----- Original Message ---- > From: David G. Mackay <mackay_d at bellsouth.net> > To: CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> > Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2008 4:18:01 PM > Subject: Re: [CentOS] Re: Ole Fossils [ was Re: ls and rm: "argument list too long"] > > > On Sat, 2008-10-25 at 12:10 -0700, Bill Campbell wrote: > > > My first Burroughs experience was on the B-5500, and it had some > > ``interesting'' quirks. Using Burroughs extended ALGOL, one could do what > > they called array row writes to very efficiently write large chunks of > > memory with a single hardware command. The hitch was that if one tried to > > write more than 1024 48bit words, it would crash the entire system, with a > > side effect of losing the accounting information for all running programs, > > which could be useful when paying $750/hour for time sharing :-). > > I'm surprised that the bug lasted very long, or did it just go > unreported? ;) > > > Are you retired Air Farce? A fair number of Burroughs field engineers had > > learned the Burroughs equipment in the AF (and could afford to work at BGH > > low pay because of their retirement pay). > > No, I was just young and foolish. Then someone explained that Burroughs > wanted to get their techs hired away by the customers. They'd most > likely continue to support Burroughs equipment, but on someone else's > nickel. > > > One might say that I worked for Burroughs too as I debugged their Remote > > Job Entry (RJE) software for Medium systems, including patching MCP, > > because the company I worked for needed it to work. I talked Burroughs out > > of the source code for RJE and the current version of MCP so that I could > > fix things. After I sent them the fixes, I never had any problem getting > > anything I asked for. > > It's impressive that you managed to talk them out of the source, and > that you fixed it. > > > FWIW, the entire source code listing for MCP fit in a single file drawer. > > Reading the comments in the code, it was obvious that a very small group of > > people worked on it which resulted in quite nice integration and > > consistency. > > Legend had it that the medium systems MCP was mostly written by one guy > who lived in a beach house in California with two women. > > > Can you imagine`Microsoft making the source code for Windows available to a > > small customer for free, and with no NDA so the customer could fix a > > problem that was critical to them? Even if they supplied the source, do > > you think anybody could figure it out? > > Well, I did have a go at their Device Driver kit at one point. > Convoluted is the first printable word that comes to mind. > > > One of the most important features of open source software is the > > availability of the source code so people can quickly fix bugs critical to > > them or add features they need. As an example, in January 2000, groff had > > a y2k problem with dates which I found printing a letter that needed to go > > out. It took me about 15 minutes to find the problem in the code, fix it, > > and send that patch back to the maintainers. Imagine how long it would > > take to get a similar problem fixed in M$-Word. > > Yes. Trying to support a black box (It took YEARS before they released > the source code to the B1xx systems to their support employees outside > of the plant) made me a firm believer in open source. > > Dave > > > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos Gees i feel like i am at an ole farts convention, with this thread. :-D