Re: ee9 V2.0, the GNU Ada KDF9 emulator

[robin.vowels@gmail.com]

On Sunday, November 8, 2015 at 1:52:32 PM UTC+11, Bill Findlay wrote:
> <r.nospam@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sunday, November 8, 2015 at 12:34:11 PM UTC+11, Bill Findlay wrote:
> >> <r.nospam@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> On Friday, November 6, 2015 at 2:11:52 PM UTC+11, Bill Findlay wrote:
> >>>> .. is now available for OSX, Windows, Linux 32 & 64 bit, and Raspberry Pi,
> >>>> at:
> >>>> 
> >>>> http://www.findlayw.plus.com/KDF9/#Emulator
> >>> 
> >>> The URL says :
> >>> "KDF9 was one of the first computers to support Algol 60, ..."
> >>> 
> >>> In fact, the implementors of the KDF9 Algol compiler
> >>> adapted that compiler to run on DEUCE, before the KDF9 was available,
> >>> in order to test the design.
> >>> (you might recall that the KDF9 was running late).
> > 
> >> And you might recall what "one of" means.
> >> 
> >> The website at the URL also says: "[the KDF9 Algol project] engendered
> >> Algol 60 implementations on many other computers, including the EE DEUCE,

I know that, because I read it there.

> > DEUCE Algol PREceded KDF9 Algol, as I said.
> > The X1 Algol compiler (1961, if not earlier) preceded KDF9
> > [and upon which the KDF9 Algol was based].
> 
> I am fully aware of those facts and they do not contradict anything I have
> said or implied.

The X1 Algol compiler was available in 1960.

> > And you might recall that "engendered" is the term used,
> > and does not list other Algol implementations.
> 
> ?? then what are these:

Those are "engendered" translators.
I referred to compilers that were not inspired by KDF9 Algol,
and include, for example Elliott 803 Algol, produced early in 1962.

> >> the Ferranti Pegasus, the NPL ACE, the EE KDF6, the Soviet Minsk range, the
> >> EE System 4/50, the IBM System 360/25, the Phillips PRS8000, the Elliott
> >> 903, and the Indian ECIL TDC-316."
> > 
> > Some of these post-date KDF9 Algol.
> 
> You don't say!
> 
> > ACE - 1955
> 
> the NPL ACE did not exist in 1955.

Of course not.  I quoted the wrong date.

> Perhaps you confuse it with the Pilot ACE,
> which did not have an Algol compiler.

I know that.

> You seem remarkably keen to pick a fight over something I did not say.

I'm not picking a fight.  Sorry of that was the impression.

> As it happens I have personal contact with Brian Randell, one of the
> authors of DEUCE/KDF9 Algol and am well aware of its history.

I too have had contact with Brian Randell over, perhaps, a decade.
It was I who acquainted him with the fact that there was an ALGOL
compiler for DEUCE, as he said that he had forgotten that he had written it.
I provided him with published references to the DEUCE Algol compiler
being used for validating ALGOL programs.
 
> Had you investigated my website instead of jumping to peevish conclusions, 
> you would have found a DEUCE Algol document dated 1963, some months 
> before the first KDF9 was delivered.

In my earlier post (in this thread) I drew your attention to the DEUCE ALGOL
report published in February 1962.