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On *nix, <Compose> <-> <-> <-> (or install a Mac-like layout and AltGr+Shift+<->).

… which could come from raising the voltage of a signal indicating a condition.

Maybe from UK ‘off-license’?

Similar concept, I suppose. When I was young, alcohol for consumption at home was generally only available for purchase in government run liquor stores. (This is still the case in some provinces, but no longer true in Alberta.) However, a few licensed premises (bars and restaurants) were permitted to do off-sales and sell alcohol that you were allowed to take with you off the premises.

And bagels.

FORTRAN also had single-expression function definitions, e.g.

    ARGF(X, Y, Z) = (D/E) * Z+ X** F+ Y/G
Naturally this is syntactically identical to an array element assignment, which is one of the many things that made compiling FORTRAN so much fun.

Yeah, that's also almost exactly the same as the Algol-58 syntax for defining such functions. And BASIC, except you had to say

    DEF FNF(X, Y, Z) = (D/E) * Z+ X** F+ Y/G
and the function name had to start with FN.

s/had/has/

In the flang-new compiler, which builds a parse tree for the whole source file before processing any declarations, it was necessary to parse such things as statement functions initially so that further specification statements could follow them. Later, if it turns out that the function name is an array or regular function returning a pointer, the parse tree gets patched up in place and the statement becomes the first executable statement.


Yes, sorry, I didn't mean to imply that Fortran doesn't exist any more. I compiled Fortran on my cellphone as recently as last year.

For those who like that sort of thing, Fortran is exactly the sort of thing that they like.

Yes, this was explicitly called out in the ASCII standard, and is the reason ASCII has ~ (in place of the proposed ‾) and ‘^’ (which replaced the ‘↑’ in the original 1963 version).

Interesting! The z80 card in my family’s Apple 2 would render “^” as “↑” and I always wondered the connection. I guess they were using the original spec.

And probably ‘←’ where we now have ‘_’. Character-generator ICs with the 1963 64-character set hung on around for a couple decades.

~wavy lines~~ I've never used this in anger, but I owned a second-hand Xerox Daybreak for a while to play around with. Later, there was a some freely available project (I've now forgotten) that used Interlisp running on an emulator running on a DEC Alpha, and so I added some minor bits to NetBSD's Ultrix compatibility.


The Lisp Machine emulator that was tied to DEC Alpha was Symbolics OpenGenera.


Made me look: Xerox LFG Grammar Writer's Workbench: https://web.archive.org/web/20170907021542/https://www2.parc...

Interlisp screenshot: https://web.archive.org/web/20160616231118/http://www2.parc....

Evidently the emulator was later ported to Linux as well.


Did you use LFG Grammar Writer's Workbench for linguistics work or research back then? Ron Kaplan is looking to revive the system and make it run on Medley Interlisp again.


Personally, neither — I just used it as a way to get a copy of Interlisp to play with.


From the headline I expected a startling breakthrough in physics.


The door refused to open. It said, “Five cents, please.”

He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. “I'll pay you tomorrow,” he told the door. Again it remained locked tight. “What I pay you,” he informed it, “is in the nature of a gratuity; I don't have to pay you.”

“I think otherwise,” the door said. “Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt.”

… he found the contract. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.

“You discover I'm right,” the door said. It sounded smug.

From the drawer beside the sink Joe Chip got a stainless steel knife; with it he began systematically to unscrew the bolt assembly of his apt’s money-gulping door.

Ubik, Philip K Dick, 1969

Apple read Ubik and took the lesson to build everything with proprietary screw heads.


Q0 is next.


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