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To what end, though? So the mostly dead people responsible can rest more easily in an uncaring universe? We may as well remember Lucy, the former vacuum tube a

To what end, though? So the mostly dead people responsible can rest more easily in an uncaring universe? We may as well remember Lucy, the former vacuum tube assembler and current resident of the dustbin of history.

pjmlp 10y ago
So that people learn from the past and prepare for a better future. For example, many millennial have this strange idea that C and C++ are the only option for native AOT compiled code, with language features for cache control, RAII or system programming in general. The aren't the only option, they became the only option given the decisions that the OS vendors took regarding which languages to sell to their customers on the OS SDKs. Many of those decisions weren't taken in terms of language quality, rather due to money as UNIX was a free OS, whereas other OSes with better Rust like safety were of course more expensive than free. So young developers get taught this myth that C was the first system programming language, when in the mid-60's we already had mainframe systems being programmed in type safe systems programming languages, across the whole stack. Using languages like NEWP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEWP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEWP), just to give one example. A language where one already had the distinction between safe and unsafe modules, with unsafe modules requiring administrator privileges to run.
- paulddraper 10y ago
  Most of the wiki article is speculation on the origin of the name.
  - pjmlp 10y ago
    With a link to the NEWP manual and other others ones that you didn't follow. But if you prefer more in-depth information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_large_systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_large_systems http://www.cs.virginia.edu/brochure/images/manuals/b5000/brochure/b5000_broch.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/brochure/images/manuals/b5000/bro... http://www.smecc.org/The%20Architecture%20%20of%20the%20Burroughs%20B-5000.htm http://www.smecc.org/The%20Architecture%20%20of%20the%20Burr... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6988535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6988535 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3q5n1mR9iM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3q5n1mR9iM

pjmlp 10y ago

So that people learn from the past and prepare for a better future. For example, many millennial have this strange idea that C and C++ are the only option for native AOT compiled code, with language features for cache control, RAII or system programming in general. The aren't the only option, they became the only option given the decisions that the OS vendors took regarding which languages to sell to their customers on the OS SDKs. Many of those decisions weren't taken in terms of language quality, rather due to money as UNIX was a free OS, whereas other OSes with better Rust like safety were of course more expensive than free. So young developers get taught this myth that C was the first system programming language, when in the mid-60's we already had mainframe systems being programmed in type safe systems programming languages, across the whole stack. Using languages like NEWP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEWP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEWP), just to give one example. A language where one already had the distinction between safe and unsafe modules, with unsafe modules requiring administrator privileges to run.

paulddraper 10y ago
Most of the wiki article is speculation on the origin of the name.
- pjmlp 10y ago
  With a link to the NEWP manual and other others ones that you didn't follow. But if you prefer more in-depth information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_large_systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_large_systems http://www.cs.virginia.edu/brochure/images/manuals/b5000/brochure/b5000_broch.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/brochure/images/manuals/b5000/bro... http://www.smecc.org/The%20Architecture%20%20of%20the%20Burroughs%20B-5000.htm http://www.smecc.org/The%20Architecture%20%20of%20the%20Burr... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6988535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6988535 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3q5n1mR9iM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3q5n1mR9iM