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From: "Charles H. Sauer" <sauer@technologists.com>
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Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2024 22:41:45 -0500
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To: John Levine <johnl@taugh.com>
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> On Jun 26, 2024, at 9:36=E2=80=AFPM, John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> =
wrote:
>=20
> It appears that Charles H Sauer (he/him) <sauer@technologists.com> =
said:
>> I was waiting for Heinz to say something, assuming he would at least =
say=20
>> what he did about the beginnings of POSIX.
>>=20
>> Another IEEE standard of great historical import is IEEE 754-1985 for=20=

>> representing floating point numbers. Many of the 801 people wanted to=20=

>> preserve IBM Hexadecimal floating point introduced with System/360.
>=20
> In view of the well known horrible numeric properities of the hex
> floating point, why? Because they had so much code written to work
> around it?
>=20
> R's,
> John

Maybe I knew back then, but anything I say now is supposition. I suppose =
the same mindset that wanted to see PL.8 succeed as PL/I revisited =
wanted to see 801 succeed as 370 revisited. In any case, quite a few of =
the Yorktown people that moved to Austin to help with what became =
RS/6000 came with the notion HFP was the true course.

Though you were no longer involved in that time frame, IIRC, you =
probably had a better sense than most non-IBM people of why I said "it =
was more like <em>M<sub>n</sub></em> competing factions within =
<em>N</em> competing companies.=E2=80=9D=20

That Phil Hester was able to force 754 instead of HFP is more a credit =
to his political and technical skills than most non-IBM could =
appreciate.

Charlie

--
voice: +1.512.784.7526       e-mail: sauer@technologists.com =
<mailto:sauer@technologists.com>          =20
fax: +1.512.346.5240         web: https://technologists.com/sauer/ =
<http://technologists.com/sauer/>
Facebook/Google/LinkedIn/Twitter: CharlesHSauer


--Apple-Mail=_0EA4F3BE-E654-48C4-87B7-1948BADD9163
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<html><head><meta http-equiv=3D"content-type" content=3D"text/html; =
charset=3Dutf-8"></head><body style=3D"overflow-wrap: break-word; =
-webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><br =
id=3D"lineBreakAtBeginningOfMessage"><div><br><blockquote =
type=3D"cite"><div>On Jun 26, 2024, at 9:36=E2=80=AFPM, John Levine =
&lt;johnl@taugh.com&gt; wrote:</div><br =
class=3D"Apple-interchange-newline"><div><div>It appears that Charles H =
Sauer (he/him) &lt;sauer@technologists.com&gt; said:<br><blockquote =
type=3D"cite">I was waiting for Heinz to say something, assuming he =
would at least say <br>what he did about the beginnings of =
POSIX.<br><br>Another IEEE standard of great historical import is IEEE =
754-1985 for <br>representing floating point numbers. Many of the 801 =
people wanted to <br>preserve IBM Hexadecimal floating point introduced =
with System/360. <br></blockquote><br>In view of the well known horrible =
numeric properities of the hex<br>floating point, why? Because they had =
so much code written to work<br>around =
it?<br><br>R's,<br>John<br></div></div></blockquote><br></div><div>Maybe =
I knew back then, but anything I say now is supposition. I suppose the =
same mindset that wanted to see PL.8 succeed as PL/I revisited wanted to =
see 801 succeed as 370 revisited. In any case, quite a few of the =
Yorktown people that moved to Austin to help with what became RS/6000 =
came with the notion HFP was the true =
course.</div><div><br></div><div>Though you were no longer involved in =
that time frame, IIRC, you probably had a better sense than most non-IBM =
people of why I said "it was more like =
&lt;em&gt;M&lt;sub&gt;n&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/em&gt; competing factions within =
&lt;em&gt;N&lt;/em&gt; competing =
companies.=E2=80=9D&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>That Phil Hester was =
able to force 754 instead of HFP is more a credit to his political and =
technical skills than most non-IBM could =
appreciate.</div><div><br></div><div>Charlie</div><br><div>
<meta charset=3D"UTF-8"><div dir=3D"auto" style=3D"caret-color: rgb(0, =
0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; =
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; =
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: =
none; overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: =
after-white-space;"><div style=3D"color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: =
normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; =
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; =
overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: =
after-white-space;"><div><div><span style=3D"font-family: Menlo-Regular; =
font-size: 11px;">--</span><br style=3D"font-family: Menlo-Regular; =
font-size: 11px;"><span style=3D"font-family: Menlo-Regular; font-size: =
11px;">voice: +1.512.784.7526 =
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;e-mail:&nbsp;</span><a =
href=3D"mailto:sauer@technologists.com" style=3D"font-family: =
Menlo-Regular; font-size: 11px;">sauer@technologists.com</a><span =
style=3D"font-family: Menlo-Regular; font-size: =
11px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<=
/span></div><div><span style=3D"font-family: Menlo-Regular; font-size: =
11px;">fax: +1.512.346.5240 =
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;web:&nbsp;</span><a =
href=3D"http://technologists.com/sauer/" style=3D"font-family: =
Menlo-Regular; font-size: =
11px;">https://technologists.com/sauer/</a></div><div><span =
style=3D"font-family: Menlo-Regular; font-size: =
11px;">Facebook/Google/LinkedIn/Twitter: =
CharlesHSauer</span></div></div></div></div>
</div>
<br></body></html>=

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