Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP 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".)