From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [50.116.15.146]) by inbox.vuxu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F08DE22158 for ; Wed, 10 Apr 2024 03:42:47 +0200 (CEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D183F41690; Wed, 10 Apr 2024 11:42:45 +1000 (AEST) Received: from exhmta06.bpe.bigpond.com (exhmta06.bpe.bigpond.com [203.42.40.150]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 64E7E4168C for ; Wed, 10 Apr 2024 11:42:38 +1000 (AEST) Received: from exhprdcmr01 by exhprdomr06 with esmtp (envelope-from ) id 1ruMyz-000GoL-0v for coff@tuhs.org; Wed, 10 Apr 2024 11:42:36 +1000 Received: from [110.141.193.233] (helo=aneurin.horsfall.org) by exhprdcmr01 with esmtp (envelope-from ) id 1ruMyy-0006RM-0G for coff@tuhs.org; Wed, 10 Apr 2024 11:42:36 +1000 Received: from aneurin.horsfall.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by aneurin.horsfall.org (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTP id 43A1gX05074284 for ; Wed, 10 Apr 2024 11:42:34 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from dave@horsfall.org) Received: from localhost (dave@localhost) by aneurin.horsfall.org (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) with ESMTP id 43A1gWYD074281 for ; Wed, 10 Apr 2024 11:42:32 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from dave@horsfall.org) X-Authentication-Warning: aneurin.horsfall.org: dave owned process doing -bs Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2024 11:42:30 +1000 (EST) From: Dave Horsfall To: Computer Old Farts Followers In-Reply-To: <3B54EC8E-D96B-4C2E-8931-D4E3AF276F9B@msweng.com> Message-ID: References: <1d3f129c-eafe-4fb2-9ea2-d949f3813c88@technologists.com> <3c9d8682-1761-dd35-b101-b5aff46288ca@riddermarkfarm.ca> <3B54EC8E-D96B-4C2E-8931-D4E3AF276F9B@msweng.com> User-Agent: Alpine 2.21.9999 (BSF 287 2018-06-16) X-GPG-Public-Key: http://www.horsfall.org/gpgkey.pub X-GPG-Fingerprint: 05B4 FFBC 0218 B438 66E0 587B EF46 7357 EF5E F58B X-Home-Page: http://www.horsfall.org/ X-Witty-Saying: "chmod 666 the_mode_of_the_beast" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII X-tce-ares-id: e{b0f78f90-e0bd-442e-9c11-672813f8268e}1 X-tce-spam-action: no action X-tce-spam-score: 0.0 X-Cm-Analysis: v=2.4 cv=IdaBW3qa c=1 sm=1 tr=0 ts=6615ee8c a=tp40vz5QK/dVXQmd7GLw7w==:117 a=tp40vz5QK/dVXQmd7GLw7w==:17 a=kj9zAlcOel0A:10 a=raytVjVEu-sA:10 a=D5cEMc5Yk5ArqnMpi2sA:9 a=CjuIK1q_8ugA:10 X-Cm-Envelope: MS4xfKwDswsuH+PTGcvPbk366vx85PRNfo7PRowBRvPv73XE4BdX9DPf4lzeWskIYkTlZZcMlacR2pUD/xlhlIZNVpXf3Z6QpvFIiGitLNLW94ONU5PjSQk1 Je6SPwtR/yGc66NVQSeaOMphAEvFeeEHse1b6qe4UqWCfiIqKGWQJmQW Message-ID-Hash: SRRYNSPYLDAWD3VGFVXP2ZKKGKZXGX4V X-Message-ID-Hash: SRRYNSPYLDAWD3VGFVXP2ZKKGKZXGX4V X-MailFrom: dave@horsfall.org X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [COFF] Re: SNOBOL, ICEBOL, SPITBOL, et al. List-Id: Computer Old Farts Forum Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: On Tue, 9 Apr 2024, William H. Mitchell wrote: > Re ICEBOL, there were lots of playful names for SNOBOL4 implementations. > FASBOL, SITBOL and surely SPITBOL come to mind. Ahh... SPITBOL... We used it at UNSW, but it came with a time bomb i.e. the licence had to be renewed every so often. So, me being me I took a hex dump and patched the expiry date with Superzap. Well, it sort of worked... The compiler would then crash at random for no apparent reason, so I took a closer look; it turned out that there was more than one check on the expiry date, and took a jump to whatever random "address" was in R0 (I think). OK then; playing silly games are we? I wrote a program that LOADed SPITBOL into memory, and scanned it for anything that looked like that expiry date, and printing them (nicely formatted, of course). After checking the context there were about a dozen of them, and I patched the lot; it worked fine after that... For that effort Dr. Graham McMahon (another of my CompSci lecturers) gave me the "Superzap of the Year" award :-) -- Dave