[Info-vax] Micro Focus to be acquired by Open Text

[Kerry Main]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Info-vax <info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com> On Behalf Of Johnny
> Billquist via Info-vax
> Sent: September-03-22 7:58 AM
> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> Cc: Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se>
> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] Micro Focus to be acquired by Open Text
> 
> On 2022-09-02 17:10, Dave Froble wrote:
> > On 9/2/2022 10:57 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> >> On 2022-09-02 16:45, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> >>> On 9/2/2022 10:33 AM, John Dallman wrote:
> >>>> In article <63120065$0$705$14726298 at news.sunsite.dk>,
> >>>> arne at vajhoej.dk (Arne Vajhøj) wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> What about CDC Display code?
> >>>>>
> >>>>> :-)
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Hint: 6 bit! (well 6 or 6/12 bit)
> >>>>
> >>>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDC_display_code> That's ... well,
> >>>> it looks insane to me, but I presume it was at least somewhat
> >>>> suited to the needs of the time. I don't believe the 63- and
> >>>> 64-character variations can ever have been a good idea, though.
> >>>
> >>> It sort of made sense as the CDC system at the time operated on 60
> >>> bit entities (18 bit addresses of 60 bit words).
> >>>
> >>> 10 characters of 6 bits in a 60 bit word is manageable.
> >>>
> >>> 5-10 characters of 6/12 bits in a 60 bit word is somewhat manageable.
> >>>
> >>> 7.5 characters of 8 bit in a 60 bit word is not fun.
> >>
> >> Just waiting for someone to bring up the PDP-10 now. Bytes are of
> >> variable length in the hardware, but 5 7-bit bytes in one word was
> >> common, with just one wasted bit per word.
> >> But again, 8-bit bytes would waste 4 bits per word...
> >>
> >>   Johnny
> >
> > Back in the early 1970s I took a course in Cobol at University.  Cobol
> > on the PDP-10 used 6 bit characters.  6 characters per 36 bit word.
> >
> > There, you got your mention ...
> >
> > :-)
> 
> SIXBIT. Yay! That was popular at DEC for a while. Funny thing is that SIXBIT
> was also used on PDP-8, but they choose to do it differently than the PDP-10
> for some reason. Just adding to the confusion.
> 
> (PDP-10 took the ASCII and subtracted 48 and then masked with 63, while
> PDP-8 took the ASCII and masked it with 63, if I remember right.)
> 
>    Johnny
>

 Re: PDP8 .. a nice historical PDP8 and other early compute players perspective - I believe by Richard (Richie) Lary:
<http://sunsite.tus.ac.jp/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-8/docs/WHAT-IS-A-PDP8>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp2NSbJ2H1k> 

Regards,

Kerry Main
Kerry dot main at starkgaming dot com







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