From faca11dec39f0c8e74d54ded8b1babb031d945c4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Eric S. Raymond" Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 02:16:54 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] More appreciation. --- doc/mad-manual.xml | 28 ++++++++++++++++++---------- 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/mad-manual.xml b/doc/mad-manual.xml index 4111664..4b078c5 100644 --- a/doc/mad-manual.xml +++ b/doc/mad-manual.xml @@ -83,8 +83,8 @@ language features that at this date the infant discipline of computer science had yet to separate itself from applied mathematics. All the impedimenta of mathematical notation are present not just in the formulas, but in the language syntax descriptions where script letters -are used as metavariables. The whole is written in the rather clotted -prose one finds in mathematical papers. +are used as metavariables. The whole is written in the rather stilted +over-formal prose one typically finds in mathematical papers. Certain phrasings in the manual suggest that the authors thought of flowcharts as the primary notation for programs, and @@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ made sense at the time; programming notations were clumsy and primitive, and the typical complexity of programs was very low. By five years later (roughly three or four Moore's-Law doublings) flowcharting was going out of fashion, probably for the simple -reasin that flowcharts were getting too large to draw and read! +reason that flowcharts were getting too large to draw and read! There are some significant respects in which MAD was actually rather advanced for its period. The multiline WHENEVER statement @@ -105,13 +105,21 @@ illustrates, MAD even supported what was later called higher-order programming — passing around function-valued variables! +On the other hand, there are some features of MAD which make one +truly wonder what the designers were thinking — the handling of +array indexing, for example. If 1962 weren't a couple of years too +early to attribute that to an LSD overdose it would make a tempting +hypothesis. + In most of the respects we've described, however, MAD is very -typical of its time. This will become apparent from a look at the -Retrocomputing Museum implementation of CORC/CUPL, which is rather -similar (though less powerful). This entire family of languages -became extinct in the 1970s, snuffed out like dinosaurs by the -meteoritic impact of time-shared computing and teletypewriter-like -interactive terminals. +representative of its time. This will become apparent from a look at +the Retrocomputing Museum implementation of CORC/CUPL, which is rather +similar (though less powerful). MAD's grammar — ad-hoc and +festooned with many more keywords than a modern language would employ +— is very typical. This entire family of languages became +extinct in the 1970s, snuffed out like dinosaurs by the meteoritic +impact of time-shared computing and teletypewriter-like interactive +terminals. @@ -2134,7 +2142,7 @@ is to appear. Specifications for reading or punching cards and printing of information are identical, whith the following exceptions: (a) A card has only 72 available -columnsActually, 80 columns may be usd, provided the +columnsActually, 80 columns may be used, provided the proper computer hardware configuration is available. The use of 72 columns is always safe, however, and strongly recommended. while a line of print has 120 -- 2.43.0