Fortran - What is the think of one neuron firing?

Author

What is the think of one neuron firing?

Kevin G. Rhoads

2005-08-22, 7:02 pm

>Until my recent topic postings there was NOTHING being posted.

Dave, apparently you don't remember a few years back. I've been coding Fortran
since Fortran-66 and I did PL/I back then also. I'd still be doing PL/I, but
that compilers for it are harder to get than compilers for Fortran (and Fortran
compilers are harder to get than C or C++ compilers). Prior to the recent
deluge of postings of yours, you posted to both clf and clp, albeit intermittently,
often in great torrents when you did.

I am TRULY NOT INTERESTED in any <this language> is better than <that language>
cr*p, and that seems to be all you post in recent years.

I shan't bother to reply unless some miracle occurs and you start discussing
things which I find relevant. APL vs. Java vs. C++ vs Pascal vs Modula-3 vs.
COBOL vs C vs assembler vs Fortran vs PL/I vs Basic vs Algol vs SNOBOL vs RPG
vs MAD vs Ada vs JOVIAL vs (ad nauseum) debates ARE NOT RELEVANT.

glen herrmannsfeldt

2005-08-22, 7:02 pm

Kevin G. Rhoads wrote:

[color=darkred]
> Dave, apparently you don't remember a few years back. I've been coding Fortran
> since Fortran-66 and I did PL/I back then also. I'd still be doing PL/I, but
> that compilers for it are harder to get than compilers for Fortran (and Fortran
> compilers are harder to get than C or C++ compilers). Prior to the recent
> deluge of postings of yours, you posted to both clf and clp, albeit intermittently,
> often in great torrents when you did.

This sounds pretty much the same way I got here.

> I am TRULY NOT INTERESTED in any <this language> is better than <that language>
> cr*p, and that seems to be all you post in recent years.

And I 100% agree with this, too.

> I shan't bother to reply unless some miracle occurs and you start discussing
> things which I find relevant. APL vs. Java vs. C++ vs Pascal vs Modula-3 vs.
> COBOL vs C vs assembler vs Fortran vs PL/I vs Basic vs Algol vs SNOBOL vs RPG
> vs MAD vs Ada vs JOVIAL vs (ad nauseum) debates ARE NOT RELEVANT.

About the time I was learning Fortran and PL/I, I used to get books
from library used book sales. The good ones were hard to find, so I
ended up with books on MAD and JOVIAL, though I never saw a machine
or compiler for either one. I did do some SNOBOL, though.

-- glen

Rich Townsend

2005-08-22, 7:02 pm

glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:
> Kevin G. Rhoads wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> This sounds pretty much the same way I got here.
>
>
>
> And I 100% agree with this, too.
>
>
>
> About the time I was learning Fortran and PL/I, I used to get books
> from library used book sales. The good ones were hard to find, so I
> ended up with books on MAD and JOVIAL, though I never saw a machine
> or compiler for either one. I did do some SNOBOL, though.

I remember as a kid wanting to write machine code for my Amstrad
CPC-6128. There were no books on this topic, but I managed to get hold
of a manual for a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, which was built on the same Z80
cpu. In the back, they had a list of the Z80 assembly language
mnemonics, and their mapping into machine code.

So I ended up writing down my assembly language programs on a piece of
paper, and then using the Spectrum manual to work out the machine-code
byte sequences by hand. Then I would write a program in BASIC to load
the sequences into a block of memory, and run them.

The price for a mistake was usually a total crash of the machine. Boy,
are things easier nowadays!

cheers,

Rich

James Van Buskirk

2005-08-22, 7:02 pm

"Rich Townsend" <rhdt@barVOIDtol.udel.edu> wrote in message
news:ded1ll$m9d$1@scrotar.nss.udel.edu...

> I remember as a kid wanting to write machine code for my Amstrad
> CPC-6128. There were no books on this topic, but I managed to get hold
> of a manual for a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, which was built on the same Z80
> cpu. In the back, they had a list of the Z80 assembly language
> mnemonics, and their mapping into machine code.

> So I ended up writing down my assembly language programs on a piece of
> paper, and then using the Spectrum manual to work out the machine-code
> byte sequences by hand. Then I would write a program in BASIC to load
> the sequences into a block of memory, and run them.

> The price for a mistake was usually a total crash of the machine. Boy,
> are things easier nowadays!

Luxury, luxury! The first thing I ever owned that one could call
a computer was a Sharp PC-E500, and at the time there was no
documentation available for its machine language. I had to
decipher the machine language by reading the ROM via the PEEK
command, and only then was I able to POKE test programs into
memory and CALL them. Eventually I was able to write a Gamma
function that was faster and smaller and more accurate than
the BASIC Gamma function that came with the ROM. Also it could
do both single- and double-precision whereas the BASIC function
could only do single precision. I dealt with the total crash
problems by helping out an EE friend with statistical mechanics
so that he in turn built a device that could back up RAM to a
tape recorder.

--
write(*,*) transfer((/17.392111325966148d0,6.5794487871554595D-85, &
6.0134700243160014d-154/),(/'x'/)); end

Walter Spector

2005-08-29, 7:01 pm

James Van Buskirk wrote:
> ...
> Luxury, luxury! The first thing I ever owned that one could call
> a computer was a Sharp PC-E500, and at the time there was no
> documentation available for its machine language. I had to
> decipher the machine language by reading the ROM via the PEEK
> command, and only then was I able to POKE test programs into
> memory and CALL them....

Man, you had it good.

My first computer was a Digicomp. As a kid, I saw it in a catalog
somewhere and my parents bought one for me:

http://www.billglover.com/blog/archives/000082.html
http://www.csparks.com/gallery/Digi-comp/digicomp1
and
http://www.embedded.com/shared/prin...icleID=51200678

The 'data register' was only 3 bits wide, and it could hold 6 instructions.
There were little soda straw-like tubes that one inserted to program it.
To advance the program counter one slid a plastic bar on one side.

Wish I still had it - or knew where it was hiding. I've heard they
sell for quite a bit on ebay these days.

Walt
(w6ws att earthlink dott net)

Kevin G. Rhoads

2005-08-29, 7:01 pm

>My first computer was a Digicomp. ...
>Wish I still had it - or knew where it was hiding

Mine is on the attic at my parents house. I know it needs new rubber bands.

glen herrmannsfeldt

2005-08-29, 7:01 pm

Kevin G. Rhoads wrote:
[color=darkred]
> Mine is on the attic at my parents house. I know it needs new rubber bands.

I thought it had little metal springs, shaped sort of like the
number 7.

I believe mine is long gone, though.

-- glen

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