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_ADSP_CUSTOM_MED, DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED,FREEMAIL_FROM,MAILING_LIST_MULTI, T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 10346 invoked from network); 10 Sep 2022 01:36:40 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 10 Sep 2022 01:36:40 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 09D73428AC; Sat, 10 Sep 2022 11:36:34 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail-yb1-f177.google.com (mail-yb1-f177.google.com [209.85.219.177]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 783914289F for ; Sat, 10 Sep 2022 11:36:29 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mail-yb1-f177.google.com with SMTP id b136so5117519yba.2 for ; Fri, 09 Sep 2022 18:36:29 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20210112; h=cc:to:subject:message-id:date:from:references:in-reply-to :mime-version:from:to:cc:subject:date; bh=lSn3K2p2fn++g1NycX8p0wRi0wyrb0Utpncy2UUQ+g4=; b=avJMylbaXXqiRb4qWIfrGL3AGlf2sFHWuW1s5Gj6gc3FcEqjqWQcSltqwOsG+87i4v XbA4xSFrwExPbMdP+t/RAZrBEy1sAgM9YClv7BbA9AgHVyQIPDYLZctSTcnNWBdqPKPK QZEJhRVQLvz8iyh/xVYb1A1iD0OPvMiYLCxQWivlqxIimlgEgmy6QSqVMQ25mNX1mIh9 7vyoo9p1Zlczkc4sST/bkPSeShThjNeKFZYMpW2w4LGfd775PoEkPWG13l40SnooUswK S8kRO80+SDC3uMH2CUjMbA3FYavxMZQxLgjeHRub0OhX3xsG2kvg94q6tUZbvKa+YiBy h1Sw== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20210112; h=cc:to:subject:message-id:date:from:references:in-reply-to :mime-version:x-gm-message-state:from:to:cc:subject:date; bh=lSn3K2p2fn++g1NycX8p0wRi0wyrb0Utpncy2UUQ+g4=; b=sdB4FSPh2F5UFkLQiA8huDGgKnN5dc3t4WlHFTO+tYzEKOqOyISvWZPTuN0om+hxte QftT2TdDuFNazONrOxwgCw9gOyqEjltaY2v+/oPF0eTMEoZscV8jZzi6NpDnKxS+giX8 s6zEY7kCk8Ng3XRF3lwPHWyA36UZIQAar9k08rO9HDMWHd8v4cr032Lqqoq4u552kUsn mkJMAT7PCQn5s3bilya5Fy18kEFapsYi5Cv6C4+vcWudNDYFM7+Y7nORj668AMD3gkRN t/Tv9SKKSMVRdKFlNeDy6TMrBQbxuIopKqLU7mQbcDqObzLZ49jntNe6mcUmYPnDdD1N a8ww== X-Gm-Message-State: ACgBeo11EtqPhwB+Yz2wrbfy2R7O34MPG/SLTSYr1q1fr21FxhQg9vo1 el4ytTAS6f+YeeTJb3tAfASMlgF9oqpG0qfNPzk3O46s X-Google-Smtp-Source: AA6agR5Zd7pOWZzOrqaTMrzqucFxFyIrKXYgHZWaFzY7EPcRndlfFfOFcLp3xfxV05SQNcthKmTwNE40sQ9NcxqEpcI= X-Received: by 2002:a25:e649:0:b0:6a9:18d9:3a19 with SMTP id d70-20020a25e649000000b006a918d93a19mr14441450ybh.551.1662773728747; Fri, 09 Sep 2022 18:35:28 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 2002:a05:7000:660d:0:0:0:0 with HTTP; Fri, 9 Sep 2022 18:35:28 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: From: Paul Winalski Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2022 21:35:28 -0400 Message-ID: To: Norman Wilson Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Message-ID-Hash: ASS2I7B2W4UYRYCEWWEEGROI5S4ABUCC X-Message-ID-Hash: ASS2I7B2W4UYRYCEWWEEGROI5S4ABUCC X-MailFrom: paul.winalski@gmail.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 CC: tuhs@tuhs.org 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 9/9/22, Norman Wilson wrote: > > IThe DEC-10 had `byte pointers' as well as > (36-bit) word addresses. A byte pointer comprised an address, > a starting bit within the addressed word, and a length. > There were instructions to load and store an addressed byte > to or from a register, and to do same while incrementing > the pointer to the next byte, wrapping the start of the next > word if the remainder of the current word was too small. > (Bytes couldn't span word boundaries.) That very closely resembles a field-reference expression in BLISS, which has the syntax: addr where: addr is an expression whose value is the address of the BLISS word containing the field start is an expression whose value is the stating offset within that word of the field len is an expression giving the length of the field in bits ext is an expression whose value is either 0 0r 1 that tells how to pad out the field to a full BLISS word size It's probably no accident that BLISS field expressions match this feature of the DEC-10 hardware. -Paul W.