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=-0.5 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_ADSP_CUSTOM_MED, DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED,FREEMAIL_FORGED_FROMDOMAIN,FREEMAIL_FROM, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,HTML_MESSAGE,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 9787a759 for ; Wed, 28 Nov 2018 14:46:21 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 4747FA1CF0; Thu, 29 Nov 2018 00:46:20 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 43770A1CE5; Thu, 29 Nov 2018 00:45:36 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id A8D07A1CE2; Thu, 29 Nov 2018 00:45:27 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail-qt1-f179.google.com (mail-qt1-f179.google.com [209.85.160.179]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 92CC8A1CE1 for ; Thu, 29 Nov 2018 00:45:21 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mail-qt1-f179.google.com with SMTP id d19so26039174qtq.9 for ; Wed, 28 Nov 2018 06:45:21 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc; bh=yJN0AJPv+1fdsaht1t0vjI75sErC0vlv8GrV3jkej2c=; b=ZgMYYB6e0H0HA3ekMhb2j/qexFObpsDoC5J+cl8vmZHCkq+2YZRMpALv70SVBxUl1L Xatz2xXxL7c54xNGEDeiOGpmcwCEF/3rnipD7e3BgANsvkDCZ6qZNEdQ9aa2vzWuoOaP QL6toC8Zg1rjCCBHEvhQoHm30ZM6LbO+nIbPV7Y0l4jHT5I7lvyIQW4lA9ldxPULrDBs p7+XDZEcovNMKqlrvWcVpJwbVIRAUawqkTrqiyWeHnNvk1J2Yc2lj2NT7R1XNKSQGo5b SCJ31Gy+SCTFdxKmXLGsxmG3LENl1Ox0Dh3qFSRww3uBVFvEhaq4uzriJLx+EWLYGQIb C9sQ== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date :message-id:subject:to:cc; bh=yJN0AJPv+1fdsaht1t0vjI75sErC0vlv8GrV3jkej2c=; b=YufJHjsA8x45ZFBDz+fMn/XsTz+vIQgnSXlbU/aOFGZWkQ6yZGCTfXxCuo7fmCUJwK Vxl+bxDBBTqzrhi2q35xT3VqqBhPNZckkqhxupIqiMzxMGXPYsC9xbQS/7eV43u5WjIp C8FdE6ugaoSszlyGe9bEB4KI/UZIz/DXvbHgPFYNqmOF4AcX4JuCbfZECtK02KY2tZv7 Z1lAnQNNkA5px85avcFOFLqbvd0cXVAN4BqKjM8oX+c9NlwF1HSa8oqxQtiM9SqT88uT f/CRaNsjwnQhj3aJ/2Lh7tyrUrBzNR3yR+T8hXVAofnIx4ITC8HnHtt9XCT7MgvtWENV VmDw== X-Gm-Message-State: AGRZ1gLszWhRyBK+UA/n9YHDiR6ovDoAqu9CezzrNk/uFnEsfYn5KPV8 PsUQuCtKEfIbDfXwnl+iiUCoE2YqlOTTA+NOqjE= X-Google-Smtp-Source: AJdET5coA9SeEAXAe2JsdeIx9qmBZk1dLBM4/vziO1Tr3d7gCJCMB/vOhuxkwWBV7yXAsbz8WUooGSlNmDCdkqIg1WA= X-Received: by 2002:aed:2798:: with SMTP id a24mr35394425qtd.138.1543416320629; Wed, 28 Nov 2018 06:45:20 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <20181128025739.GA5701@mcvoy.com> In-Reply-To: From: Dan Cross Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2018 09:44:44 -0500 Message-ID: To: ken@google.com Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0000000000008826e1057bba9d98" Subject: Re: [TUHS] In Memoriam: J.F.Ossanna X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" --0000000000008826e1057bba9d98 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 11:50 PM Ken Thompson via TUHS wrote: > another joe: > > echo 1 was a 100 foot balloon that was > launched into space in the early 60s. this > was the first satellite that was easily visible > to the naked eye. > > joe wrote a set of fortran programs that > tracked the orbit of echo and calculated > the direction to look from a point on earth. > to do this, he had to learn fortran and > orbital dynamics. > > the programs were used to point antennas > to send emf from california. bouncing off > echo and received at bell labs in > new jersey. thus, thanks to joe, echo was > the first communications satellite. > > by the time i came to bell labs (1966) the > program, azel, for azimuth/elevation, was > expanded to track planets, moons, satellites, > etc. moreover, it tracked the shadow of the > earth cast by the sun (night). it could predict > within a few seconds when echo would wink > on or off as it passed through the shadow. > This is an amazing story; thanks for sharing, Ken. There is an interesting film about project ECHO on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY8MeZ6lpwI While it doesn't mention Joe Ossanna directly, there is a small part in the film where the satellite is located after being launched. Given your story, one might reasonably assume that that part of the narrative refers to Ossanna's program, albeit indirectly. Btw: I've heard that interference detected through the horn antenna at the Holmdel site lead was explained by cosmic background radiation that was attributed to the Big Bang; this apparently provided critical observational evidence that led to the acceptance of the Big Bang theory. a version of azel was maintained all the time > i was at bell labs. we used it to predict > eclipses, transits, occultations etc. when > we first got a voice synthesizer, the day's > predictions were spoken at 5pm in case > there was anything interesting. > > anyway, at 5pm on june 8, 1983 the voice > announced an "occultation of mercury" > for early the next morning. > > no one had heard of such a thing. it was > extremely rare. mercury had to be at > about its max elongation; the moon had > to be only a few hours old (or young); > it had to be dark; the moon and mercury > had to be above the horizon; and lastly, > the moon had to occult mercury. > > we all (me, lee mcmahon, dennis ritchie, > rob pike, and bob morris) frantically tried > to verify that it was real. it was, but it > would only be about 5 degrees above > the horizon facing right into new york city. > not a chance. we all went home. > > later that night we were writing to each > other and calculating that in an airplane > at 10,000 feet, the event moved up to 10 > or 15 degrees above the horizon. also, > in an airplane, we could avoid nyc. > > so at 3am, we (me, rob pike, rae mclellan) > went to the airport equipped with cameras > and binoculars. we flew north as high as the > plane would go. we might be the only > people in the world who have seen an > occultation of mercury. thank you joe. > !! That's neat. - Dan C. On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 6:57 PM, Larry McVoy wrote: > > As a long time roff fan (I still use it, yes, I've learned LaTex, I much > > prefer roff), I'm hugely bummed that Joe left us so early. I feel like > > there would be more fun stories, like Ken's story. > > > > If I remember correctly, he wrote the first (Unix *) version of roff in > > PDP-11 assembly, right? Granted, PDP-11 assembly is perhaps the most > > pleasant assembly ever, but it is still assembly. Roff is a non-trivial > > program, I can't say that I've every written anything remotely that big > > in assembly (the only thing I'm proud of is writing swtch() in VAX, 68K, > > and some other CPU that I can't remember, but that was tiny, hard to get > > right, but tiny). I've got mad respect for what he did, I feel like the > > whole roff thing doesn't get enough respect. It wasn't just roff, though > > that started it, it was pic (I *love* pic), eqn, all the other filters > > that go down to roff. For lmbench I wrote my own grap like tools > > because grap wasn't open source. > > > > I was talking to Marc Donner, a Morgan Stanley techy (since moved on > > to google and who knows where) about why I liked roff. At the time > > I had built webroff which took roff -ms input and made websites. > > Marc pointed out that the reason I liked roff was, for the most part, > > it didn't say how to do something (that was buried in the macros), > > it said what you wanted to do. > > > > Ken, if you have more Joe stories I'd love to hear them, I feel like > > I missed out on a cool person. > > > > (*) I know that nroff was "new run off" and it came from somewhere, > > MIT? Some old system, but it wasn't invented in Unix. That said, > > I've never seen docs for the previous system and I kinda think Joe > > took it to the next level. If you haven't studied the docs and > > written macros, you should. It's a pretty neat system. > > > > On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 03:08:36PM -0800, Ken Thompson via TUHS wrote: > >> joe was much more than that. he knew how > >> to play the system. example: > >> out of whole cloth, he invented a form to > >> order a teletype and opx (bell labs extension) > >> installed in the home. he then filled out the > >> form for each of the unix-room dennisons. > >> there was a phone call from a confused > >> clerk, and then we all got teletypes and > >> data sets at home. as an aside, the opx > >> came with free watts (long distance which > >> was very expensive in those days.) > >> > >> > >> On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 1:47 PM, Dave Horsfall > wrote: > >> > We lost J.F. Ossanna on this day in 1977; he had a hand in developing > Unix, > >> > and was responsible for "roff" and its descendants. Remember him, > the next > >> > time you see "jfo" in Unix documentation. > >> > > >> > -- Dave > > > > -- > > --- > > Larry McVoy lm at mcvoy.com > http://www.mcvoy.com/lm > --0000000000008826e1057bba9d98 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 11:50 PM Ken T= hompson via TUHS <tuhs@minnie.tu= hs.org> wrote:
another joe:

echo 1 was a 100 foot balloon that was
launched into space=C2=A0 in the early 60s. this
was the first satellite that was easily visible
to the naked eye.

joe wrote a set of fortran programs that
tracked the orbit of echo and calculated
the direction to look from a point on earth.
to do this, he had to learn fortran and
orbital dynamics.

the programs were used to point antennas
to send emf from california. bouncing off
echo and received at bell labs in
new jersey. thus, thanks to joe, echo was
the first communications satellite.

by the time i came to bell labs (1966) the
program, azel, for azimuth/elevation, was
expanded to track planets, moons, satellites,
etc. moreover, it tracked the shadow of the
earth cast by the sun (night). it could predict
within a few seconds when echo would wink
on or off as it passed through the shadow.

<= div>This is an amazing story; thanks for sharing, Ken.

=
There is an interesting film about project ECHO on youtube:=C2=A0https://www.youtube.co= m/watch?v=3DsY8MeZ6lpwI

While it doesn't m= ention Joe Ossanna directly, there is a small part in the film where the sa= tellite is located after being launched. Given your story, one might reason= ably assume that that part of the narrative refers to=C2=A0Ossanna's pr= ogram, albeit indirectly.

Btw: I've heard that= interference detected through the horn antenna at the Holmdel site lead wa= s explained by cosmic background radiation that was attributed to the Big B= ang; this apparently provided critical observational evidence that led to t= he acceptance of the Big Bang theory.

a version of azel was maintained all the time
i was at bell labs. we used it to predict
eclipses, transits, occultations etc. when
we first got a voice synthesizer, the day's
predictions were spoken at 5pm in case
there was anything interesting.

anyway, at 5pm on june 8, 1983 the voice
announced an "occultation of mercury"
for early the next morning.

no one had heard of such a thing. it was
extremely rare. mercury had to be at
about its max elongation; the moon had
to be only a few hours old (or young);
it had to be dark; the moon and mercury
had to be above the horizon; and lastly,
the moon had to occult mercury.

we all (me, lee mcmahon, dennis ritchie,
rob pike, and bob morris) frantically tried
to verify that it was real. it was, but it
would only be about 5 degrees above
the horizon facing right into new york city.
not a chance. we all went home.

later that night we were writing to each
other and calculating that in an airplane
at 10,000 feet, the event moved up to 10
or 15 degrees above the horizon. also,
in an airplane, we could avoid nyc.

so at 3am, we (me, rob pike, rae mclellan)
went to the airport equipped with cameras
and binoculars. we flew north as high as the
plane would go. we might be the only
people in the world who have seen an
occultation of mercury. thank you joe.

= !! That's neat.

=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 - = Dan C.

lm@mcvoy.com> wrote:
> As a long time roff fan (I still use it, yes, I've learned LaTex, = I much
> prefer roff), I'm hugely bummed that Joe left us so early.=C2=A0 I= feel like
> there would be more fun stories, like Ken's story.
>
> If I remember correctly, he wrote the first (Unix *) version of roff i= n
> PDP-11 assembly, right?=C2=A0 Granted, PDP-11 assembly is perhaps the = most
> pleasant assembly ever, but it is still assembly.=C2=A0 Roff is a non-= trivial
> program, I can't say that I've every written anything remotely= that big
> in assembly (the only thing I'm proud of is writing swtch() in VAX= , 68K,
> and some other CPU that I can't remember, but that was tiny, hard = to get
> right, but tiny).=C2=A0 I've got mad respect for what he did, I fe= el like the
> whole roff thing doesn't get enough respect.=C2=A0 It wasn't j= ust roff, though
> that started it, it was pic (I *love* pic), eqn, all the other filters=
> that go down to roff.=C2=A0 For lmbench I wrote my own grap like tools=
> because grap wasn't open source.
>
> I was talking to Marc Donner, a Morgan Stanley techy (since moved on > to google and who knows where) about why I liked roff.=C2=A0 At the ti= me
> I had built webroff which took roff -ms input and made websites.
> Marc pointed out that the reason I liked roff was, for the most part,<= br> > it didn't say how to do something (that was buried in the macros),=
> it said what you wanted to do.
>
> Ken, if you have more Joe stories I'd love to hear them, I feel li= ke
> I missed out on a cool person.
>
> (*) I know that nroff was "new run off" and it came from som= ewhere,
> MIT?=C2=A0 Some old system, but it wasn't invented in Unix.=C2=A0 = That said,
> I've never seen docs for the previous system and I kinda think Joe=
> took it to the next level.=C2=A0 If you haven't studied the docs a= nd
> written macros, you should.=C2=A0 It's a pretty neat system.
>
> On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 03:08:36PM -0800, Ken Thompson via TUHS wrote:=
>> joe was much more than that. he knew how
>> to play the system. example:
>> out of whole cloth, he invented a form to
>> order a teletype and opx (bell labs extension)
>> installed in the home. he then filled out the
>> form for each of the unix-room dennisons.
>> there was a phone call from a confused
>> clerk, and then we all got teletypes and
>> data sets at home. as an aside, the opx
>> came with free watts (long distance which
>> was very expensive in those days.)
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 1:47 PM, Dave Horsfall <dave@horsfall.org> wrote: >> > We lost J.F. Ossanna on this day in 1977; he had a hand in de= veloping Unix,
>> > and was responsible for "roff" and its descendants.= =C2=A0 Remember him, the next
>> > time you see "jfo" in Unix documentation.
>> >
>> > -- Dave
>
> --
> ---
> Larry McVoy=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2= =A0 lm at mcvoy.com=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0http://www.mcvo= y.com/lm
--0000000000008826e1057bba9d98--