9 Apr
1999
9 Apr
'99
3:45 a.m.
Wonderful quote from my boss, who's (supposed to be a professional programmer
for Caterpillar):
"You should use strings instead of integers. You can put bigger numbers in
a string."
[Large progressive rant here, nevermind me...]
This came up while I was being forced to write a Visual Basic program.
You see, he saw me playing with BASIC on one of the UNIXen, and he thinks
"BASIC = Visual Basic!". It doesn't. Visual basic is almost entirely
worse. You guys think BASIC is bad? How about BASIC that automagically
writes bad Windows code for you! This thing couldn't make optimized code
if Billy-boy's monopoly depended on it.
On top of that, the bad code that it DOES generate doesn't even work.
We build the .EXE on a Win98 machine - Now it refusues to run on 95.
Microsoft's wizard for making install programs for your software sucks worse.
It replaced some DLLs it wasn't supposed to have on our (one and only, thank
Goddess!) NT server, and NT crashed like you wouldn't believe. I'm gonna
have a hell of a time putting THAT back together... On top of this, the
installer doesn't run under 95, either. It starts just fine, makes a pathetic
attempt at copying files, then blows up horrbibly with Error 0x16E. Wasn't
Billy saying they were supposed to make our error messages make SENSE? With
an error message like that, a dialog box reading "YOU LOSE!" would be better.
Not to mention a damn sight funnier. We're going to reformat one of our 95
boxen and start from a clean machine - My bet is the installer will find some
way to do nasty things to the partition table.
The sad part is, this has become the status quo. And I hate it. I can't stand
it. This is progress? If progress is like evolution, I'd sure like to jump
back in time and see what we came from, it's probably a lot better than the
here-and-now... Another quote from my boss:
"In programming, it doesn't matter how well it runs or does it's job. The
bottom line is, 'can we sell it to someone?'"
Is it just me, or is that just plain wrong? Please say it's not only me...
I hate being alone, 'cause that means I'm right and everyone else is wrong.
Sorry for that, I just needed to vent. Do with it what you will...
-------
9 Apr
9 Apr
6:10 a.m.
Wonderful quote from my boss, who's (supposed to
be a professional programmer
for Caterpillar):
"You should use strings instead of integers. You can put bigger numbers in
a string."
Sounds a little like a BASIC I used to work with...
My first job out of college was programming in BASIC-X, the proprietary
dialect used on the BTI-5000 and BTI-8000 minis. One of its features was
"string arithmetic" which allowed you to store arbitrary precision
numbers in strings and perform the normal mathematical functions.
Example:
10 DIM A$(10), B$(10)
20 A$="12345678.90"
30 B$="34567890.10"
40 A$=A$+B$
50 PRINT B$
Handy for big dollar calculations like Bill Gates' net worth or the
annual budget reconciliation.
Out of curiousity, am I the only one on the list to have ever seen one
of these beasts?
The 5000 (I think there were also 4000 and possibly 6000) systems were
small refrigerator-sized boxes that were used in turnkey apps like car
dealerships.
The 8000 was a marvel- 1981 vintage 32-bit symmetric mutiprocessor. Big
19" cabinets, standard CDC washing machine drives, etc. Most diagnostcs
were performed remotely and it was often possible to restart a crashed
system without losing any work. Unfortunately, as far ahead of its time
as the BTI-8000 was, it suffered from lousy system software and languages.
BASIC-X ran in a compatability mode (an RM-derived BASIC was killed off
shortly after the 1.0 release); the FORTRAN compiler was buggy as hell;
and PASCAL was the only language that let you get anywhere near the
hardware. Towards the end, their great claim to fame was their "Hot COBOL"
compiler, a native-code compiler which replaced a Ryan-MacFarland-derived
interpreted one, which they tried to compete against the HP-3000 with.
If ever a box deserved a Unix port...
The one I worked on at Monmouth College was decommisioned in approx. 1989.
I recall there being one in the mayors office of the City of New York, but
I don't know of any others.
<<<John>>>
8:49 a.m.
New subject: BTI machines Re: [RANTISH] Programming Stupidity
Upon the date 11:10 AM 4/9/99 -0400, John Ruschmeyer said something like:
There was one of these in Jamestown at the large Chevrolet dealer that was
taken out of service in the late '80's. This was back in '90 or '91
before
I was 'into' old computers. It was sort-of offered to me by a next-door
neighbor who's brother had it stashed in a barn south of town. He worked at
the Chevy dealership. I was lukewarm to it as it was said to be large and I
would have had to keep it out in a damp, unheated garage. Very lousy for
such gear as most of you know.
Anyway, he gave me the make and model (which I forgot now, but I *think* it
could have been a 4000) and I called BTI to see what it was and other info.
BTI knew from the s/n I gave them the actual dealer who had owned it and
other service info. The friendly fellow I talked with told me it was either
HP 1000- or 2000-based hardware or was a clone of same. Again, I cannot
recall for sure whether it was clone or actual HP iron. Do you, John, or
anybody else know which it was?
He told that they make systems that are mostly used in auto dealerships,
which confirms what you'd learned John. If I got the machine they could
offer some documentation if any was laying around their office. (Where can
we find this type of friendly personality at any company nowadays?)
The lead fell through as the neighbor got killed in a rather tragic auto
accident while on his way to work early one morning. Left a pregnant young
wife and 4-yr-old stepdaughter.
Regards, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.ggw.org/awa
> Wonderful quote from my boss, who's (supposed
to be a professional
programmer
for
Caterpillar):
"You should use strings instead of integers. You can put bigger numbers in
a string."
Sounds a little like a BASIC I used to work with...
My first job out of college was programming in BASIC-X, the proprietary
dialect used on the BTI-5000 and BTI-8000 minis. One of its features was
"string arithmetic" which allowed you to store arbitrary precision
numbers in strings and perform the normal mathematical functions.
Example:
10 DIM A$(10), B$(10)
20 A$="12345678.90"
30 B$="34567890.10"
40 A$=A$+B$
50 PRINT B$
Handy for big dollar calculations like Bill Gates' net worth or the
annual budget reconciliation.
Out of curiousity, am I the only one on the list to have ever seen one
of these beasts?
The 5000 (I think there were also 4000 and possibly 6000) systems were
small refrigerator-sized boxes that were used in turnkey apps like car
dealerships. 
7:55 a.m.
At 05:45 AM 4/9/99 -0700, Daniel A. Seagraves wrote:
Sorry for that, I just needed to vent. Do with it what
you will...
You Go! :-) Actually, Microsoft has never claimed (and it has nearly always
been enforced) that there was ANY compatibility going backwards on their
releases. The only time they make an _explicit_ backward compatibility
statement is when you were using VC++4.0 on Win95 to make Win3.1 binaries.
If you build it on an earilier release, and follow all the rules, it will
run on later releases. It never works the other way around. That is why I
built some code on Win95 original, for distribution, it works on all Win95
and Win98 systems.
--Chuck
9:13 a.m.
On Fri, 9 Apr 1999, Daniel A. Seagraves wrote:
"You should use strings instead of integers. You
can put bigger numbers in
a string."
"In programming, it doesn't matter how well it runs or does it's job. The
bottom line is, 'can we sell it to someone?'"
Sounds like management. Welcome to the real world, Daniel.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 04/03/99]
9:16 a.m.
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10:21 a.m.
Once upon a midnight dreary, Sean 'Captain Napalm' Conner had spoken clearly:
I disagree... this isn't correct _to a point_... this is correct. Of
course, it does depend on the type of job you're doing, but just because
it's different doesn't mean it's wrong, or slow.
*All* numbers are stored as strings when programming in Perl. There's no
worry for large number variables, and despite the math functions are a
little slower than other languages, there's no conversion overhead for when
you're printing those numbers out. As Perl is designed for information
extraction and reporting, numbers being stored as a string is a *plus*.
I'll *never* program in plain ol' Basic again when I need a quickie proggy
to convert a CSV file or somesuch... I can finish a job in 1/3 the time
with Perl, have it execute a little faster, and a lower incidence of errors
(which are easier to find, BTW....)
Just my NSHO,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger --- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
Recycling is good, right??? Ok, so I'll recycle an old .sig.
If at first you don't succeed, nuclear warhead
disarmament should *not* be your first career choice.
It was thus said that the Great Sellam Ismail once
stated:
>
> On Fri, 9 Apr 1999, Daniel A. Seagraves wrote:
>
> > "You should use strings instead of integers. You can put bigger
numbers in
> a
string."
Technically, that is correct (to a point). I have a program that
calculates e to some insane precision (based upon the work done by Woz on
the Apple ][ and published in Byte magazine) and the number could be
considered stored in a string. 
10:50 a.m.
On Fri, 9 Apr 1999, Daniel A. Seagraves wrote:
Is it just me, or is that just plain wrong? Please say
it's not only me...
I hate being alone, 'cause that means I'm right and everyone else is wrong.
I think we all know how you feel...perhaps, when some of the more
dedicated computer geeks die, they go to a place free of bureaucracy.
Bill Gates and similar scoundrels would go to a place reminiscent of the
CIA. Hey, I can wish, can't I?
--Max Eskin (max82(a)surfree.com)
12 Apr
12 Apr
1:37 p.m.
New subject: [RANTISH] Programming Stupidity, useless errors, et al.
I agree with you 100%. If Winblows is top of the line bullshit, then I
think I'll find a new hobby. I love my Linux machines (P166, SparcII) and
loath the Win98.
Speaking of useless dialogues, I was reading a PC Magazines or something
over someone's shoulder a long time ago (When 95a was big) and there was a
"Useless Dialogue of the Month" section... the winner was a windoe that
said: "Error: Windows cannot delete this file. Reason: Not enough free
space. Try deleting some files first".
Suck it, M$.
Kevin
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After sifting through the overwritten remaining blocks of Luke's
home directory, Luke and PDP-1 sped away from /u/lars, across the surface
of the Winchester riding Luke's flying read/write head. PDP-1 had Luke stop
at the edge of the cylinder overlooking /usr/spool/uucp.
"Unix-to-Unix Copy Program;" said PDP-1. "You will never find a
more wretched hive of bugs and flamers. We must be cautious."
-- DECWARS
____________________________________________________________________
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| KC8BLL ----------| Wrapped in a mystery -Milford High School |
| a2k(a)one.net | Wrapped in an enigma Drama Tech Dept. |
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a2k＠one.net -
cfandt＠netsync.net -
cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com -
dastar＠ncal.verio.com -
DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com -
jruschme＠hiway1.exit109.com -
max82＠surfree.com -
spc＠armigeron.com -
zmerch＠30below.com