From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 22756 invoked from network); 19 Jun 2021 23:15:37 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 19 Jun 2021 23:15:37 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 0736493DC0; Sun, 20 Jun 2021 09:15:36 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 18A7A93DBB; Sun, 20 Jun 2021 09:14:38 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 66BDB93DBB; Sun, 20 Jun 2021 09:14:36 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mcvoy.com (mcvoy.com [192.169.23.250]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 730A493D62 for ; Sun, 20 Jun 2021 09:14:35 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mcvoy.com (Postfix, from userid 3546) id CA22B35E0AE; Sat, 19 Jun 2021 16:14:34 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2021 16:14:34 -0700 From: Larry McVoy To: Clem Cole Message-ID: <20210619231434.GK13979@mcvoy.com> References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.24 (2015-08-30) Subject: Re: [TUHS] Disassemblers X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" Rob: "it was arcane but remarkably powerful" Pretty much sums it up. Wasn't your friend when you were a newbie, was really your friend once you got to know it. On Sat, Jun 19, 2021 at 06:55:07PM -0400, Clem Cole wrote: > Ah -- if it was adb you redid, no doubt of its power. I used adb for a > long time -- PDP-11/VAX/68K but as you said, you could learn a lot about > your system. FWIW: we embedded adb into RTU, calling it kdb. We didn't > have no fancy VMs to run the system under, when it halted, it halted. On > a personal machine that was not a problem and adb/kdb was very cool. > > Clem > > On Sat, Jun 19, 2021 at 5:50 PM Rob Pike wrote: > > > Although upon reflection, I think what I did was fix 'adb' and call it > > 'db'. Haven't had my coffee yet this morning. > > > > -rob > > > > > > On Sun, Jun 20, 2021 at 7:49 AM Rob Pike wrote: > > > >> For v8 or thereabouts, I spent some time fixing some fundamental bugs in > >> db and found that it was arcane but remarkably powerful. Since it was lower > >> level, it avoided the endemic debugging problem of misleading you about > >> your program: All it could do was tell you what the machine was doing. > >> (Cdb, sdb, and adb were, at least in my experience, always lying to you.) I > >> may be the only person who appreciated db fully. Once the bugs were gone > >> you really could use it to good effect, as long as you understood the CPU. > >> > >> But it was buggy and arcane, no question about that. > >> > >> -rob > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> On Sun, Jun 20, 2021 at 6:46 AM Richard Salz wrote: > >> > >>> I remember compiling and playing Langston's "empire" that I was told > >>> came from a decompiled executable. This was in the 4.2 days. > >>> > >> -- --- Larry McVoy lm at mcvoy.com http://www.mcvoy.com/lm