Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!daveb From: daveb@geac.UUCP (David Collier-Brown) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: RISC a short answer?? Message-ID: <2725@geac.UUCP> Date: 10 May 88 13:10:34 GMT Article-I.D.: geac.2725 Posted: Tue May 10 09:10:34 1988 References: <1036@nusdhub.UUCP> <1988May3.224604.2252@utzoo.uucp> <383@m3.mfci.UUCP> <1988May5.171444.849@utzoo.uucp> <9341@apple.Apple.Com> <2810@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <388@m3.mfci.UUCP> Reply-To: daveb@geac.UUCP (David Collier-Brown) Organization: The Geac Pedantry Department. Lines: 20 In article <388@m3.mfci.UUCP> colwell@m3.UUCP (Robert Colwell) writes: | You both are basically citing the |definition that Patterson originally proffered, taking us to task for |trying to change that. But if you want to be historically accurate, |then start with Radin's ASPLOS-I paper on the IBM-801, which does not |talk about the number of instructions but about their efficacy and |usefulness. Definitions, like standards, come out of popular usage, codified after the usage becomes **in fact** popular. The inventor of a term gets a slightly better chance to define it because she's first.... --dave (it a simple matter of who's the boss: the word or me) c-b -- David Collier-Brown. {mnetor yunexus utgpu}!geac!daveb Geac Computers International Inc., | Computer Science loses its 350 Steelcase Road,Markham, Ontario, | memory (if not its mind) CANADA, L3R 1B3 (416) 475-0525 x3279 | every 6 months.