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=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 13167 invoked from network); 11 Sep 2022 15:32:06 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 11 Sep 2022 15:32:06 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B237F428FA; Mon, 12 Sep 2022 01:31:31 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail-qk1-f182.google.com (mail-qk1-f182.google.com [209.85.222.182]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 66490428F9 for ; Mon, 12 Sep 2022 01:31:27 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mail-qk1-f182.google.com with SMTP id h28so4537762qka.0 for ; Sun, 11 Sep 2022 08:31:27 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=iitbombay-org.20210112.gappssmtp.com; s=20210112; h=to:references:message-id:content-transfer-encoding:cc:date :in-reply-to:from:subject:mime-version:from:to:cc:subject:date; bh=e1u6q1KgOX2G3jnP4cz27PHA6DP5f4TC3rabUSpKAG0=; b=Qi8KCeZjYfAw+cri0creBMFMUNpJGhaxvuDIH3FP3sZGUWUtpEZpi3mnU3dPayx6+B NThYgILMd8Gkfm183d/OlQuHBzof+wn3wnm9PXSHc6hoikD1lowuAQGiMjZ3hE9RWVP9 jBYuq9GVqAw+h8gQX355xqBHODNsafLRQIZSlI3i38lKExn1MXBL5xUqSK5uKFuL/8Xp ynF3swY4d54emzaKSuEOOj8C7ohI5AXYtKFl+eCGESQvUgmLMOyZDk41H4LOHgvPvZx4 Rq34QdhJ105bnBvzx55CXuOlOJcMnIgBEVq6uj0bMYKCBbTfhMN+kP40u2hMK5NbwLxT ZcBw== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20210112; h=to:references:message-id:content-transfer-encoding:cc:date :in-reply-to:from:subject:mime-version:x-gm-message-state:from:to:cc :subject:date; bh=e1u6q1KgOX2G3jnP4cz27PHA6DP5f4TC3rabUSpKAG0=; b=YEnlghpKExLUTtROUneiEgbVPN1FdFnMcS2GELtlPwZsCWprB/wo+yKneGZNK98p/v 0i1jMJOCJJ60drzmrv0zaMKevdVqGqa6SFodc8fne241EnwxrPky572o+1yoj6E0ug6Q 5C51QaXYPx1BEQv97da4QDSwsOcwcT2wZAx7IHrSf4TIQMDBRm8JthPc8nHJw67rZYOA S1qWXuJrOsof3P4HB/rgIfCH+2IqcBmHyGYNI2DXDJ34nhuRQxAR3v4fYVCPlE3wwWSL kXV9kfa0zbYI5W3Ji4peri+WwtxC1X50kyqdOMOrq7Pd1R1CxLniMsqhAlMJ5UfPLA7K XgzA== X-Gm-Message-State: ACgBeo2UUD6skXlGbKD0cK24Tbg6Qp91pDsKjk2l8RpGtJ5d3QCJZRos iTNezbDVWa/mSN1IbFto//z3+Q== X-Google-Smtp-Source: AA6agR6bmikHR+uIxLZ8Hln4VZXbxEiGYZ5pN8KCjBBRKbKMfOeSlD3PLbHpVnPT2JMjhLruCda6vA== X-Received: by 2002:a05:620a:14aa:b0:6cb:e3a2:311b with SMTP id x10-20020a05620a14aa00b006cbe3a2311bmr10202980qkj.266.1662910226559; Sun, 11 Sep 2022 08:30:26 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtpclient.apple (107-215-223-229.lightspeed.sntcca.sbcglobal.net. [107.215.223.229]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id u17-20020a05622a199100b003422c7ccbc5sm4753585qtc.59.2022.09.11.08.30.25 (version=TLS1_2 cipher=ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 bits=128/128); Sun, 11 Sep 2022 08:30:26 -0700 (PDT) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 16.0 \(3696.120.41.1.1\)) From: Bakul Shah In-Reply-To: Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2022 08:30:25 -0700 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: <45A8556C-CAFE-420A-8571-974B9D67D436@iitbombay.org> References: To: Douglas McIlroy X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3696.120.41.1.1) Message-ID-Hash: 7OSFMONWZIGUITYJYUF6I3LW7DB47RP7 X-Message-ID-Hash: 7OSFMONWZIGUITYJYUF6I3LW7DB47RP7 X-MailFrom: bakul@iitbombay.org 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 CC: TUHS main list X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Does anybody know the etymology of the term "word" as in collection of bits? List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: On Sep 11, 2022, at 6:30 AM, Douglas McIlroy = wrote: >=20 > [Algol 68's presupposition is visible in declarations like "long long > long ... int". An implementation need support only a limited number of > "longs", but each supported variety must have a definite maximum > value, which is returned by an "environment enquiry" function. For > amusement, consider the natural idea of implementing the longest > variety with bignums.] It would be natural to use a Kleene star to represent an arbitrarily long string of LONGs -- "long* int" -- though AFAIK Algol68 doesn't do bignums. Weirdly even most 21st century progamming languages do not provide built-in support for bignums! C's INT_MAX, LONG_MAX etc are kind of an environment enquiry...=