[Info-vax] factory codes

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <op.u5j0slbchv4qyg at murphus.hsd1.ca.comcast.net>,
	"Tom Linden" <tom at kednos.company> writes:
> On Fri, 25 Dec 2009 05:26:10 -0800, Robin Schipper <"thespriteman  
> <remove_this> wrote:
> 
>> Op 25-12-09 14:03, Bill Gunshannon schreef:
>>> In  
>>> article<2d2b59bd-2c8d-4606-b08d-508860ad37ae at m38g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>,
>>> 	H Vlems<hvlems at freenet.de>  writes:
>>>
>>>> On 24 dec, 21:31, billg... at cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> In  
>>>>> article<233563b3-a8c9-4787-abb3-af101f386... at j19g2000yqk.googlegroups.com>,
>>>>>          H Vlems<hvl... at freenet.de>  writes:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 23 dec, 14:59, Jan-Erik Söderholm<jan-erik.soderh... at telia.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> dsnyder wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The 3rd Digit indicates the year
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The 4th&  5th digits indicate the week of manufacture from
>>>>>>>> January.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The remaining digits indicate the run number.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>>> 00005 =        The 5th one made at this plant
>>>>>>>> 00100 =        The 100th one made at this plant...
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>> ...at that particular year+week or whenever ?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> The answer must be 'whenever', or cumulative if you like. Otherwise
>>>>>> it's difficult to explain serial numbers that end in .....A0123.
>>>>>>
>>>>> Hey, I just thought of something interesting.  Montagar must have  
>>>>> quite
>>>>> a list of Serial Numbers.  I wonder  how hard it would and if they  
>>>>> would
>>>>> be willing to extract them and provide them to someone (like me :-)  
>>>>> and
>>>>> we could run a report to show some stats on places and dates of  
>>>>> manufacture.
>>>>> I would get a real kick out of writting something in COBOL to do that.
>>>>> That would bring back some memories and probably provide some  
>>>>> interesting
>>>>> info to the group.
>>>>>
>>>>> (Yes, I realize someone could probably do it all with a line or two of
>>>>> SQL, but let an old man have his fun.  :-)
>>>>>
>>>>> bill
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three  
>>>>> wolves
>>>>> billg... at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
>>>>> University of Scranton   |
>>>>> Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include<std.disclaimer.h>    -  
>>>>> Tekst uit oorspronkelijk bericht niet weergeven -
>>>>>
>>>>> - Tekst uit oorspronkelijk bericht weergeven -
>>>>>
>>>> Excellent idea Bill, though I'd probably do it in Pascal or PL/I just
>>>> to relearn that language.
>>>> Will you contact Montagar? I can't imagine why they wouldn't want to.
>>>> The SN by itself is pretty meaningless.
>>>>
>>> I'll give it a shot.  The worst they can do is say "No".
>>>
>>> Merry Christmas everyone.
>>>
>>> bill
>>>
>>>
>> if someone is interested, i can pull up a list of about 500 VMS systems  
>> that we have / had in our CMDB.
>>
>> just give me a mail,
> 
> I would be interested, maybe knockout  sample PL/I program.  Hey let's  
> make this
> a contest to see who can do it in the fewest statements in whatever  
> language.
> (note I did not say lines of code:-)

Meaningless contest.  Number of statements needed to accomplish a task
is not a reaonable measure of anything as regards the usefullness of a
language.  Even using COBOL I have taken program that when done properly
took up pages and pages of paper and reduced them to a single page worth
of code.  Functionality was the same, but you wouldn't want to be the one
who had to maintain that program. (I did it in an academic environment
over 30 years ago to demonstrate why the students were being taught
"Structured COBOL".)

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>