Computerphool confessions

[mansr]

7 hours ago, wgscott said:

Drawin (OS X) is a variant of BSD unix.

That's not really accurate. The kernel is completely different, for starters. Some of the userspace tooling is taken from BSD, but the core system bits are not. OS X even uses its own executable format, Mach-O. Every other Unix-like system uses ELF or ECOFF. OS X is about as close to BSD as Cygwin is to Linux.

[pkane2001]

13 hours ago, mansr said:

 

Had a gentleman working for me a long time ago. Brilliant. He blamed bugs in his code on sun-spot activity. He would not accept that his code could possibly be incorrect. Any unexpected behavior could only be due to some unusual external circumstances and sun-spots was his go-to explanation.  Would've been funny if he was not completely serious about this.

 

[accwai]

9 minutes ago, mansr said:

That's not really accurate. The kernel is completely different, for starters. Some of the userspace tooling is taken from BSD, but the core system bits are not. OS X even uses its own executable format, Mach-O. Every other Unix-like system uses ELF or ECOFF. OS X is about as close to BSD as Cygwin is to Linux.

 

Darwin's kernel is supposed to be a combination of Mach 2.5 and BSD 4.3. It's been like that since the NeXT Computer days, before the whole thing turns into the Apple that we know now.

[mansr]

1 minute ago, accwai said:

Darwin's kernel is supposed to be a combination of Mach 2.5 and BSD 4.3. It's been like that since the NeXT Computer days, before the whole thing turns into the Apple that we know now.

Windows also includes some BSD networking code, or at least it used to.

[wgscott]

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AUnix_history-simple.svg

[Samuel T Cogley]

3 hours ago, mansr said:

Windows also includes some BSD networking code, or at least it used to.

 

Windows NT had much in common with VMS.

 

TABLE 1: VMS and NT Terminology Translations
VMS Term	NT Translation
Interrupt Priority Level (IPL)	Interrupt Request Level (IRQL)
Asynchronous System Trap (AST)	Asynchronous Procedure Call (APC)
Fork Procedure	Deferred Procedure Call (DPC)
I/O Request Packet (IRP)	I/O Request Packet (IRP)
Bug Check	Bug Check
System Service	System Service
sys.exe	ntoskrnl.exe
Paged Pool	Paged Pool
Nonpaged Pool	Nonpaged Pool
Look aside List	Look aside List
Section	Section

[Ralf11]

Windows NT had much in common with VMS because MSFT hired a bunch of VAXers to build NT.  I met them on the slopes of Mt. St. Helens once, years ago.

[mansr]

34 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

Windows NT had much in common with VMS because MSFT hired a bunch of VAXers to build NT.  I met them on the slopes of Mt. St. Helens once, years ago.

Sadly, they left the legendary VMS stability behind.

[Lebouwsky]

1. I considder myself a computer audiophile

2. Yet 95% of these 3 pages of confessions is complete Spanish to me

3. After reading this I still considder myself .....nah never mind, I’ll just buy a better clock or power supply.

[Ralf11]

1 hour ago, mansr said:

Sadly, they left the legendary VMS stability behind.

 

 

perhaps due to the need to deal with legacy 'systems'

 

Stephen Jay Gould wrote a very interesting essay on this problem, linking genetics, typewriter keyboards and computers.  The Panda's Thumb of Technology. Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1991, Chapter 4.

 

I don't think it is on the web, but commentary & cite here:

https://www.uh.edu/engines/epi719.htm

 

The book of essays is well worth reading.

[phosphorein]

3 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

Windows NT had much in common with VMS because MSFT hired a bunch of VAXers to build NT.  I met them on the slopes of Mt. St. Helens once, years ago.

 

I seem to remember that DOS had some aspects of RT11 as well. 

[jerico]

I triple boot MacOS/Arch Linux/Win10.

 

I also use zsh (and oh-my-zsh) on MacOS and Linux.

 

Homebrew on MacOS.

 

Miniconda on all 3.

 

I actually like Win10!

[mansr]

3 minutes ago, jerico said:

I actually like Win10!

I like Win 10 better than most other versions. Wouldn't want to do any real work on it though.

[jerico]

I'm doing a online masters, and the Adobe Connect crap that I need for classes is the most stable on Win10 (and horrid on MacOS), so a necessary OS at the moment. Just surprised I like it so much. And the Linux subsystem stuff is cool (if you install an X server too).

 

Still wish I could live in Linux (with a tiling W) though!

 

[rn701]

Have coded a little Assembly (only when no other option) on four or five different architectures.  Have coded in FORTRAN, COBOL, C, various BASIC dialects, on paper tape, punched cards, "diskettes." Was a mainframe systems programmer with keys to the kingdom. I have booted (IPL) a mainframe from punched cards. I have patched core memory from lights and toggle switches on the front panel. Have operated computers that had no keyboard/console, just the aforementioned toggles and lights and a few buttons and dials. 

 

Now I just use Windows to surf and listen to music. Life is too short.