From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.6 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_SIGNED,DKIM_VALID, DKIM_VALID_AU,FREEMAIL_FORGED_FROMDOMAIN,FREEMAIL_FROM, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 4d966efe for ; Sun, 17 Nov 2019 22:47:13 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id EA39C9C5E9; Mon, 18 Nov 2019 08:47:11 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7FC619C12A; Mon, 18 Nov 2019 08:46:38 +1000 (AEST) Authentication-Results: minnie.tuhs.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key; unprotected) header.d=gmail.com header.i=@gmail.com header.b="nQhyYxpH"; dkim-atps=neutral Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id A89419C12A; Mon, 18 Nov 2019 08:46:35 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail-pg1-f181.google.com (mail-pg1-f181.google.com [209.85.215.181]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id D20CC9C123 for ; Mon, 18 Nov 2019 08:46:34 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mail-pg1-f181.google.com with SMTP id e6so675875pgi.11 for ; Sun, 17 Nov 2019 14:46:34 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=from:subject:to:references:message-id:date:user-agent:mime-version :in-reply-to:content-transfer-encoding:content-language; bh=QColwstKKUT8dtjwx3C8lPQpZm4pbfAadyWWbPYQ6Zc=; b=nQhyYxpH95/tGiKMThBRKOrPbAtgMB6dDW4BOk/Ji+9FcKy5rz5pAQ8T7Y+C7kAixK z60RxTAyPDyiZ9JyiqQbiJGrWgk8yINDZWYCJeSRqwhHe2ycYSh7NF1h8TN9QaBpYqG/ kTJJcM0HmRu82+Nybj0MI4XdHMX4YnK2UO5UXibZT4/6i3zDVdjFqLDT+meRlodBgKZz lG3fn62Jw3lhnRlcaliq+RbOXI14SF/uPdC9muq302VywpGayuz+hRRaZzmh34Z30ODM NnbPCByo+nzsRQD79G6IiowA2Bpp4BgihOXLolp7m+mQW4CU1duZvFpWXDbkRAdVRQ/c 0a3w== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:from:subject:to:references:message-id:date :user-agent:mime-version:in-reply-to:content-transfer-encoding :content-language; bh=QColwstKKUT8dtjwx3C8lPQpZm4pbfAadyWWbPYQ6Zc=; b=D4MzqhnlCBOkk9GnTvoDVS8k0Za1Bib5mH6aLl7LS7S1y5jsUTiGp/HT++8e6JXxAh BWMiPgh2C9V7L4W4hflRuBS+Fgcjdr3Ws3ypFG6KfziDCBiqVkZs/I/qeEIEMGHQ5Pu/ UTgi0mMQbSlL+4cN0QYS4rmOBUbpjyCHIhpJOyuh0eETaprqm62aIsAX1GKl4P6yfLqx YSH/Yjy8OeRSTG/l/HK7MamIXom8xLPLxqufCoHopWQrVAZKCJ9HFVCn9ZeX6fF2omU4 dvT+cOietUey23duIf7sLrM8YGt7OyPp10h9CsffqwxVAGv3UVTf29CrO8J/vvlgwf7y ZvBg== X-Gm-Message-State: APjAAAVMTsZbKRNi2+35uEc/nJxmQFOxiUyDphvzCVtDfYlLgFkpIEAR eQUIgCKlb4sDnhW1T9+/3vTP7gTdF7I= X-Google-Smtp-Source: APXvYqwVaceGiTuy1zv/PKqjHu/nkDHrKwRIp1VbcnvJu8OJl97K1e1wr6Wu8R0VLuncW93HSI4kgg== X-Received: by 2002:aa7:8815:: with SMTP id c21mr30207286pfo.66.1574030794158; Sun, 17 Nov 2019 14:46:34 -0800 (PST) Received: from [10.90.0.62] ([104.238.46.183]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id a34sm17890287pgl.56.2019.11.17.14.46.32 for (version=TLS1_2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 bits=128/128); Sun, 17 Nov 2019 14:46:33 -0800 (PST) From: Barry Stanly X-Google-Original-From: Barry Stanly To: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org References: <201911112110.xABLAQfW004396@skeeve.com> <20191111223129.GB23273@mit.edu> <20191117055058.GB23794@mcvoy.com> <20191117181235.AE91A156E80B@mail.bitblocks.com> Message-ID: <624204f4-e484-85c8-f6d6-c29cdfc90a19@gmail.com> Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2019 14:46:32 -0800 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/60.9.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20191117181235.AE91A156E80B@mail.bitblocks.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Language: en-US Subject: Re: [TUHS] History of m6? 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" Just a note: (I am new to this list and find the history revealed fascinating, so thank you all for insights.) There is an interesting paper on symbolic formula manipulation: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0367/25f0abfd88879dd88d77e3a5e51915db5f1b.pdf There is also a symbolic Python library: https://www.sympy.org/en/index.html On 11/17/2019 10:12 AM, Bakul Shah wrote: > On Sat, 16 Nov 2019 21:50:58 -0800 Larry McVoy wrote: > Larry McVoy writes: >> On Sun, Nov 17, 2019 at 04:30:15PM +1100, Dave Horsfall wrote: >>> On Sat, 16 Nov 2019, SPC wrote: >>> >>>> My first FORTRAN textbook was titled "FORTRAN with WATFOR and WATFIV". It >>>> had a long print run as well. >>> Now *that* brings back memories (not necessarily pleasant). WATFOR was as >>> ugly as sin >> I'm pretty sure that was the Fortran I learned. Yeah, it was not C. But >> it was math. I spent a bunch of time learning accumulated errors and >> more time on floating point numbers. My dad was a theoretical physics >> guy so I did some coding for him. I respected Fortran for what it could >> do but I developed a hate for floating point. In my mind, floating >> point numbers meant you couldn't handle the world you were working in. >> It just felt like you could shift the domain you were working in so >> integers could work. If you couldn't do that, you were admitting that >> you were not accurate. > Many numbers can't be represented perfectly using integers or > rationals (a pair of integers) but can be computed using a > series expansion to arbitrary precision. I thought FP numbers > were a clever & practical compromise that worked quite well. > David Goldberg's "What every computer scientist should know > about floating-point" is worth reading. > > https://www.itu.dk/~sestoft/bachelor/IEEE754_article.pdf > > Earlier I remember reading the "Numerical Recipes" books by > Press, Teukolsky, Vetterling & Flannery. IIRC, the original > version used Fortran. They also had versions using Pascal and > C (I finally bought the C version in '80s though never used it). > > Note that Scheme & CL have a full complement of numeric types: > big nums, rationals, reals and complex numbers. At least some > versions of CL have arbitrary precision FP numbers. > > What I really want is a programming language with support for > symbolic manipulation of formulas! >