3 ms·

No discussion of infinite loops that aren't would be complete without a mention of The Story of Mel: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html http://ww

by taneq 5y ago

No discussion of infinite loops that aren't would be complete without a mention of The Story of Mel: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html

megiddo 5y ago
Thank you! I've been hunting for this story for years.
- falcrist 5y ago
  The story was featured on the YouTube channel "Computerphile". https://youtu.be/XS3UBuZ7D34 https://youtu.be/XS3UBuZ7D34
kingofkyiv 5y ago
This is an amazing read. I too was looking for this for a while.
xxs 5y ago
I read it when I was a kid (11/12)... along with Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal. I was chiefly impressed by both, for quite some time I thought both of the them were real and represented real(!) values. To this day I can quote quite a bit of both.
- bear8642 5y ago
  > both of the them were real … Well, Mel's story is definitely real!
  - xxs 5y ago
    "The manual for the LGP-30 refers to “Mel Kaye of Royal McBee who did the bulk of the programming...” "
  - lelandbatey 5y ago
    Indeed, Mel is (was?) real and we have a photo of him! If we go to Wikipedia for the LGP-30[0], it links to a wiki article on "The Story of Mel"[1] which names the titular "Mel" as "Melvin Kaye" with a citation, linking to a PDF scan[3] of an issue of "The Librazette" where on the first page, the photo on the left, in the very back and named last of all the people in the photo, is [sic]"Royal-McBee Applications Engineer Mel Kaye" standing and smiling in an all-white shirt. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGP-30 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGP-30 [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Mel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Mel [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Mel#cite_note-Librascope-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Mel#cite_note-Lib... [3] - https://www.librascopememories.com/Librascope_Memories/1950_-_1959_files/560800%20Librazette.pdf https://www.librascopememories.com/Librascope_Memories/1950_...

by taneq 5y ago

megiddo 5y ago

Thank you! I've been hunting for this story for years.

falcrist 5y ago
The story was featured on the YouTube channel "Computerphile". https://youtu.be/XS3UBuZ7D34 https://youtu.be/XS3UBuZ7D34

kingofkyiv 5y ago

This is an amazing read. I too was looking for this for a while.

xxs 5y ago

I read it when I was a kid (11/12)... along with Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal. I was chiefly impressed by both, for quite some time I thought both of the them were real and represented real(!) values. To this day I can quote quite a bit of both.

bear8642 5y ago
> both of the them were real … Well, Mel's story is definitely real!
- xxs 5y ago
  "The manual for the LGP-30 refers to “Mel Kaye of Royal McBee who did the bulk of the programming...” "
- lelandbatey 5y ago
  Indeed, Mel is (was?) real and we have a photo of him! If we go to Wikipedia for the LGP-30[0], it links to a wiki article on "The Story of Mel"[1] which names the titular "Mel" as "Melvin Kaye" with a citation, linking to a PDF scan[3] of an issue of "The Librazette" where on the first page, the photo on the left, in the very back and named last of all the people in the photo, is [sic]"Royal-McBee Applications Engineer Mel Kaye" standing and smiling in an all-white shirt. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGP-30 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGP-30 [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Mel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Mel [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Mel#cite_note-Librascope-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Mel#cite_note-Lib... [3] - https://www.librascopememories.com/Librascope_Memories/1950_-_1959_files/560800%20Librazette.pdf https://www.librascopememories.com/Librascope_Memories/1950_...