[Shameless Plug] A New Book

Seconded.

Based on Tim's pedigree as a contributor to this group, and the quality of his discreetly mentioned website, I have already ordered his book (=A334.99 direct from Elsevier vs =A337.95 from Amazon and =A339.95 from most other sources). I'll comment on the content and vfm when I have read it, and not before.

--=20 Andy McC

You can download that in the net, i.e.

I did my first two-pass assemblies that way, but by the time I used NROFF, I had 360K mini-floppies. You know, 5-1/4 inch.

That reminds me of a story I need to pass on.

When mini-floppies were still quite new on the scene, a family -- father, mother, and eager son -- arrived at the Trenton Computer Fair with a truckload of them (180K, 3" high) and set up shop on the tailgate. They all wore tee shirts with "MINI FLOPPIES" printed across the front. They did a fairly brisk business all morning (I bought two). After lunch, Mother minded the store while father and son went to see the other stalls and inside exhibits. I happened to pass that way again in the afternoon and saw Mother alone. I just stared at the lettering on her tee for the better part of a minute -- she was aware of the scrutiny

-- and finally said, "I don't think that's entirely appropriate." She flushed, then laughed, saying "It never occurred to me. I have to tell my husband when he comes back." I passed that way again as they were packing to go. She gave me a big grin and her husband flashed me a thumbs up.

Jerry

When I went to RCA institutes in the second and third floors of a building near the corner of W 10th and W 4th Streets. (check it out!), a startup company called Xerox was downstairs. I could have bought a few shares, but I didn't. Some people think I know everything. I know better.

At RCA Labs, where I worked years later, we had a home-built copier with a zinc-oxide based photosensitive roller. It was a demo model that worked quite well. It was the only copier in the building, and there were sometimes lines to use it. RCA decided not to go into that business. They didn't know much either.

Jerry

Sure, but do you know the original name, before they changed it to Xerox? (Without looking it up?)

Congratulations on the birth of your new baby, Mr. Wescott. I'll see if I can get my employer to add it to the library.

'Taint no such thing as shameless for this -- feel free to beam and pass out the cigars.

Cheers Chris

OK, just what is "NROFF"?

I'm almost as old as Jerry and I do not recognize term. [PS my 1st Fortran programs were executed by vacuum tubes ;/

Yepp, Haliod (sp?) was located in my hometown. There's stories about poor innocent secretary who muffed the name the day named morphed when CEO called.

They were originally Haloid, a photosensitive-paper company. I thought the name had been a Polaroid me-too wish. According to one of the muck-a-mucks downstairs, they almost renamed themselves "Xeroid" when they got into dry reproduction, but thought better of it. By the time I suggested the palindromic "XereX", it was too late. They wouldn't have listened to ma anyway, so no loss. :-)

Jerry

Start with

Jerry

-- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

... snip ...

New ROFF.

-- "If you want to post a followup via groups.google.com, don't use the broken "Reply" link at the bottom of the article. Click on "show options" at the top of the article, then click on the "Reply" at the bottom of the article headers." - Keith Thompson More details at: Also see

You should try out that there new-fangled internet-web-search thingy:

It's a primarily Unix-based typesetting package, older and less sophisticated than LaTeX. Nowadays its probably used most for Unix manual pages, since it's the native format, but I'm sure I'm not alone in still using it for other purposes. It enables you to define your own macros so once you're familar with the system you can be very quick, e.g. I have one macro that starts a letter complete with my address, recipients address (in the correct place for a window envelope - takes experimentation in a word processor) and date automatically. This might not seem special but to get it all I need do is type ".LH" at the beginning of a line. Similarly I have a macro to insert a signature block at the end of the letter - it will even insert my signature if I tell it. After all, I'm far too important to be wasting time signing my own letters. ;-)

(snipped)

Hi Tim,

Ha, you may be right. I once had one of the country's greatest DSP gurus Fred Harris (of Blackman-Harris window fame) tell me that when he wrote his DSP book he was warned by his friend Bernard Sklar (of digital comms fame) that "You can never find all the typos."

Ya' know, I think Sklar is probably correct.

Sure you can... offer $25 reward for first reporter of each error. Then every student in the world will be pounding through your book.

"Calculus and Analytic Geometry" by Thomas did that. By the end of first semester there were no more rewards to be claimed ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Could be a lot of money...

If you know you plan to do that, maybe not. :-)

Jerry

At the rate that I generate typos I'm not sure I could swing it. If I had that much money I'd just go ahead and buy a small South American country, anyway.

And TROFF is Typesetter ROFF. There's also GROFF.

Jerry

-- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯