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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!ima!haddock!karl
From: karl@haddock.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Any Simula-67 fans out there?
Message-ID: <708@haddock.ISC.COM>
Date: Fri, 10-Jul-87 11:46:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: haddock.708
Posted: Fri Jul 10 11:46:30 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jul-87 10:39:57 EDT
References: <6641@shemp.UCLA.EDU> <626@unc.cs.unc.edu> <606@haddock.UUCP> <1290@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Reply-To: karl@haddock.ISC.COM (Karl Heuer)
Distribution: world
Organization: Interactive Systems, Boston
Lines: 25
Summary: some ZYQ history and anecdotes

In article <1290@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk> pjbk@cs.hw.AC.UK (Peter King) writes:
>I don't know for certain the origin of ZYQ in the error messages.
>I suspect that it may be restricted to a small subset of implementations
>(IBM 360/370 ?), and was chosen so that the error message identifiers
>would not clash with any of IBM's IER... etc.

Well, I saw it in the pdp10 implementation, but your explanation is probably
correct if you substitute DEC for IBM.  TOPS-10 error messages had 6-letter
abbreviations, consisting of a three-letter program id and a three-letter
error id, e.g. LGNOFI (LoGiN: Out of Funds, Individual account).  "Real"
hackers would elect to receive the abbreviations without the plaintext.  :-)

The simula compiler itself used "SIM" as its abbreviation.  The run-time
library used "ZYQ", apparently to avoid clashing with anything known.  It was
rumored that there was also an internal variable or reserved word or something
named Z_Y_Q, but we never verified this.

We concluded that "ZYQ" was the Norwegian word for "FOO".*  Since my CITPPN
was [29970,KZH] (my real initials KWH having already been taken), I adopted
"Zyq" (pronounced "Zeke") as an artificial middle name.  (Finally, the truth
is out about that signature!)

Karl W. Z. Heuer (ima!haddock!karl or karl@haddock.isc.com), The Walking Lint
*Credit for this joke goes to Dale Woodford [29970,DFW].  (Actually, the
original said "Swedish".)