11 Apr
2026
11 Apr
'26
4:15 p.m.
On 4/11/26 07:03, Keith Halewood wrote:
The VAX vector process was also a great deal of fun
for an implementation of Algol 68 we were working on.
We had access to a VAX 9000 for some testing but from what I remember, we used DEC's
vector emulation software mostly.
We had "great fun" with the attribution for implicit vectorisation of array
processing and collateral clauses and we almost actually got into trouble for including
the RS extensions for loops, the FOR identifier IN (unit delivering [] of some mode) DO
... OD.
Trouble = exceeding our remit.
Anyway, it's all effectively lost. Nobody remembers where any of the project
materials actually went. I hate that.
That's infuriating. I just cannot fathom that there are programmers
out there who don't take copies of their stuff home.
Also just paged into my memory, we wrote prediction
code - part of the code generator which would output a profile. Along with the runtime
profiling, it could (and did accurately) predict how fast the code would run on the real
hardware. We also got into trouble for that too - disassembling the vector processor
emulator code. Did we use Xdelta for parts of that?
Does that emulator code itself survive anywhere? It doesn't come
with VMS, does it?
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA