[time-nuts] P word in my mails

John Ackermann N8UR jra at febo.com
Wed Apr 1 14:40:09 UTC 2009


Sorry, Ulrich -- just a joke!  I actually wrote a lot of code in Turbo 
Pascal back in the 80s, and liked it a lot.  (I know that Wirth et al 
never viewed the TP extensions to Pascal as valid, but they sure made it 
more useful.)

John
----

Ulrich Bangert wrote:
> Gentlemen,
> 
>> Gee, and I thought he was talking about Pascal. :-)
>>
>> John
>> ----
> 
> Pascal = P word ??? I am a professional programmer and regulary program in a
> number of different languages among them Pascal, the language that comes
> after "B" and assembler for some microcontroller families. I have been
> thinking that among professionals the question which is the better
> programming language is as modern as the last centuries 80th. But if a
> reheated discussion is necessary, here is something that I can lough about:
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Unix/Linux an elaborate April Fools prank - Ben Dover
> 30-May-07 09:52:22
> 
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
> 
> In an announcement that has stunned the computer industry, Ken
> Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan admitted that the Unix
> operating system and C programming language created by them is an
> elaborate April Fools prank kept alive for over 20 years.  Speaking at
> the recent UnixWorld Software Development Forum, Thompson revealed the
> following:
> 
> In 1969, AT&T had just terminated their work with the GE/AT&T Multics
> project.  Brian and I had just started working with an early release
> of Pascal from Professor Nichlaus Wirth's ETH labs in Switzerland and
> we were impressed with its elegant simplicity and power.  Dennis had
> just finished reading Bored of the Rings, a hilarious National Lampoon
> parody of the great Tolkien Lord of the Rings trilogy.  As a lark, we
> decided to do parodies of the Multics environment and Pascal.  Dennis
> and I were responsible for the operating environment.  We looked at
> Multics and designed the new system to be as complex and cryptic as
> possible to maximize casual users' frustration levels, calling it Unix
> as a parody of Multics, as well as other more risque allusions.
> 
> Then Dennis and Brian worked on a truly warped version of Pascal,
> called "A."  When we found others were actually trying to create real
> programs with A, we quickly added additional cryptic features and
> evolved into B, BCPL and finally C. We stopped when we got a clean
> compile on the following syntax:
> 
> for(;P("\n"),R=;P("|"))for(e=C;e=P("_"+(*u++/8)%2))P("|"+(*u/4)%2);
> 
> To think that modern programmers would try to use a language that
> allowed such a statement was beyond our comprehension!  We actually
> thought of selling this to the Soviets to set their computer science
> progress back 20 or more years.  Imagine our surprise when AT&T and
> other US corporations actually began trying to use Unix and C!  It has
> taken them 20 years to develop enough expertise to generate even
> marginally useful applications using this 1960's technological parody,
> but we are impressed with the tenacity (if not common sense) of the
> general Unix and C programmer.
> 
> In any event, Brian, Dennis and I have been working exclusively in
> Pascal on the Apple Macintosh for the past few years and feel really
> guilty about the chaos, confusion and truly bad programming that has
> resulted from our silly prank so long ago.
> 
> Major Unix and C vendors and customers, including AT&T, Microsoft,
> Hewlett-Packard, GTE, NCR, and DEC have refused comment at this time.
> Borland International, a leading vendor of Pascal and C tools,
> including the popular Turbo Pascal, Turbo C and Turbo C++, stated they
> had suspected this for a number of years and would continue to enhance
> their Pascal products and halt further efforts to develop C.  An IBM
> spokesman broke into uncontrolled laughter and had to postpone a
> hastely convened news conference concerning the fate of the RS-6000,
> merely stating "VM will be available Real Soon Now."  In a cryptic
> statement, Professor Wirth of the ETH institute and father of the
> Pascal, Modula 2 and Oberon structured languages, merely stated that
> P. T. Barnum was correct. 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Best regards
> Ulrich Bangert
> 
>> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
>> Von: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com 
>> [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] Im Auftrag von John Ackermann N8UR
>> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 1. April 2009 15:12
>> An: aa8k at comcast.net; Discussion of precise time and 
>> frequency measurement
>> Betreff: Re: [time-nuts] P word in my mails
>>
>>
>> Gee, and I thought he was talking about Pascal. :-)
>>
>> John
>> ----
>>
>> Mike Naruta AA8K wrote:
>>> Not to worry Ulrich, he was using a form
>>> of derisive humor.  He was insulting Prologix
>>> as undesirable.
>>>
>>> It would be similar to referring to Microsoft
>>> as the M-word.
>>>
>>>
>>> Mike - AA8K
>>>
>>>
>>> Ulrich Bangert wrote:
>>>> Steve,
>>>>
>>>> after I read your mail I have been completely perplexed because I 
>>>> could by no stretch of imagination detect where you had found the 
>>>> aforesaid P word in my mail. It needed the help of some English 
>>>> speaking friends and a search in my last mails to find out that I 
>>>> have (possibly over a range of more than 30
>>>> years) used an American 5 letter word in another sense 
>> than most/all of you
>>>> seem to interprete it. 
>>>>
>>>> I HAVE seen the aforesaid word on some doors during my 
>> visits to he 
>>>> United States and I HAVE understood the meaning of the 
>> word in this 
>>>> context. But I swear that I have not been aware of the 
>> fact that the 
>>>> aforesaid word is used EXCLUSIVELY for the location behind these 
>>>> doors. If I had been aware of that I would have never used 
>> this word 
>>>> in a conversation because that is simply not my style.
>>>>
>>>> Instead, I have been believing (and I swear this is the 
>> truth) that 
>>>> the aforesaid word is used by a gentlemen to address a 
>> group of other 
>>>> gentlemen just as a "Hi folks" among noble people but avoiding the 
>>>> highly offical salutation "Gentlemen", in a sense a 
>> laid-back use of 
>>>> "Gentlemen".
>>>>
>>>> Clearly this is a mistake of mine that I cannot other than to 
>>>> apologize for! If anyone of you has felt offended or in 
>> any other way 
>>>> been affected by my wrong use of this word: Sorry for 
>> that, that was 
>>>> NOT my intention in using this term. I have started a lot 
>> of my posts 
>>>> to this group with this word because of the high s/n ratio to be 
>>>> found here and the extremely well educated people in the 
>> group that I 
>>>> hold in high regard.
>>>>
>>>> Someone should have told me before! If you find this word 
>> in one of 
>>>> my earlier posts substitute it with "Gentlemen" because 
>> that is what 
>>>> was ment.
>>>>
>>>> Thank you Steve for pointing at that. If you had not done 
>> it I would
>>>> propably have used the word in a wrong sense for the rest 
>> of my life.      
>>>>  
>>>> Best regards
>>>> Ulrich Bangert
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
>>>>> Von: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com
>>>>> [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] Im Auftrag von Steve Rooke
>>>>> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 1. April 2009 11:57
>>>>> An: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
>>>>> Betreff: Re: [time-nuts] Prologix
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> This man said the P word without any form of apology :-)
>>>>>
>>>>> 73
>>>>>
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