From: wwheco1@aol.comheathkit (Bill Wilkinson) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Lines: 17 NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder07.news.aol.com X-Admin: news@aol.com Date: 13 Oct 1999 03:52:25 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Message-ID: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.cwix.com!portc03.blue.aol.com!audrey04.news.aol.com!not-for-mail I saw that thread, used Deja News to search backwards, but didn't find the following. Sorry if I missed what's already been posted and/or in the FAQ. Mainly, one of my favorite source code comments is: /* You are not expected to understand this */ by Dennis Ritchie. See http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/odd.html for details. --Bill -- Bill Wilkinson email: wxwilki@aol.com Heathkit Page: http://members.aol.com/wwheco1/index.htm ###### From: jmfbahciv@aol.com Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Wed, 13 Oct 99 09:14:14 GMT Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc. Lines: 21 Message-ID: <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> X-Trace: NDk2/GMg0+UkRklb9xUirbnZV6blTdPCEQW5VVdVVQE= X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 13 Oct 1999 11:25:45 GMT X-Newsreader: News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!nyc-news-feed1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d16 In article <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com>, wwheco1@aol.comheathkit (Bill Wilkinson) wrote: >I saw that thread, used Deja News to search backwards, but didn't find the >following. Sorry if I missed what's already been posted and/or in the FAQ. > >Mainly, one of my favorite source code comments is: > >/* You are not expected to understand this */ > >by Dennis Ritchie. > >See http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/odd.html for details. Chuckle. I can't think of a better way to get people to read code and think about what is going on. Was that the purpose, Dennis? /BAH Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail. ###### From: see@my.sig (Ben Ariss) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 16:01:38 +0100 Organization: The Lumber Cartel UK Unit #1047 (tinlcuku) Lines: 38 Approved: The Cabal (tinc) Message-ID: References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: saturn.skynet.co.uk X-Trace: news1.cableinet.co.uk 939826905 28295 212.46.145.18 (13 Oct 1999 15:01:45 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@cableinet.net NNTP-Posting-Date: 13 Oct 1999 15:01:45 GMT X-Newsreader: MicroPlanet Gravity v2.10.940 X-No-Archive: Yes X-Disclaimer: The opinions contained in this message are my own, and do not represent those of my employers in any way. X-UCE-Senders-Plese-Note: I do not wish to recieve any unsolicited email. The sending of such email denotes absolute agreement to the terms below, no excuses accepted. X-UCE-Terms-and-Conditions: The reciept of any form of unsolicited email by myself will incurr the retrieval and archive fee of £100 per kilobyte of data recieved with a minimum charge of £200 payable by the sender. You spam, I sue. Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!bignews.mediaways.net!newsfeed.icl.net!nntp.news.xara.net!xara.net!gxn.net!news5.cableinet.net!cableinet-uk!news1.cableinet.co.uk!not-for-mail In article <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com says... > In article <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com>, > wwheco1@aol.comheathkit (Bill Wilkinson) wrote: > >I saw that thread, used Deja News to search backwards, but didn't find the > >following. Sorry if I missed what's already been posted and/or in the > FAQ. > > > >Mainly, one of my favorite source code comments is: > > > >/* You are not expected to understand this */ > > > >by Dennis Ritchie. > > > >See http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/odd.html for details. > > Chuckle. I can't think of a better way to get people to > read code and think about what is going on. Was that > the purpose, Dennis? > > /BAH > > Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail. > IIRC it was from a piece of code for an exam or course. The comment was intended to mean that this part of the code was not covered by the syllabus, and thus the students were not expected to understand it. Ben -- Ben Ariss <--*--> happy@hardcoreravers.zzn.com ICQ #12113388 --=--=-- I hate SPAM! -=- 51 Confirmed kills Lumber Cartel UK Unit #1047 (tinlcuku) Plan.B Promotions =-=-= Plan.B@hardcoreravers.zzn.com http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Comet/8217 - writing, be patient :) "The Internet, billions of electrons with nothing better to do". ###### From: dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Organization: B-Tree Systems, Inc. Message-ID: <3804ad69.1356673693@192.168.2.34> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235 Lines: 36 Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 16:09:46 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.32.152.113 X-Trace: newsfeed.slurp.net 939830716 209.32.152.113 (Wed, 13 Oct 1999 11:05:16 CDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 11:05:16 CDT Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news0.de.colt.net!colt.net!newsfeed.icl.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.slurp.net!not-for-mail On Wed, 13 Oct 1999 16:01:38 +0100, see@my.sig (Ben Ariss) wrote: >In article <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com >says... >> In article <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com>, >> wwheco1@aol.comheathkit (Bill Wilkinson) wrote: >> >I saw that thread, used Deja News to search backwards, but didn't find the >> >following. Sorry if I missed what's already been posted and/or in the >> FAQ. >> > >> >Mainly, one of my favorite source code comments is: >> > >> >/* You are not expected to understand this */ >> > >> >by Dennis Ritchie. >> > >> >See http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/odd.html for details. >> [...] >IIRC it was from a piece of code for an exam or course. The >comment was intended to mean that this part of the code was not >covered by the syllabus, and thus the students were not expected >to understand it. You don't RC. Follow the link. There you'll see: "Every now and then on Usenet or elsewhere I run across a reference to a certain comment in the source code of the Sixth Edition Unix operating system." Regards, -=Dave Just my (10-010) cents I can barely speak for myself, so I certainly can't speak for B-Tree. Change is inevitable. Progress is not. ###### Message-ID: <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1999 23:01:39 -0600 From: Jordan Bettis X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.139.240.252 X-Trace: 1 Nov 1999 23:00:47 -0600, 205.139.240.252 Lines: 40 X-Report: Report abuse to abuse@newsfeeds.com X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers, INCLUDING the body X-Abuse-Info2: ALL Spam complaints are acted upon within 24 hours! Organization: Newsfeeds.com http://www.newsfeeds.com 73,000+ UNCENSORED Newsgroups. Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!europa.netcrusader.net!192.148.253.68!netnews.com!news-feed.fnsi.net!feed.newsfeeds.com!newsfeeds.com!news5.newsfeeds.com!newsfeeds.com!205.139.240.252 jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote: > >Mainly, one of my favorite source code comments is: > > > >/* You are not expected to understand this */ > > > >by Dennis Ritchie. > > > >See http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/odd.html for details. > > Chuckle. I can't think of a better way to get people to > read code and think about what is going on. Was that > the purpose, Dennis? [some snippage] I always include /* #prime */ in my directives (usually at the end of my #include directives) and do so in such a way as to hide the fact that it is commented as well as I can. ex: #include #include #include #include /* #prime */ #rest of directives Most people who read my code think it's weird, but I get a kick out of it. -- Jordan Bettis BTW: ^Omit the OMIT (Jbettis@davesworld.net) "Windows 2000 may seem slow, but it got the best benchmark test results money can buy." -Nicholas Perteley -----------== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News ==---------- http://www.newsfeeds.com The Largest Usenet Servers in the World! ------== Over 73,000 Newsgroups - Including Dedicated Binaries Servers ==----- ###### From: prs@gol.com (Jacqui or (maybe) Pete) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Message-ID: <38209880.6868281@nnrp.gol.com> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 17 Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 07:52:34 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.216.43.114 X-Complaints-To: abuse@gol.com X-Trace: nnrp.gol.com 941529154 203.216.43.114 (Tue, 02 Nov 1999 16:52:34 JST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 16:52:34 JST Organization: Global Online Japan Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!feeder.qis.net!newsfeed.nyu.edu!newsfeed.gol.com!203.216.70.8.MISMATCH!nnrp.gol.com.POSTED!not-for-mail On Mon, 01 Nov 1999 23:01:39 -0600, Jordan Bettis wrote: >jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote: > >> >Mainly, one of my favorite source code comments is: >> > >> >/* You are not expected to understand this */ >> > >> >by Dennis Ritchie. >> > >> >See http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/odd.html for details. A related one that I've seen a few times is : /* trust me */ ... ###### From: John Ahlstrom Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 08:37:16 -0800 Organization: Ye 'Ol Disorganized NNTPCache groupie Lines: 36 Message-ID: <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (WinNT; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cache-Post-Path: sj-nntpcache-2.cisco.com!unknown@dhcp-vm21-85-213.cisco.com X-Cache: nntpcache 2.3.3 (see http://www.nntpcache.org/) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.ifi.unizh.ch!newsfeed.rhein-neckar.de!news.rhein-neckar.de!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!newsfeed.nacamar.de!newsfeed.icl.net!colt.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!remarQ-uK!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail The B5500 Time Sharing System (MCP-augmented) had a procedure called OldWeirdHarold (modern upper-lower case usage all we had were upper case key punches) with the comment OldWeirdHarold does many strange and wonderous things some of which are useful Unfortunately I don't remember any of the things it did. Today, of course, cramming a lot of strange and wondrous things in one procedure would be greatly frowned upon. The B1700 MCP had the following - in the virtual memory manager Yesterday I had a scare I used some code that wasn't there It wasn't there again today Oh, how I wish that it would stay and scattered throughout (in many too many places) Fix me someday Whew. Not comments but commentary, the B6500 MCP had multitasking procedures and data structures: ForkQ MotherForker FatherForker until someone in marketing saw them and required they be changed. JKA -- Those who don't remember Multics are doomed to reimplement it -- badly. ###### From: jmfbahciv@aol.com Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Tue, 02 Nov 99 10:31:48 GMT Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc. Lines: 23 Message-ID: <7vmiui$kqi$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <38209880.6868281@nnrp.gol.com> X-Trace: A/BehelhAEx8Tyof55jpFZqkx3M5gYgJox1h/P8Gqz0= X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 2 Nov 1999 11:46:26 GMT X-Newsreader: News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.cwix.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d2 In article <38209880.6868281@nnrp.gol.com>, prs@gol.com (Jacqui or (maybe) Pete) wrote: >On Mon, 01 Nov 1999 23:01:39 -0600, Jordan Bettis > wrote: > >>jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote: >> >>> >Mainly, one of my favorite source code comments is: >>> > >>> >/* You are not expected to understand this */ >>> > >>> >by Dennis Ritchie. >>> > >>> >See http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/odd.html for details. >A related one that I've seen a few times is : > >/* trust me */ ROTFL. Would you really run code that had that as a comment? /BAH Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail. ###### From: "Curt Raddatz" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 13:53:48 -0500 Organization: ECDC Unisys Corp. Tredyffrin Lines: 25 Message-ID: <7vnbvk$78r$1@trsvr.tr.unisys.com> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 192.63.248.31 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!iol.ie!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.tli.de!grolier!uunet!ams.uu.net!ffx.uu.net!bbnews1!bbnews1.unisys.com!plnews.pl.unisys.com!trsvr!not-for-mail The marketing types never seem to understand a developer's need to make software humorous! Curt John Ahlstrom wrote in message news:381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com... > Not comments but commentary, the B6500 MCP had multitasking > procedures and data structures: > ForkQ > MotherForker > FatherForker > until someone in marketing saw them and required they be changed. > > JKA > -- > Those who don't remember Multics are > doomed to reimplement it -- badly. > > ###### From: dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Organization: B-Tree Systems, Inc. Message-ID: <381ef3f9.1616351130@192.168.2.34> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <38209880.6868281@nnrp.gol.com> X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235 Lines: 21 Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 14:25:22 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.32.152.113 X-Trace: newsfeed.slurp.net 941552425 209.32.152.113 (Tue, 02 Nov 1999 08:20:25 CDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 08:20:25 CDT Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.slurp.net!not-for-mail On Tue, 02 Nov 1999 07:52:34 GMT, prs@gol.com (Jacqui or (maybe) Pete) wrote: [...] >A related one that I've seen a few times is : > >/* trust me */ > I've seen /* Here be Dragons */ more than once. Regards, -=Dave Just my (10-010) cents I can barely speak for myself, so I certainly can't speak for B-Tree. Change is inevitable. Progress is not. ###### From: keith_stone@notes.sabre.com Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 19:12:08 GMT Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. Lines: 44 Message-ID: <7vnd24$c8m$1@nnrp1.deja.com> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 199.100.49.111 X-Article-Creation-Date: Tue Nov 02 19:12:08 1999 GMT X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.7 [en]C-CCK-MCD (WinNT; U) X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x33.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 199.100.49.111 X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDkcstone Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!iol.ie!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.axxsys.net!newsfeed.enteract.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail In article <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com>, John Ahlstrom wrote: > Not comments but commentary, the B6500 MCP had multitasking > procedures and data structures: > ForkQ > MotherForker > FatherForker > until someone in marketing saw them and required they be changed. Gee, code like: LOCK ForkNo; " Make sure no forking procedures step on me Retrieve_Next_COMPOOL(CMPList, %CMPBuff); Unpack_COMPOOL(%CMPBUFF); Route_XACTN(HostTable,%CMPBuff); " Fork 'ur brains out UNLOCK ForkNo ACTIVATE; would upset some marketing people? I guess they better not look then. Years ago, I wrote an interface between a batch based accounting system and a real-time front-end. Unfortuneatly the accounting effect of each transaction in the front end had little relationship to the numeric signs of the represented numbers, hence the comment: 0600-CONVERT-AMOUNTS. * Many of the following statements will seem to defy the laws of * both math and accounting. No matter how much you are tempted, * DON'T CHANGE THEM! A few years after I left the company a guy called me and said he changed them. The program stopped working. He was curious if there was some way to fix it without putting it back the way it was. The Unisyses out there can go looking for this one, anyone that knows me might even know where to look. " Yes, I know this will break in 2027. Page me. Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy. ###### From: hnsngr@sirius.com (Ron Hunsinger) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Message-ID: References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> Organization: ErsteSoft Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit X-Newsreader: Yet Another NewsWatcher 2.3.1 Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 00:24:59 -0800 NNTP-Posting-Host: 216.103.86.8 X-Complaints-To: abuse@swbell.net X-Trace: typhoon01.swbell.net 941617494 216.103.86.8 (Wed, 03 Nov 1999 00:24:54 PST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 00:24:54 PST Lines: 17 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.ifi.unizh.ch!newsfeed.rhein-neckar.de!news.rhein-neckar.de!news-kar1.dfn.de!newsfeed.nacamar.de!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gctr.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!cyclone.swbell.net!typhoon01.swbell.net.POSTED!not-for-mail In article <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com>, John Ahlstrom wrote: > The B5500 Time Sharing System (MCP-augmented) had > a procedure called OldWeirdHarold (modern upper-lower case usage > all we had were upper case key punches) > with the comment > OldWeirdHarold does many strange and wonderous things > some of which are useful I wonder if OLDWEIRDHAROLD got renamed GEORGE. That was the routine in the B6700 MCP that did many strange and wondrous things. (Well, actually, it did only one thing - it switched the processor from one process ("stack") to another - but in the process it left strange and wondrous footprints in stack dumps. -Ron Hunsinger ###### From: Niko Haatainen Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 09:35:43 +0200 Organization: Opcode Oy Lines: 9 Message-ID: <381FE5CF.4D8C7EEA@opcode.fi> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <38209880.6868281@nnrp.gol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: firewall.opcode.fi Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (WinNT; I) X-Accept-Language: en Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!uninett.no!news.powertech.no!nntp.newmedia.no!globalone.no!news1.global-ip.net!news1.global-one.fi!koti.tpo.fi!not-for-mail "Jacqui or (maybe) Pete" wrote: > A related one that I've seen a few times is : > /* trust me */ I've seen this a couple of times: /* Don't ask */ -- Niko Haatainen ###### From: "Charlie Gibbs" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: 02 Nov 99 17:53:58 -0800 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Lines: 24 Message-ID: <740.975T2912T10736637@sky.bus.com> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> <7vnd24$c8m$1@nnrp1.deja.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: p-671.newsdawg.com X-Newsreader: THOR 2.5a (Amiga;TCP/IP) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news-fra.maz.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!pln-w!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!news2 In article <7vnd24$c8m$1@nnrp1.deja.com> keith_stone@notes.sabre.com (keith_stone) writes: >Gee, code like: > > LOCK ForkNo; > " Make sure no forking procedures step on me > Retrieve_Next_COMPOOL(CMPList, %CMPBuff); > Unpack_COMPOOL(%CMPBUFF); > Route_XACTN(HostTable,%CMPBuff); > " Fork 'ur brains out > UNLOCK ForkNo ACTIVATE; > >would upset some marketing people? I guess they better not look then. But then God invented micro-managers. He probably realized He didn't have time to see every sparrow fall, so He invented people that would have the inclination, if not the time. So saith the Book of Adams. -- cgibbs@sky.bus.com (Charlie Gibbs) Remove the first period after the "at" sign to reply. ###### From: jmfbahciv@aol.com Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Wed, 03 Nov 99 09:24:17 GMT Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc. Lines: 16 Message-ID: <7vp3c8$qui$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> <7vnbvk$78r$1@trsvr.tr.unisys.com> X-Trace: dEUFpJMJFUg/vMftKgYawLyAxJpkGHAu9x1qB/Aqylo= X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 Nov 1999 10:39:04 GMT X-Newsreader: News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.ifi.unizh.ch!newsfeed.rhein-neckar.de!news.rhein-neckar.de!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!newsfeed.nacamar.de!howland.erols.net!outgoing.news.rcn.net.MISMATCH!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d6 In article <7vnbvk$78r$1@trsvr.tr.unisys.com>, "Curt Raddatz" wrote: >The marketing types never seem to understand a developer's need to make >software humorous! Nor the promotional value because the customers get interested. People do like to laugh and appreciate humor transfer. It's also a really good hook to get people to learn. Everybody who doesn't "get it" want's to know the joke. This flavor of sanitizing was done by idiots who didn't know their customer base. /BAH Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail. ###### Sender: marc@dumbcat.snafu.org Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> From: Marco S Hyman Date: 03 Nov 1999 17:33:27 -0800 Message-ID: Organization: S.N.A.F.U. (www.snafu.org) X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.3 Lines: 41 NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.54.48.242 X-Trace: nntp1.ba.best.com 941679210 241 marc@206.54.48.242 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news2.best.com!news3.best.com!nntp1.ba.best.com!not-for-mail hnsngr@sirius.com (Ron Hunsinger) writes: > In article <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com>, John Ahlstrom > wrote: > > > The B5500 Time Sharing System (MCP-augmented) had > > a procedure called OldWeirdHarold (modern upper-lower case usage > > all we had were upper case key punches) > > with the comment > > OldWeirdHarold does many strange and wonderous things > > some of which are useful > > I wonder if OLDWEIRDHAROLD got renamed GEORGE. That was the routine in the > B6700 MCP that did many strange and wondrous things. (Well, actually, it > did only one thing - it switched the processor from one process ("stack") > to another - but in the process it left strange and wondrous footprints in > stack dumps. Which GEORGE? NORMALGEORGE checked the ready queue and called STACKMOVER to actually do the stack swap. At least it was that way when creating a new process. When a process was terminating I think ORPHANGEORGE was called. Or was it UNWANTEDGEORGE. It's been too many years. STACKMOVER was two instructions, MVST and EXIT. Ahhh, found my notes: GEORGE is actually NORMALGEORGE and is the process control manager. Functions performed include * reset interval timer * check for jobs exceeding their time limits * check the READYQ and job priorities * do a move stack to start/restart jobs * check swapjobs timeslice * check peripheral status * see if it is midnight * check the calendar * Idle until interrupt Yes, strange and wondrous things, indeed! // marc ###### From: john@polo.demon.co.uk (John Winters) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: 3 Nov 1999 18:28:52 -0000 Organization: The Linux Emporium Message-ID: <7vput4$cal$1@polo.demon.co.uk> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk X-NNTP-Posting-Host: unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk:194.70.1.33 X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 941653975 nnrp-09:1086 NO-IDENT unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk:194.70.1.33 X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net Lines: 21 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.ifi.unizh.ch!newsfeed.rhein-neckar.de!news.rhein-neckar.de!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!blackbush.xlink.net!newsfeed.tli.de!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk!polo.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail In article <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com>, John Ahlstrom wrote: [snip] >Not comments but commentary, the B6500 MCP had multitasking >procedures and data structures: > ForkQ > MotherForker > FatherForker >until someone in marketing saw them and required they be changed. I once got whinged at my someone from a company which I had left. He was having to go through some code I had maintained removing all the comments containing KIADH. (Clue: The original, thoroughly incompetent, coder was called Kevin.) John -- John Winters. Wallingford, Oxon, England. The Linux Emporium - a source for Linux CDs in the UK See http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/ ###### From: slurn@rmov.engr.sgi.com (Scott Lurndal) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: 3 Nov 1999 18:31:16 GMT Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc. Lines: 22 Sender: slurn@griffin.engr.sgi.com (Scott Lurndal) Message-ID: <7vpv1k$22e36@fido.engr.sgi.com> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> Reply-To: slurn@rmov.engr.sgi.com NNTP-Posting-Host: griffin.engr.sgi.com X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.ifi.unizh.ch!newsfeed.rhein-neckar.de!news.rhein-neckar.de!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!news.uni-stuttgart.de!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!enews.sgi.com!fido.engr.sgi.com!slurn In article <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com>, John Ahlstrom writes: |> The B5500 Time Sharing System (MCP-augmented) had |> a procedure called OldWeirdHarold (modern upper-lower case usage |> all we had were upper case key punches) |> with the comment |> OldWeirdHarold does many strange and wonderous things |> some of which are useful Then there was the 'hiho' overlay in MCPIX/MCPVI for the medium systems - as in: hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go.. (hiho handled rollin-rollout and push memory operations, with labels like sleepy, prince, etc. if I recall correctly - I spent more time with MCP/VS personally). scott (In the source code for Unix V6 (approx 1976), there is a comment "you are not expected to understand this" in the bit of fork() code which causes the parent to return the child pid and the child to return 0). ###### From: slurn@rmov.engr.sgi.com (Scott Lurndal) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: 3 Nov 1999 18:31:16 GMT Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc. Lines: 22 Sender: slurn@griffin.engr.sgi.com (Scott Lurndal) Message-ID: <7vpv1k$22e36@fido.engr.sgi.com> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> Reply-To: slurn@rmov.engr.sgi.com NNTP-Posting-Host: griffin.engr.sgi.com X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.ifi.unizh.ch!newsfeed.rhein-neckar.de!news.rhein-neckar.de!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!news.uni-stuttgart.de!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!enews.sgi.com!fido.engr.sgi.com!slurn In article <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com>, John Ahlstrom writes: |> The B5500 Time Sharing System (MCP-augmented) had |> a procedure called OldWeirdHarold (modern upper-lower case usage |> all we had were upper case key punches) |> with the comment |> OldWeirdHarold does many strange and wonderous things |> some of which are useful Then there was the 'hiho' overlay in MCPIX/MCPVI for the medium systems - as in: hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go.. (hiho handled rollin-rollout and push memory operations, with labels like sleepy, prince, etc. if I recall correctly - I spent more time with MCP/VS personally). scott (In the source code for Unix V6 (approx 1976), there is a comment "you are not expected to understand this" in the bit of fork() code which causes the parent to return the child pid and the child to return 0). ###### Message-ID: <38213BF2.EEC1426F@rmi.net> From: Louis Krupp X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (WinNT; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 18 Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 00:55:30 -0700 NNTP-Posting-Host: 166.93.219.140 X-Complaints-To: news@rmi.net X-Trace: den-news1.rmi.net 941702392 166.93.219.140 (Thu, 04 Nov 1999 00:59:52 MST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 00:59:52 MST Organization: RMI.NET Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.ifi.unizh.ch!newsfeed.rhein-neckar.de!news.rhein-neckar.de!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!newsfeed.nacamar.de!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.cwix.com!natasha.rmii.com!den-news1.rmi.net!not-for-mail At the beginning of the source for the Large Systems COBOL compiler was this comment: Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate. "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here," inscription on the gates of Hell from Dante's Inferno. Linguistic disclaimer: I copied the quote off the web, there seem to be a couple of variations (ogne vs. ogni, entrate vs. intrate), I don't recall which was (is?) in the actual compiler, and I don't know which variation would have been better Italian (or Tuscan), now or in Dante's time. Louis Krupp ###### From: genew@shuswap.net (Gene Wirchenko) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 06:52:29 GMT Organization: Okanagan Internet Junction Lines: 22 Message-ID: <38210434.43008581@news.shuswap.net> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <38209880.6868281@nnrp.gol.com> <381FE5CF.4D8C7EEA@opcode.fi> Reply-To: genew@shuswap.net NNTP-Posting-Host: salmonarm3-09.shuswap.net X-Trace: news.junction.net 941698301 18258 206.87.124.91 (4 Nov 1999 06:51:41 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@junction.net NNTP-Posting-Date: 4 Nov 1999 06:51:41 GMT X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.1/32.230 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!newsfeed.bctel.net!news.junction.net!not-for-mail Niko Haatainen wrote: >"Jacqui or (maybe) Pete" wrote: >> A related one that I've seen a few times is : >> /* trust me */ > >I've seen this a couple of times: >/* Don't ask */ I was feeling a bit poetic once and wrote: * "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may..." * Repeating Entries are written to cinw as they are * encountered... Sincerely, Gene Wirchenko Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation: I have preferences. You have biases. He/She has prejudices. ###### From: Edward Reid Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 9:00:09 -0500 Organization: TalStar Communications Lines: 8 Message-ID: <01HW.B446FB99004C457103FB351F@news.talstar.com> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: flux.talstar.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit User-Agent: Hogwasher 2.0b6 (Macintosh) Cache-Post-Path: flux!unknown@paleo.org X-Cache: nntpcache 2.3.2.1 (see http://www.nntpcache.org/) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeed.mathworks.com!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!gatech!news.fsu.edu!nntp.cntfl.com!not-for-mail On Wed, 3 Nov 1999 20:33:27 -0500, Marco S Hyman wrote > Which GEORGE? You also have to realize that the procedure GEORGE is declared, nested, within another procedure, which is named SOPHIA. Edward Reid ###### From: "Chuck Stevens" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 10:51:46 -0800 Organization: Unisys Corporation Lines: 50 Message-ID: <7vskjh$gev$1@mail.pl.unisys.com> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> <38213BF2.EEC1426F@rmi.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: 192.59.246.203 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed1.news.nl.uu.net!sun4nl!uunet!ams.uu.net!ffx.uu.net!eanews1!eanews1.unisys.com!plnews.pl.unisys.com!not-for-mail True. The citation, verbatim et literatim, is actually "LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA VOI CH ENTRATE" and it is in the symbol for the recently-decommissioned COBOL(68) compiler and remains in the version which we still support for a few customers on a case-by-case CER basis. The COBOL74 compiler was based on the COBOL(68) compiler, and the "split" occurred around the time the above quote was introduced into the COBOL(68) symbol. In the corresponding place in COBOL74, I find: AGUZZA QUI, LETTOR, BEN LI OCCHI AL VERO, CHE'L VELO 'E ORA BEN TANTO SOTTILE, CERTO, CHE'L TRAPASSAR DENTRO 'E LEGGERO. also attributed to Dante, and also, I suspect, from the same opus. I vouch not for the accuracy of the punctuation in the latter from a linguistic point of view (both actually were introduced some years before my first exposure to the internals of the (then) Burroughs Large Systems COBOL compilers), only for the accuracy of transcription from the symbol file (cut and pasted). I suspect some of the apostrophes are intended as accents ('E, for example)and some as indicative of contractions (CHE'L, for example), but I'll leave it to Italian scholars (or Dante aficionados) to provide a translation and/or critique to the rest of us! Likewise for the COBOL(68) citation, I would have expected either "ch'entrate" or even "ch' entrate", not "ch entrate" (no apostrophes, one space) as encoded therein. -Chuck Stevens Louis Krupp wrote in message news:38213BF2.EEC1426F@rmi.net... > At the beginning of the source for the Large Systems > COBOL compiler was this comment: > > Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate. > > "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here," inscription > on the gates of Hell from Dante's Inferno. > > Linguistic disclaimer: > > I copied the quote off the web, there seem to be > a couple of variations (ogne vs. ogni, entrate vs. > intrate), I don't recall which was (is?) in the > actual compiler, and I don't know which variation > would have been better Italian (or Tuscan), now or > in Dante's time. > > Louis Krupp ###### From: Paul Repacholi Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: 04 Nov 1999 23:48:07 +0800 Organization: The University of Western Australia Lines: 14 Message-ID: References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <38209880.6868281@nnrp.gol.com> <7vmiui$kqi$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: mussel.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.3 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!colt.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.mel.aone.net.au!newsfeed.aone.net.au!newsfeed.ozemail.com.au!ozemail.com.au!news1.optus.net.au!optus!news.uwa.edu.au!not-for-mail jmfbahciv@aol.com writes: > >/* trust me */ > > ROTFL. Would you really run code that had that as a comment? What, forgotten the happy library of comments in LINK? -- Paul Repacholi 1 Crescent Rd., +61 (08) 9257-1001 Kalamunda. West Australia 6076 Raw, Cooked or Well-done, it's all half baked. ###### From: "Charlie Gibbs" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: 04 Nov 99 08:37:47 -0800 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Lines: 22 Message-ID: <572.977T2379T5175432@sky.bus.com> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> <38213BF2.EEC1426F@rmi.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: p-819.newsdawg.com X-Newsreader: THOR 2.5a (Amiga;TCP/IP) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!pln-w!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!news2 In article <38213BF2.EEC1426F@rmi.net> lkrupp@rmi.net (Louis Krupp) writes: >At the beginning of the source for the Large Systems >COBOL compiler was this comment: > > Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate. > >"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here," inscription >on the gates of Hell from Dante's Inferno. I don't know about the Italian etymology, but I recall the English version written as: All hope abandon, ye who enter here. It certainly scans better that way. -- cgibbs@sky.bus.com (Charlie Gibbs) Remove the first period after the "at" sign to reply. ###### From: "Chuck Stevens" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 13:01:22 -0800 Organization: Unisys Corporation Lines: 41 Message-ID: <7vss6g$opk$1@mail.pl.unisys.com> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 192.59.246.203 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed2.news.nl.uu.net!sun4nl!newsfeed.online.be!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!uunet!zur.uu.net!uunet!ams.uu.net!ffx.uu.net!bbnews1!bbnews1.unisys.com!plnews.pl.unisys.com!not-for-mail Ken McNeill wrote in message news:cWlU3.41559$Ow5.60538@dfw-read.news.verio.net... > As an aside, the quote that appears at the beginning of the COBOL74 compiler > is a transcription from Dante's Inferno, which if I remember starts out: > > 'Beware all ye who enter here...' > As recorded earlier in a different thread, the original Italian of which this is a translation actually appears in the Unisys A Series (nee Burroughs Large System) COBOL(68) compiler. The COBOL74 compiler has a different, and rather longer Dante citation (also in Italian). <> Early editions, for sure. But big improvements in maintainability were incorporated in Mark 3.8 (released 1989) and have continued in subsequent releases. Much of the difficulty with the early COBOL74 compiler was that one of the design goals was to change the original COBOL(68) compiler as little as possible, and there were some areas -- group item handling being the most glaring example -- that really needed to be rewritten entirely because the underlying presumptions were wrong. The revisions in Mark 3.8 were primarily focused on overhauling the compiler enough to make it possible to make the group MOVE logic maintainable, and many really difficult problems (including the aforementioned "YES IT IS WHAT YOU THINK IT IS" comment) were eliminated, whether or not they related directly to MOVE. (If you remember the compiler, the same patch that got rid of the comment also got rid of all traces of GW2 of PASSONE, which as it turns out was used for a whole lot of things that it shouldn't have been!) Though there are still some extremely difficult areas, as I suspect in any monolithic program of over 130,000 lines [the COBOL(68) compiler upon which it was based is less than half that in its final incarnation], much of it is much less daunting than once it was. -Chuck Stevens ###### From: "Ken McNeill" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Lines: 57 Organization: Leibnitz Services Pty. Ltd. X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Message-ID: Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 15:24:59 -0500 NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.55.22.167 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verio.net X-Trace: dfw-read.news.verio.net 941746952 206.55.22.167 (Thu, 04 Nov 1999 20:22:32 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 20:22:32 GMT Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!howland.erols.net!peer.news.verio.net.MISMATCH!iad-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!dfw-read.news.verio.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Ron Hunsinger wrote in message news:hnsngr-ya023180000311990024590001@news.swbell.net... > In article <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com>, John Ahlstrom > wrote: > > > The B5500 Time Sharing System (MCP-augmented) had > > a procedure called OldWeirdHarold (modern upper-lower case usage > > all we had were upper case key punches) > > with the comment > > OldWeirdHarold does many strange and wonderous things > > some of which are useful > > I wonder if OLDWEIRDHAROLD got renamed GEORGE. That was the routine in the > B6700 MCP that did many strange and wondrous things. (Well, actually, it > did only one thing - it switched the processor from one process ("stack") > to another - but in the process it left strange and wondrous footprints in > stack dumps. > > -Ron Hunsinger Quite honestly, I don't know/remember. But if it was the case, then which GEORGE? NORMALGEORGE, ABNORMALGEORGE, ORPHANGEORGE or UNWANTEDGEORGE. Remember that all of the GEORGE procedures were declared lexically higher than SOPHIA, and when things went really bad the offender was banished to the PALACE. Considering the purported historical relationship between Sophia, Queen of Hungary (if I remember correctly) and her son George, this was probably not a good place to which to be banished. I still like the fact that JEDGARHOOVER is in charge of A Series security, and the first parameters are SUSPECT, CRIME, DOSSIER and MERCY. The comment associated with MERCY is that it is rarely given! If JEDGAR doesn't care for your crime you are subject to appearance in a KANGAROO court - from which there is no escape other than death. With foreign initiated tasking, when life goes astray, the foreigners are subjected to XENOCIDE. Task initiation on the other hand is handled by DOCTOR who calls DELIVERY. Much humor appeared in the early MCP and related software. As reported elsewhere, some of it was cleaned up, but at least the vestiges still exist throughout large parts of the software. As an aside, the quote that appears at the beginning of the COBOL74 compiler is a transcription from Dante's Inferno, which if I remember starts out: 'Beware all ye who enter here...' Anyone who has worked on the COBOL74 compiler can appreciate the thought. Happiness, Ken ###### From: jmfbahciv@aol.com Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Fri, 05 Nov 99 09:19:31 GMT Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc. Lines: 18 Message-ID: <7vubrs$hcr$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <38209880.6868281@nnrp.gol.com> <7vmiui$kqi$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> X-Trace: VIPg1yx4OsyKpGDkowUIqh+7qoUk55Hj6ZoiWHQDq0c= X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 5 Nov 1999 10:34:36 GMT X-Newsreader: News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news-koe1.dfn.de!news-was.dfn.de!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d2 In article , Paul Repacholi wrote: >jmfbahciv@aol.com writes: > >> >/* trust me */ >> >> ROTFL. Would you really run code that had that as a comment? > >What, forgotten the happy library of comments >in LINK? > I never read LINK. If it were Dave Nixon's code then I would trust it (he knew what testing meant). Anybody else..I'm not too sure. /BAH Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail. ###### From: Edward Reid Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 13:29:20 -0500 Organization: TalStar Communications Lines: 65 Message-ID: <01HW.B44869360009CDF803FB35CF@news.talstar.com> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: flux.talstar.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit User-Agent: Hogwasher 2.0b6 (Macintosh) Cache-Post-Path: flux!unknown@paleo.org X-Cache: nntpcache 2.3.2.1 (see http://www.nntpcache.org/) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.mathworks.com!gatech!news.fsu.edu!nntp.cntfl.com!not-for-mail On Thu, 4 Nov 1999 15:24:59 -0500, Ken McNeill wrote > I still like the fact that JEDGARHOOVER is in charge of A Series security, > and the first parameters are SUSPECT, CRIME, DOSSIER and MERCY. In my younger days, I once imitated this in a small log analysis program I wrote. The main loop was (in modern case) while investigate do if ten_most_wanted then capture_dead_or_alive; which actually made sense: investigate read a log record, ten_most_wanted tested for conditions I wanted to see, and capture_dead_or_alive printed a report. Yes, printed -- I said this was a long time ago. On Thu, 4 Nov 1999 12:49:26 -0500, Leif Johansson wrote > And I think in System/filedata they have picked som lines from Cande (or the > opposite) that manipulated the date with a comment like "Got it from Cande. > I don't understand why it works but it does". This is probably the code to convert day-of-year to month and day (or the procedure containing it, which produces a formatted date display). It's neat because it uses no arrays or loops. I've lightly edited this to make it easier to read here, and added a few comments: PROCEDURE SHOWDATE (DATE, PT); VALUE DATE; REAL DATE; % An integer in YYDDD format POINTER PT; % text output BEGIN DEFINE LEAP( Y ) = Y.[ 1:2 ] EQL 0 AND ( Y MOD 100 NEQ 0 OR ( Y MOD 400 EQL 0 AND Y MOD 4000 NEQ 0 ) ) #; REAL Y, J, M, D; % Now for some magic! Y := ( DATE ) DIV 1000; D := REAL( LEAP( Y ) ); J := ( DATE MOD 1000 ) + 91; IF ( J - 150 ) GTR D THEN J := J + 2 - D; DATE := J * 100 DIV 3055; M := DATE - 2; D := J - DATE * 3055 DIV 100; REPLACE PT:PT BY M FOR 2 DIGITS, "/", D FOR 2 DIGITS, "/", Y FOR 2 DIGITS; END SHOWDATE; I've never completely analyzed this. I suspect that someone who knows the history of calendrical calculations would be able to shed more light on it -- I wouldn't be surprised if the method is actually a century or two old. I do see two keys. The "* 3055 div 100" looks a lot like dividing by the average number of days in a month, so the algorithm is basically a loose fit to 12 data points -- note that the number of days in a month almost alternates between 30 and 31. The constants 91 and 150 shift the curve to account for February. Edward Reid ###### From: Lyndon Nerenberg Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: 05 Nov 1999 15:50:47 -0700 Organization: Messaging Direct Lines: 10 Message-ID: References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: zappa.esys.ca Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII X-Trace: nss.esys.ca 941842251 84556 198.161.92.28 (5 Nov 1999 22:50:51 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@messagingdirect.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 5 Nov 1999 22:50:51 GMT User-Agent: Gnus/5.070072 (Pterodactyl Gnus v0.72) Emacs/20.4 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!colt.net!easynet-uk!easynet.net!peer1.news.dircon.net!newsfeed.sgi.net!news.messagingdirect.com!not-for-mail >>>>> "John" == John Ahlstrom writes: John> The B5500 Time Sharing System (MCP-augmented) had a John> procedure called OldWeirdHarold At least it's somewhat readable :-) MTS had some real gems ... The UMMPS equivelents to malloc and free were GMABP (Get Me A Buffer Please) and HIABTYMH (Here Is A Buffer That You May Have). --lyndon ###### Message-ID: <382375FE.ED95D32A@gregpub.com> Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 16:27:42 -0800 From: Donald Gregory X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.06 [en] (Win98; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> <01HW.B44869360009CDF803FB35CF@news.talstar.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 85 NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.21.28.114 X-Trace: nntp1.ba.best.com 941851618 230 209.21.28.114 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news2.best.com!news3.best.com!nntp1.ba.best.com!not-for-mail I believe this algorithm came from an early publication (circa 1960's) of the "Collected Algorithms of the ACM". What surprises me is that somebody hasn't tried to patent it by now! :) Don Edward Reid wrote: > > On Thu, 4 Nov 1999 15:24:59 -0500, Ken McNeill wrote > > I still like the fact that JEDGARHOOVER is in charge of A Series security, > > and the first parameters are SUSPECT, CRIME, DOSSIER and MERCY. > > In my younger days, I once imitated this in a small log analysis > program I wrote. The main loop was (in modern case) > > while investigate do > if ten_most_wanted then > capture_dead_or_alive; > > which actually made sense: investigate read a log record, > ten_most_wanted tested for conditions I wanted to see, and > capture_dead_or_alive printed a report. Yes, printed -- I said > this was a long time ago. > > On Thu, 4 Nov 1999 12:49:26 -0500, Leif Johansson wrote > > And I think in System/filedata they have picked som lines from Cande (or the > > opposite) that manipulated the date with a comment like "Got it from Cande. > > I don't understand why it works but it does". > > This is probably the code to convert day-of-year to month and > day (or the procedure containing it, which produces a formatted > date display). It's neat because it uses no arrays or loops. > I've lightly edited this to make it easier to read here, and > added a few comments: > > PROCEDURE SHOWDATE (DATE, PT); > VALUE DATE; > REAL DATE; % An integer in YYDDD format > POINTER PT; % text output > BEGIN > DEFINE LEAP( Y ) = Y.[ 1:2 ] EQL 0 AND > ( Y MOD 100 NEQ 0 OR > ( Y MOD 400 EQL 0 AND Y MOD 4000 NEQ 0 ) ) #; > REAL Y, J, M, D; > % Now for some magic! > Y := ( DATE ) DIV 1000; > D := REAL( LEAP( Y ) ); > J := ( DATE MOD 1000 ) + 91; > IF ( J - 150 ) GTR D THEN > J := J + 2 - D; > DATE := J * 100 DIV 3055; > M := DATE - 2; > D := J - DATE * 3055 DIV 100; > REPLACE PT:PT BY > M FOR 2 DIGITS, > "/", > D FOR 2 DIGITS, > "/", > Y FOR 2 DIGITS; > END SHOWDATE; > > I've never completely analyzed this. I suspect that someone who > knows the history of calendrical calculations would be able to > shed more light on it -- I wouldn't be surprised if the method > is actually a century or two old. I do see two keys. The "* 3055 > div 100" looks a lot like dividing by the average number of days > in a month, so the algorithm is basically a loose fit to 12 data > points -- note that the number of days in a month almost > alternates between 30 and 31. The constants 91 and 150 shift the > curve to account for February. > > Edward Reid -- -------------------------------------- Donald J. Gregory Gregory Publishing Company See our A-Series Documentation Library at: www.gregpub.com E-Mail: donald@gregpub.com --------------------------------------- More children have been killed by automobile air bags than by guns on school yards. -- Barbara Simpson, KSFO, 8/30/1999 @ 1:30 PM ###### From: Edward Reid Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1999 14:00:00 -0500 Organization: TalStar Communications Lines: 19 Message-ID: <01HW.B449E4E00056AD4B0401BCEF@news.talstar.com> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> <01HW.B44869360009CDF803FB35CF@news.talstar.com> <382375FE.ED95D32A@gregpub.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: flux.talstar.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit User-Agent: Hogwasher 2.0b6 (Macintosh) Cache-Post-Path: flux!unknown@paleo.org X-Cache: nntpcache 2.3.2.1 (see http://www.nntpcache.org/) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.mathworks.com!gatech!news.fsu.edu!nntp.cntfl.com!not-for-mail On Fri, 5 Nov 1999 19:27:42 -0500, Donald Gregory wrote > What surprises me is that somebody hasn't tried to > patent it by now! :) One of the nice things about publishing algorithms is that it provides documented evidence of "prior art", which prevents patenting it. Well, is supposed to prevent patenting it -- one of the problems with algorithm patents is the PTO's propensity for ignoring prior art. But publication in CACM is pretty strong evidence, since it's on record in so many places. One of the difficulties in opposing many algorithm patents is that many people may remember a technique having been used, but typically none of them has retained the evidence. Complete copies of CACM are in many university libraries, and even some private libraries. Edward Reid ###### Message-ID: <364363B2.643F8DB6@gte.NOSPAM.net> From: Joe Hutcheson Reply-To: hutch@gte.NOSPAM.net Organization: Lurkers Anonymous X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win98; I) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 15 X-Trace: /w/U24RBnjCs1NBWnMwlOAUuu1pWiSu6VtXGFPM/DZzcbCVgMSqersr9v7UpwZz6HJn11nPDYsFF!fTbAjK1GtlxcDUoJVZji1Q6WmhQzajdEtXmjU46RntqJNf8GTE1Axvc= X-Complaints-To: abuse@gte.net X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 20:59:58 GMT Distribution: world Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 20:59:58 GMT Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!washdc3-snh1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!dfiatx1-snr1.gtei.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Ken McNeill wrote: > I still like the fact that JEDGARHOOVER is in charge of A Series > security, > and the first parameters are SUSPECT, CRIME, DOSSIER and MERCY. The You left out EVIDENCE. > comment associated with MERCY is that it is rarely given! > > If JEDGAR doesn't care for your crime you are subject to appearance in > a KANGAROO court - from which there is no escape other than death. I have heard two versions of the naming of KANGAROO: one similar to that above having to do with a KANGAROO court; the other that KANGAROO hops down the stack. Anyone know which it is? ###### From: "Phil Ross" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 07:03:43 -0500 Organization: PR Enterprises Lines: 87 Message-ID: <803pkh$mjm$1@nntp6.atl.mindspring.net> References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> <38213BF2.EEC1426F@rmi.net> <7vskjh$gev$1@mail.pl.unisys.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ce.d9.6f.93 X-Server-Date: 7 Nov 1999 12:00:17 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeed.mathworks.com!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net.MISMATCH!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!not-for-mail In the "but wait, there's more .." section: There was a 1967 Univac "NASA/Apollo Technical Note #71" publication which described "STATUS" -- the Univac "Synergistic Trim Assembler and Tape Utility System" (a meta-assembler which ran on the Univac CP642B/1230 to create assembled programs on Univac 1218). In keeping with the "style" of many "think tanks" (i.e., often university grad student writers), each section cover had one or more quotes from (usually) the past. The section cover for "Input/Output" had both of the following, Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate and Obscurum per obscurius. Of course the Technical Note was long over due when published by Univac (at NASA/Goddard), so it contained, on the front cover a quote from Plutarch, written in ancient Greek which probably would be tranliterated as: metron gar tou biou to kalon, ou to tou chronou mykos. (Freely translated: Measure things in life by goodness, and not by length of time.) ---------------------- Also, Univac claimed a "weird Harold" of sorts ... a Harold Bosworth Foonman (or Harry Foonman) who was, among other things, the creator of the "Heuristic Problem Solver," a contributor to Walt Gilbert's USE Newsletter columns, as well as the originator of the well-documented "Save the BFR" campaign in the early 70s. (BTW: The BFR was saved.) Chuck Stevens wrote in message news:7vskjh$gev$1@mail.pl.unisys.com... > True. The citation, verbatim et literatim, is actually "LASCIATE OGNI > SPERANZA VOI CH ENTRATE" and it is in the symbol for the > recently-decommissioned COBOL(68) compiler and remains in the version which > we still support for a few customers on a case-by-case CER basis. > > The COBOL74 compiler was based on the COBOL(68) compiler, and the "split" > occurred around the time the above quote was introduced into the COBOL(68) > symbol. In the corresponding place in COBOL74, I find: > AGUZZA QUI, LETTOR, BEN LI OCCHI AL VERO, > CHE'L VELO 'E ORA BEN TANTO SOTTILE, > CERTO, CHE'L TRAPASSAR DENTRO 'E LEGGERO. > also attributed to Dante, and also, I suspect, from the same opus. > > I vouch not for the accuracy of the punctuation in the latter from a > linguistic point of view (both actually were introduced some years before my > first exposure to the internals of the (then) Burroughs Large Systems COBOL > compilers), only for the accuracy of transcription from the symbol file > (cut and pasted). I suspect some of the apostrophes are intended as accents > ('E, for example)and some as indicative of contractions (CHE'L, for > example), but I'll leave it to Italian scholars (or Dante aficionados) to > provide a translation and/or critique to the rest of us! > > Likewise for the COBOL(68) citation, I would have expected either > "ch'entrate" or even "ch' entrate", not "ch entrate" (no apostrophes, one > space) as encoded therein. > > -Chuck Stevens > > Louis Krupp wrote in message > news:38213BF2.EEC1426F@rmi.net... > > At the beginning of the source for the Large Systems > > COBOL compiler was this comment: > > > > Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate. > > > > "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here," inscription > > on the gates of Hell from Dante's Inferno. > > > > Linguistic disclaimer: > > > > I copied the quote off the web, there seem to be > > a couple of variations (ogne vs. ogni, entrate vs. > > intrate), I don't recall which was (is?) in the > > actual compiler, and I don't know which variation > > would have been better Italian (or Tuscan), now or > > in Dante's time. > > > > Louis Krupp > > ###### From: "Ken McNeill" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys References: <19991012235225.05660.00000406@ng-fb1.aol.com> <7u1q7p$e5g$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381E7033.2FB9C12D@davesworld.net> <381F133B.CBBA567B@cisco.com> <364363B2.643F8DB6@gte.NOSPAM.net> Subject: Re: Amusing Source Code Comments (again) Lines: 24 Organization: Leibnitz Services Pty. Ltd. X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Message-ID: <4pgV3.55439$Ow5.91822@dfw-read.news.verio.net> Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 09:57:25 -0500 NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.55.22.167 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verio.net X-Trace: dfw-read.news.verio.net 941986496 206.55.22.167 (Sun, 07 Nov 1999 14:54:56 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 14:54:56 GMT Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!colt.net!iad-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!dfw-read.news.verio.net.POSTED!not-for-mail I believe that both have relevance! Apologies for the omission of EVIDENCE - I was a little rushed at the time. ;-{ Joe Hutcheson wrote in message news:364363B2.643F8DB6@gte.NOSPAM.net... > Ken McNeill wrote: > > I still like the fact that JEDGARHOOVER is in charge of A Series > > security, > > and the first parameters are SUSPECT, CRIME, DOSSIER and MERCY. The > > You left out EVIDENCE. > > > comment associated with MERCY is that it is rarely given! > > > > If JEDGAR doesn't care for your crime you are subject to appearance in > > a KANGAROO court - from which there is no escape other than death. > > I have heard two versions of the naming of KANGAROO: one similar to that > above having to do with a KANGAROO court; the other that KANGAROO hops > down the stack. Anyone know which it is?