler directive, which merely enables extensions
>available in the '286 and up, or I can us the larger models and write for
>protect-mode on either 286 and up or 386 and up as I choose.  There is
>hardly any difference between 386 and 486 save speed and a few instructions
>(very few) that were added to the '486.  There is virtually no software
>significence to the 486 over the 386, and for all indications, as posted on
>this newsgroup, the '586 won't change this either.
>
>A very popular and recent piece of software is DR-DOS Version 6, which 
>is written in mostly assembler and runs on all of these, picking up options
>along the way in a seamless manner where applicable.
>
chunk of junk deleted 

>cjl
>
  Look CJL we're talking about porting to DIFFERENT processors not 20 
year old 8080 emulators that ALL run the same code!  Try taking Dr. Dos to 
a 68000 or maybe a MIPS or a 29000.  Get real dude! Keep your apples and 
oranges straight!



-- 
Reply to: scott@yarc.uucp 	|  
				|	Spin my nipple nuts and send me to   
  Smoke me a kipper, I'll be	| 	Alaska.
   back for breakfast	 	|       
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:13386 comp.unix.misc:3442
From: avg@rodan.UU.NET (Vadim Antonov)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.misc
Subject: Re: The need for an assembler (was: Favorite CPU)
Date: 31 Aug 1992 15:52:37 -0400
Organization: Berkeley Software Design
NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net

In article <1992Aug31.162630.23913@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>I write for the 8086/8088 model as do most people.
>It runs on 8088, 8086, 80186, 80188, 80286, 80386SX, 80386DX, 80486SX,
>80486DX, 80486DX2, and about 20 non-Intel clones from AMD, NEC, ULSI, TI,
>and a few other cpu clone maker's cpu's.

Now we know whom to thank for the prevalence of those Intentionally
Brain-dead Machines hysterically keeping backward compatibility
for the sake of tons of broken-as-designed software. Gas!

--vadim

(I bet you'd implement 2-byte checksum from the very beginning
if you didn't have to think where to save dx before doing imul).
From: greg@Quotron.COM (Greg "Maddog" Knauss)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know you've been using X too long...
Date: 3 Sep 92 15:51:33 GMT
Organization: Quotron System, Inc.

aeg03@rrz.uni-koeln.de (Jan T. Kim) writes:

>If you want to be able to find a better color  setting  than  the
>default  one  of  a  system,  just  try  an Atari ST with a color
>monitor.

Hey, _I_ use the default colors on my ST.  What's wrong with really, really
right lime green?  (Actaully, when I first got the ST, I changed the
background to a deep blue so it would look more like my 400.  Heh.)
--
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Greg "Maddog" Knauss               "Aieee!"              greg@duke.quotron.com
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phill Hallam-Baker)
Subject: Re: Indentation
Reply-To: Hallam@zeus02.desy.de
Organization: Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Experiment ZEUS bei HERA
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 15:08:41 GMT

In article <BEVAN.92Aug31092333@tiger.cs.man.ac.uk>, bevan@cs.man.ac.uk (Stephen
J Bevan) writes:

|>In article <1992Aug30.192545.13342@dscomsf.desy.de> hallam@zeus02.desy.de
|>(Phill Hallam-Baker) writes:
|>   I write :-
|>   |>Agreed.  Given that DWW is no fool, I assumed that what was meant was
|>   |>that _some particular mathematical technique_ that fell apart, not
|>   |>proofs in general.  Maybe I assumed too much and DWW was wrong; only
|>   |>DWW knows ...
|>
|>   Actualy *every* language that requires variables to be declared
|>   before use is context sensitive and cannot be parsed using an LR(1)
|>   parser. There are (obvious) standard hacks for this though.
|>
|>And so is any language which requires uniqueness of declarations.
|>But what does this have to do with the original point?

Parsability using an LR(1) parser is not a precondition for being able to define
the semantics of a programming language nor for validating a compiler.

--

Phill Hallam-Baker
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: The need for an assembler
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 08:47:26 GMT

In article <samw.714592304@bucket> samw@bucket.rain.com (Sam Warden) writes:
>A chainsaw is the only tool anyone will ever need.
>No! A scalpel is the only tool anyone will ever need!
>Is not!
>Is so!
>(fight ensues)
>
I have my own opinion, but what's your opinion about which is which?

cjl
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: olt@elwood.isgs.uiuc.edu (Scott Olt)
Subject: Re: Better dead than IBM
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 15:57:37 GMT

IQTI400@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU (macphil) writes:
>richg@hatch.socal.com (Rich Greenberg) writes:
>>zcookbruc@cc.curtin.edu.au writes:

>>Any IBM employee will tell you it stands for:  "I've Been Moved".
>>(IBMers get transferred a lot.)
 
>USA Today had an article about a contest for the filling in the acronym.
>One of the mentioned winners was "Incredible Bowel Movement"

How 'bout "International Big Mother" or "Intolerant (of) Beards (and)
Mustaches"? :-)

--
Scott Olt                                  | Internet: sdo@uiuc.edu
Illinois State Geological Survey           | UUCP: uunet!uiucuxc!uiuc.edu!sdo
"Most people wouldn't know music if it came up and bit them on the ass."
                              -- Frank Zappa
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: claird@NeoSoft.com (Cameron Laird)
Subject: Re: Computer games as marketing gag
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 13:08:42 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.030011.27603@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz> ecmtwhk@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Thomas Koenig) writes:
>I just found a nice marketing gag in a heat exchanger design program
>package sold by Alfa- Laval, a manufacturer of plate and spiral heat
>exchangers:
>
>A version of Pakman in which you turn shell and tube heat exchangers (an
>older type not sold by A-L) into plate or spiral heat exchangers.
>
>Is that a first, or has somebody come up with that kind of idea before?
			.
			.
			.
Shall we confess gags we've installed
in commercial software?  No, no, I
mean intentional ones, like sending a
Greenpeace flag to the monitor whenever
an input file contains the word "nu-
clear", not unintentional ones, like
error-handling in MSDOS.
-- 

Cameron Laird
claird@Neosoft.com (claird%Neosoft.com@uunet.uu.net)	+1 713 267 7966
claird@litwin.com (claird%litwin.com@uunet.uu.net)  	+1 713 996 8546
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: christo@bcarh803.BNR.CA (Mark Christopher)
Subject: Re: Better dead than IBM
Reply-To: christo@bnr.ca
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 20:39:53 GMT

In article <14681@mindlink.bc.ca>, Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca (Charlie
Gibbs) writes:
|><sigh>  I guess it's time to repost the whole list...
|>
... canonical ibm list deleted ...
|>
|>IBM PC:  I've Blown My Power Circuits.
|>         Intel Bowel Movement / Piece of Crap
|>
|>PS/2: a Piece of Shit Too
|>
|>IBM, UBM, we all BM for IBM.
|>
|>Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca
|>"Intel Inside" - isn't that a warning sticker?


You only forgot a couple of entries....

MVS: Mine's Very Slow
MVS: Man vs. System
TSO: Time Spending Option
MVS/TSO: Multiple Virtual Snails/Transient Snail Option
CAD/CAM: Computer Aided Disaster/Computer Assisted Mayhem

-- 
Mark Christopher        Bell-Northern Research          christo@bnr.ca
From: rfd@po.CWRU.Edu (Richard F. Drushel)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: An interesting book for the ASM vs. HLL argument
Date: 2 Sep 1992 14:35:24 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: rfd@po.CWRU.Edu (Richard F. Drushel)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


	I found a neat book in the engineering library yesterday, which
maybe some of the participants in the recent ASM vs. HLL "discussions"
might want to look at.

	Sammet, Jean E. (1969).  Programming languages:  History
and fundamentals.  Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ).  785 pp.
Library of Congress # 68-28110.

	For all you COBOL-haters, Jean Sammet was chair of the
committee responsible for writing the COBOL language specs.

	All of the arguments about efficiency of code, speed, space,
etc. of HLLs versus assembler are treated in detailed discussions of
over 100 programming languages.  Most of these are dead by now, and
in 1969 there was no C, Pascal, Modula2, or Ada.  But I still find
the information fascinating.  For instance, at the very end of the
book, Sammet cautiously tenders a few speculations about the future
of programming languages.  Her guess was that FORTRAN and COBOL
would probably survive, with FORTRAN on top, but that there was a
chance that JOVIAL would conquer both of them.  JOVIAL was the big
Air Force language into the late 1970s; what happened to it?  Was
it absorbed by Ada?  (I know nothing of Ada except the name and that
Uncle Sam wants everything written in it.)
-- 
Rich Drushel ** rfd@po.CWRU.edu *** Biology Ph.D. Student ** Cleveland FreeNet
Co-Sysop, Coleco ADAM Forum --- Assistant Sysop, Science Fiction & Fantasy SIG
"Solda pung apfashat ro des-marno, / Marn ladir o armag noth yeni arno. / Hell
miryat it, / Jambo iat it, / Os lasse wei ticip kati baldo." / Old Ennish poem
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson)
Subject: Re: Spaghetti in Pascal (was Re: Branching in HLL vs. Assembler (was Re: The need for an assembler))
Organization: Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Sweden
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 14:05:22 GMT

In article <Bu1z4K.8LH@resmel.bhp.com.au> paulg@resmel.bhp.com.au (Paul Gallagher) writes:
>Yeh, as a Pascal lover, the labels and gotos are pretty horrid, but
>what I find more offensive is the code being ALL-CAPS !
>Mind you, I suppose you need to YELL AT THE COMPILER to convince it
>to swallow all the spaghetti :-)

Sure! The VAX Pascal compiler (for VMS, that is) is so conscientious
about accepting badly structured programs that sometimes it doesn't
even help to yell, you'll have to PHONE the operator and ask him to
kick the machine for you... :-)


Seriously, you used to be able immediately to recognize chemical
engineering students in the terminal rooms here in Lund because they
always wrote their Pascal programs in ALL CAPS. Everybody else (CS,
Comp. Eng., EE and even Data Processing people when they weren't doing
COBOL) were taught to write Pascal in all lower-case. 

Of course, nowadays everybody is just sooo impressed by the Superior
Legibility of Modula-2 that they teach the poor students to format
their Pascal programs like this:

PROCEDURE FooBar (VAR baz : BazType);

VAR 
  i : INTEGER;

BEGIN
  FOR i:=1 TO baz.bletcherouslyLongFieldName DO
  BEGIN
    (* Do something stupid here *)
  END;
END;


when, clearly, God intended Pascal to look like this:


procedure foobar (var baz : baztype);

var 
  i : integer;

begin
  for i:=1 to baz.field do
  begin
    { do something intelligent here }
  end
end;


(Yes, *of course* this was intended as sarcasm)


Magnus Olsson                   | \e+      /_
Dept. of Theoretical Physics    |  \  Z   / q
University of Lund, Sweden      |   >----<           
Internet: magnus@thep.lu.se     |  /      \===== g
Bitnet: THEPMO@SELDC52          | /e-      \q
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: mchance@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Chance)
Subject: Re: SAGE
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 92 14:37:40 GMT

I saw the SAGE display at the Computer Museum when I was in Boston in 1984.
The story that I got from the folks at the museum then was that it's a
fully functional SAGE installation, except for one thing - the power
generators.  Apparently, Boston wouldn't rate the dock the museum is
built on as capable of supporting the weight of the generators, which
are 100+ tons!

Michael A. Chance
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: pdt@munta.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Peter David THOMPSON)
Subject: Re: Better dead than IBM
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 05:41:19 GMT

What about "I've Been Munged"?

* These opinions belong to pdt@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU unless otherwise specified.
You were expecting an intelligent, witty, and articulate .signature? Ha!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky)
Subject: Re: Good source code to read?
Reply-To: rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky)
Organization: Snake Island Research Inc, Toronto
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 16:34:19 GMT

There have been a number of postings on using a machine with infinite
mainstore in order to calculate the solution to the halting problem.
Being as I am, a pragmatist, I built such a machine, and plan to use
it to test the various claims recently made in this group about the
halting problem.

The machine is currently performing the memory scan we are all familiar
with as part of the POST (Power Up Self Test) sequence.

I'll get back to you as soon this completes.
Bob





Robert Bernecky      rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.com  bernecky@itrchq.itrc.on.ca 
Snake Island Research Inc  (416) 368-6944   FAX: (416) 360-4694 
18 Fifth Street, Ward's Island
Toronto, Ontario M5J 2B9 
Canada
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:13518 comp.unix.misc:3477
From: jimf@centerline.com (Jim Frost)
Subject: Re: The need for an assembler (was: Favorite CPU)
Organization: CenterLine Software, Inc.
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 13:14:25 GMT

peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva) writes:
>In article <1992Aug31.162630.23913@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>> A very popular and recent piece of software is DR-DOS Version 6, which 
>> is written in mostly assembler and runs on all of these, picking up options
>> along the way in a seamless manner where applicable.

>An operating system of that level (basicaly file system and monitor) is
>inherently non-portable, so who cares?

Actually DR-DOS is much more of a real OS than you think; it's
multiuser and multitasking, not just another version of MS-DOS.  It's
not bad as multiuser MS-DOS look-alikes go.

One downside is that it has a lot of bugs.  I managed to crash it
pretty easily doing development on it (without even taking advantage
of the interprocess features).  The print queue software sucks eggs.
It will hang if a parallel port device is not enabled (ie the device
is on but not selected).  It gave me a lot of trouble when trying to
set up a ten user system.

I wouldn't go around saying "hey, DR-DOS 6 is written in assembler"
when you're trying to say that writing in assembler is good, because
DR-DOS 6 isn't very reliable just yet -- one of the major reasons to
use an HLL versus assembly.  (It's possible that DR has finally
released the patch that's supposed to fix a bunch of these problems
... they hadn't done so the last time I checked though.)

DR's "advanced programmer's" documentation wasn't exactly a shining
example of a well-written document either.  It took me quite some time
to figure out how to make use of the resource management stuff so that
it was possible to have users switch between different printers
easily.

DR-DOS 6 is interesting but it was released prematurely if you ask me.

>> Within the world of Kermit, we have frustrating cases of even small programs
>> that need worlds of conditionals to satisfy the bizarre variations floating
>> around the industry.

>Within the world of Kermit the latest release I've tried still runs on Xenix-
>286 (System III Xenix, not SCO), System V on the 386, System V on the 68000,
>and on the Sparc. I would take some convincing that this would be possible
>in any other language that's reasonably widely available, except maybe Fortran.

That's just the tip of the iceburg.  You really don't see many
machines Kermit *doesn't* run on.

jim frost
jimf@centerline.com
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:13087 alt.religion.computers:559 rec.humor:27022
From: dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com (Don Nichols (DoN.))
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.religion.computers,rec.humor
Subject: Re: Assembly joke
Date: 25 Aug 92 17:25:34 GMT
Organization: D and D Data, Vienna Virginia

In article <l9jfl8INN2ic@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> landauer@morocco.Eng.Sun.COM (Doug Landauer) writes:
>> What are:

	[ ... ]

>>     Assemblies of God!

	[ ... ]

>I would be surprised if fewer than 100,000 programmers have thought of
>jokes along these lines, but few of us (e.g., you and me) have poor
>enough taste to post them.  The one that had me concerned was on a
>church labeled the "Second Assembly of God".  I was assuming that it
>must have been an exceptionally large program, and wondered how many
>assembly errors were found when they tried the "First Assembly of
>God".  Then I was struck down by lightning.  Thank God I'm an atheist!

	On first noticing a sign for "Assembly of God", my first though was
"I didn't know that the deity came in source form."


-- 
Donald Nichols (DoN.)     | Voice (Days): (703) 704-2280 (Eves): (703) 938-4564
D&D Data                  |  Email: <dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com>
I said it - no one else   |         <nichols@nvl.army.mil>
	--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:13217 comp.unix.misc:3395
From: pw0l+@andrew.cmu.edu (Paul Christopher Workman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.misc
Subject: Re: The need for an assembler (was: Favorite CPU)
Date: 27 Aug 92 13:44:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.4ebInOW00WBN07AH9I
	<1992Aug26.182050.6957@merlin.dev.cdx.mot.com>
Organization: University Libraries - Technical Service, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA



>programming is a relatively minor part of a larger project.  The major parts
>are making sure that the requirements are OK, the different parts of
the design
>are consistent and accurately reflect the requirements, that the code
>accurately
>reflects the design, that the unit testing is complete, that bugs are actually
>fixed and not forgotten about, etc. etc. 

BRAVO!!!

Speaking more as a user than a programmer, I can say that the most
important parts in the creation of any software are understanding the
user's needs, anticipating possible problems with extensive use of
the software, and good, solid testing.  Not enough people seem to
realize that a 2-month system crash slows things down more than
a 0.02% decrease in program speed, or that a lousy interface can
slow daily work down more than the minor speed increase gained by
switching from one language to another (or whatever).

Of course, these sins can be committed by a committee of programs rather
than a single one, but that's another story.

--paul
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.misc