Re: Thou shalt have no other gods before the ANSI C standard
From: Peter Flass (Peter_Flass_at_Yahoo.com)
Date: 02/06/05
- Next message: Anne & Lynn Wheeler: "Re: [Lit.] Buffer overruns"
- Previous message: Mack: "Re: [Lit.] Buffer overruns"
- In reply to: Charlie Gibbs: "Re: Thou shalt have no other gods before the ANSI C standard"
- Next in thread: Erwann ABALEA: "Re: Thou shalt have no other gods before the ANSI C standard"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]
Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 22:36:18 GMT
Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> In article <PN-dnRk-d7vslpvfRVn-sA@rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com
> (jmfbahciv) writes:
>
>
>>In article <36kt4jF52qdprU2@individual.net>, blmblm@myrealbox.com
>>wrote:
>>
>>
>>>In article <tPqdnSEVrZG_epnfRVn-hQ@rcn.net>, <jmfbahciv@aol.com>
>>>wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Another soul-stopper is when you find out that these kids don't
>>>>know that computers can't add.
>>>
>>>Please provide your definition of "can't add". Obviously having
>>>something in the instruction set that performs an operation that is
>>>described as "add the contents of these two registers, treating them
>>>as two's complement integers, and put the result in that register"
>>>doesn't count ....? (Not being argumentative, though it's tempting;
>>>instead wondering what it is I'm not getting here.)
>>
>>Humans add in decimal and thus assume computers do so, too. Some
>>computers did add in decimal but the last one I met could only
>>deal with cards and a TTY console.
>
>
> The IBM 1620 did everything - including memory addressing - in decimal.
> And it couldn't add (although a later version did add enough circuitry
> to do so). Addition was done by hardware-driven table lookup in low
> memory, which led to its nickname "CADET": Can't Add, Doesn't Even Try.
>
And I understand, tho I have no first-hand experience, that you could do
all kinds of neat stuff by overlaying the table.
- Next message: Anne & Lynn Wheeler: "Re: [Lit.] Buffer overruns"
- Previous message: Mack: "Re: [Lit.] Buffer overruns"
- In reply to: Charlie Gibbs: "Re: Thou shalt have no other gods before the ANSI C standard"
- Next in thread: Erwann ABALEA: "Re: Thou shalt have no other gods before the ANSI C standard"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]
Relevant Pages
|
