[Info-vax] VMS process communication

[Steven Schweda]

> If you stop 100 random people on the street and ask about integers, then
> 99 won't have a clue what you are talking about.

   99 might be high, but I'd guess at least 90.  Unless you choose the
street _very_ carefully.


> Those that remember their math should think of Z.

   You can't remember what you never learned.  I live in a country where
store clerks can't make change for a dollar in their heads.  Back when I
commonly used cash, and wasn't feeling depressed enough, I could buy
something, hand over some bills, wait for the register to calculate the
change, and then hand over some coins to reduce the number of coins
returned.  And watch the puny-brain at the register suffer a complete
intellectual collapse.

   So, no, I wouldn't expect 99% of "random people on the street" to
have any idea what an integer is.

> The rest should vaguely remember that "numbers without decimals" are 
> called integers.

   "should" and "would" are spelled differently for a reason.

   Thirty-odd years ago, on a business trip to California, I had
breakfast a few times at a Burger King in Fremont which was convenient
to the motel.  I was late enough to miss the morning rush, so I dealt
with the manager, who rang up the sale, entering the purchase total as
the amount tendered.  He then made change, correctly, using his head
rather than the register.  I was so thrilled by this performance that I
almost wrote a commendation letter to the company.  But I realized that
he was violating company policy, and decided not to risk getting him
reprimanded (or worse).

   But he was an immigrant, not educated here.