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 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 17261 invoked from network); 30 Apr 2022 10:53:47 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 30 Apr 2022 10:53:47 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id A11BA9CF5F; Sat, 30 Apr 2022 20:53:40 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 546A99CF09; Sat, 30 Apr 2022 20:51:15 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 3DBEF9CF09; Sat, 30 Apr 2022 20:51:11 +1000 (AEST) X-Greylist: delayed 316 seconds by postgrey-1.36 at minnie.tuhs.org; Sat, 30 Apr 2022 20:51:04 AEST Received: from relay05.pair.com (relay05.pair.com [216.92.24.67]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 48EC09CF04 for ; Sat, 30 Apr 2022 20:51:04 +1000 (AEST) Received: from orac.inputplus.co.uk (unknown [87.112.46.167]) by relay05.pair.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id E746D1A2660 for ; Sat, 30 Apr 2022 06:45:46 -0400 (EDT) Received: from orac.inputplus.co.uk (orac.inputplus.co.uk [IPv6:::1]) by orac.inputplus.co.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1C13022135 for ; Sat, 30 Apr 2022 11:45:46 +0100 (BST) To: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org From: Ralph Corderoy MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-reply-to: References: Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2022 11:45:46 +0100 Message-Id: <20220430104546.1C13022135@orac.inputplus.co.uk> Subject: [TUHS] Aleph Null in Software Practice & Experience. 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: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" Hi, Alan Glasser wrote: > > Darwin, the original game of predation and self-reproduction among > > programs. ... > And who doesn't remember SP&E Aleph Null articles? Doug has made the letter from him, Bob Morris, and Vic Vyssotsky to Software Practice & Experience which introduces Darwin available at https://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~doug/darwin.pdf. The letter is addressed to C. A. Lang but accompanied by a note that Lang isn't א₀. http://bit-player.org/2013/who-was-aleph-null wonders if א₀ and side-kick Archimedes ‘might have been members of the Bell Labs gang that was so lively and prolific in the late 60s and early 70s’ before acknowledging the Darwin article rules it out. After a false start suspecting Lang, foiled by Doug's PDF of the letter, it goes on to finally identify א₀ as Brit Richard Parkins who explains how it came about on his own page at http://www.zen224037.zen.co.uk/SPE.shtml. Reading the front page of Parkins' site, http://www.zen224037.zen.co.uk, I see he ‘learnt his craft’ by programming assembler when at Cambridge, on the country's first PDP-7 which he was allowed to use by Lang and Neil Wiseman. Unusually, it had a separate graphics processor driving a 1024²-pixel monochrome display. Soon after, Parkins went on to build a graphics card for the Data General Nova which drove a flat screen storage tube before Tektronix released the 4010. The story is buried in http://www.zen224037.zen.co.uk/History.shtml. -- Cheers, Ralph.