From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: jrvalverde@cnb.csic.es (Jose R. Valverde) Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2017 17:59:55 +0200 Subject: SGI Software Usability II (IRIX 5.1 memo) In-Reply-To: <20171012140021.GK17135@mcvoy.com> References: <20171012130443.2s7xnhughyj5667s@saucer.turnde.net> <20171012140021.GK17135@mcvoy.com> Message-ID: <20171013175955.71cd06bf@cnb.csic.es> Talking out of memory, but I still remember hacking the system to make it work. We had bought two SGI systems, a large one (a Power Challenge) with 16 CPUs and 768MB and an Indy with 16MB. Each had its own version of the system. We also had several Indigos to which I had access. The Indy wouldn't boot correctly or fail miserably very soon after booting after I had installed a number of FLOSS software packages on it. I don't remember what triggered the problem, some kind of interaction with the hardware. So I took to the header files and assembler code that came with the system, deduced what each parameter meant and, from that what the original code should have looked like to explain the behaviour, then compared with the (meager) code for the other systems, and came up with a patch that would ensure that the system would boot and run without crashing. So, yes, as shipped 5.1 was unusable on an Indy. I have looked to see if I still keep the patches around, but it was so long ago that I can't find anything from the date (and besides, I've switched through many other systems since). j It allowed me to work fairly well until 5.3. On Thu, 12 Oct 2017 07:00:21 -0700 Larry McVoy wrote: > I strongly suspect it was true, Tom Davis was an SGI employee as > were the other people mentioned. > > On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 02:04:43PM +0100, Michael-John Turner wrote: > > Hi, > > > > I came across this on Lobsters[1] today and thought it may be of > > interest to the list: > > http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/unix-haters/tirix/embarrassing-memo.html > > > > It appears to be an internal SGI memo that's rather critical of > > IRIX 5.1. Does anyone know if it's true? > > > > [1] https://lobste.rs/ > > > > Cheers, MJ > > -- > > Michael-John Turner * mj at mjturner.net * http://mjturner.net/ > > -- > --- > Larry McVoy lm at mcvoy.com > http://www.mcvoy.com/lm -- Scientific Computing Service Solving all your computer needs for Scientific Research. http://bioportal.cnb.csic.es