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, T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 6844 invoked from network); 9 Aug 2022 16:46:21 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 9 Aug 2022 16:46:21 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8EBFF40D3D; Wed, 10 Aug 2022 02:45:59 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail3.nightskyhosting.com (mail3.nightskyhosting.com [66.172.0.245]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 2E71C40D22 for ; Wed, 10 Aug 2022 02:45:55 +1000 (AEST) Received: from gaither.hsd1.az.comcast.net (c-76-18-124-133.hsd1.al.comcast.net [76.18.124.133]) by mail3.nightskyhosting.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 6CD8955C2790 for ; Tue, 9 Aug 2022 09:45:54 -0700 (PDT) From: "William H. Mitchell" Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 12.4 \(3445.104.11\)) Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2022 09:45:53 -0700 References: <1oF87S-4zW-00@marmaro.de> <8NgHeeJiYEBE0zhtd9RdKIeYWcAwtxsnAj7YhVIvLpz-yt0__LeFvVzNNGgSNTeDGnVQy-qxkoHWvmRi84ybYyNAiMRDJuVoAaEG96UAu4s=@protonmail.com> <20220724190253.GA23421@tau1.ceti.pl> <20220728003014.GB6195@tau1.ceti.pl> <202207280103.26S13ZL5059300@ultimate.com> <1E44D7CE-CC4D-4F86-97CC-208E3972A785@msweng.com> <20220729050748.GB12246@tau1.ceti.pl> To: tuhs@tuhs.org In-Reply-To: Message-Id: <444E7F34-EBFF-4BCD-9138-665BEB88B164@msweng.com> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3445.104.11) Message-ID-Hash: MW4TSYWJP3KROAKV7HSDBQU54NTPDLBQ X-Message-ID-Hash: MW4TSYWJP3KROAKV7HSDBQU54NTPDLBQ X-MailFrom: whm@msweng.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; header-match-tuhs.tuhs.org-0; 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: [TUHS] Re: SNOBOL and RATSNO List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: A cool thing you buy in those days was the full source code for SPITBOL, = on microfiche. I bought a copy and a number of my friends did, too. It = was really beautiful code. > On Aug 8, 2022, at 11:11 PM, Rob Pike wrote: >=20 > We're probably well off topic now but... >=20 > Many years ago I ran into Bob Dewar on a visit to Cambridge University = and we got to talking. He said that the original implementation of = SPITBOL, for the System/360, was in assembler (of course), and written = by him and Belcher (?). The story he told was that they wrote it all = down first, put it on punch cards, and sent it to the IBM machine. The = next day they got back a listing with a bunch of errors. They iterated. = By the fourth round=E2=80=94fifth day=E2=80=94they had a working = SPITBOL. >=20 > I still marvel at the productivity and precision of his generation of = programmers. >=20 > -rob