[TUHS] Stuart Feldman's EFL

[TUHS] Stuart Feldman's EFL

[arnold]

Hi.

EFL was definitely a part of BSD Unix.  But I don't see it in the V7
stuff in the TUHS archives.  When did it first appear?  Was it part
of 32V and I should look there?

It is definitely in the V8 and V10 stuff.

Did anyone actually use it?  I have the feeling that ratfor had already
caught on and spread far, and that it met people's needs, and so
EFL didn't really catch on that much, even though it provided more
features on top of Fortran.

Thanks,

Arnold

[TUHS] Re: Stuart Feldman's EFL

[Larry McVoy]

On Wed, Jul 06, 2022 at 12:16:31PM -0600, arnold@skeeve.com wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> EFL was definitely a part of BSD Unix.  But I don't see it in the V7
> stuff in the TUHS archives.  When did it first appear?  Was it part
> of 32V and I should look there?
> 
> It is definitely in the V8 and V10 stuff.
> 
> Did anyone actually use it?  I have the feeling that ratfor had already
> caught on and spread far, and that it met people's needs, and so
> EFL didn't really catch on that much, even though it provided more
> features on top of Fortran.

The only thing I see in tuhs.org:/var/www that is related is

./TUHS/Archive/Documentation/Manuals/Unix_4.0/Volume_1/D.2.3_EFL.pdf

but I'm still learning the layout on tuhs.org, might be somewhere else?

[TUHS] Re: Stuart Feldman's EFL

[Clem Cole]

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Arnold -- good memory.

It was in 4BSD (see disk1 of the McKusick disks) but it is not in 3BSD.  I
agree with you, it was not in V7  or 32v (but was in later BSD 2.9/10/11
releases). Frankly, I have memories of Ratfor in V7 on the PDP-11 [and used
as part of my thesis on the Vax].   IIRC to use ratfor on the 11, you
needed the V7addenda that had a bunch of F77 fixes.

I have memories of EFL and reading the doc.  But I have no memories of ever
using it - although Hilfinger may have talked about it in the UCB
grad comparative languages seminar maybe in 81/82 timeframe (my memory is
hazy - I know it was there that Paul was the one that taught me to not
hate Ada so much and understand why Ada was like it was).  What I can not
place is where I first saw EFL.  My WAG would be UCB.

FWIW:   Stu did a sabbatical at UCB when I was a grad student.   I'm going
to guess maybe he brought it with him during that time.

On Wed, Jul 6, 2022 at 2:16 PM <arnold@skeeve.com> wrote:

> Hi.
>
> EFL was definitely a part of BSD Unix.  But I don't see it in the V7
> stuff in the TUHS archives.  When did it first appear?  Was it part
> of 32V and I should look there?
>
> It is definitely in the V8 and V10 stuff.
>
> Did anyone actually use it?  I have the feeling that ratfor had already
> caught on and spread far, and that it met people's needs, and so
> EFL didn't really catch on that much, even though it provided more
> features on top of Fortran.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Arnold
>

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[TUHS] Re: Stuart Feldman's EFL

[Skip Tavakkolian]

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In mid 80's I worked at Microrim for a short time. There was an effort to
port R:Base (in Fortran) to Unix (especially Xenix). There was a Fortune
Systems 32:16 machine running For:Pro (v7). It had EFL. I vaguely recall a
discussion about going the Fortran->EFL->(might be easier to port to)->C
route. I was there to help, but was a greenhorn and way in over my head.

On Wed, Jul 6, 2022, 11:17 AM <arnold@skeeve.com> wrote:

> Hi.
>
> EFL was definitely a part of BSD Unix.  But I don't see it in the V7
> stuff in the TUHS archives.  When did it first appear?  Was it part
> of 32V and I should look there?
>
> It is definitely in the V8 and V10 stuff.
>
> Did anyone actually use it?  I have the feeling that ratfor had already
> caught on and spread far, and that it met people's needs, and so
> EFL didn't really catch on that much, even though it provided more
> features on top of Fortran.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Arnold
>

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[TUHS] Re: Stuart Feldman's EFL

[arnold]

Larry McVoy <lm@mcvoy.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 06, 2022 at 12:16:31PM -0600, arnold@skeeve.com wrote:
> > Hi.
> > 
> > EFL was definitely a part of BSD Unix.  But I don't see it in the V7
> > stuff in the TUHS archives.  When did it first appear?  Was it part
> > of 32V and I should look there?
> > 
> > It is definitely in the V8 and V10 stuff.
> > 
> > Did anyone actually use it?  I have the feeling that ratfor had already
> > caught on and spread far, and that it met people's needs, and so
> > EFL didn't really catch on that much, even though it provided more
> > features on top of Fortran.
>
> The only thing I see in tuhs.org:/var/www that is related is
>
> ./TUHS/Archive/Documentation/Manuals/Unix_4.0/Volume_1/D.2.3_EFL.pdf
>
> but I'm still learning the layout on tuhs.org, might be somewhere else?

It's in /usr/src/cmd/efl in the V8 and V10 trees and IIRC in
/usr/src/usr.bin/efl in the 4.3 BSD tree.

It helps to have a local copy of the archive (obtainable via rsync)
to browse locally.

Arnold