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Subject: Re: [TUHS] The most surprising Unix programs
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Back in the 70's, I bought an HP-67 for some ridiculous amount of money. =
 I only wrote one significant program on it, but I think folks here =
might find the idea interesting.  My X-Ray astronomy project at NRL =
(HEAO A1) was using a CDC 3800 for data analysis.  The machine had =
48-bit words and used octal to display binary values.  I decided to =
write a program to convert the binary representation of a floating point =
number into the numeric value.

For starters, it had to accept a pair of 24-bit values, expressed in =
(mock) octal.  That is, when I entered 12345, it was actually 12345(8), =
not 12345(10).  So, the program had to turn these values back into real =
integers.  It then pulled out the exponent and mantissa, did the =
appropriate calculations, and displayed the floating-point value.  It =
worked, but it wasn't all that fast.  As I recall, it took about 30 =
seconds...

-r