From prp@SEI.CMU.EDU Sun Jul 8 23:32:29 1990
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 90 11:09:11 -0400
From: prp@SEI.CMU.EDU
To: djm@eng.umd.edu
Subject: The Unix "dd" command
Why not collect responses and post them.
My understanding of the naming (and syntax for use)
is that this was done as a joke. Notably it is poking
fun at OS/360 - a once reasonably well known operating
system where commands like //DD SYSIN= ... abounded and
were used for setting up I/O devices for various programs
that were about to be run.
Pat Place prp@sei.cmu.edu
From shore@mtxinu.COM Sun Jul 8 23:32:44 1990
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 90 16:23:49 -0700
From: shore@mtxinu.COM (Melinda Shore)
To: djm@eng.umd.edu
Subject: Re: etymology of the Unix "dd" command
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Organization: mt Xinu, Berkeley
Cc:
[]
IBM batch OS job control decks take data definition cards (DD cards)
to describe files involved to run a job. If you take a look at the
syntax of the dd command, you'll see that it looks an awful lot like
DD cards, sans commas.
Melinda
--
Melinda Shore shore@mtxinu.com
mt Xinu ..!uunet!mtxinu.com!shore
From clt@pyrps5 Fri Apr 20 14:23:24 1990
From: clt@pyrps5 (Chris Torkildson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: etymology of the Unix \
Date: 20 Apr 90 15:51:16 GMT
Reply-To: clt@pyrps5.pyramid.com (Chris Torkildson)
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA
In article throoph@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (Henry Throop) writes:
>In article djm@eng.umd.edu (David J. MacKenzie) writes:
>>Does anyone know how the Unix "dd" command got its name?
>
>I read (I think in UnixWorld, or some other magazine) that it stood
>for DarneD if I know, but I don't know whether to believe this or
>not. (No, I'm not making think up, btw.)
>
>Henry
The IBM dd statement stands for "Data Description" which is a keyword,
non-Unix like JCL statement to exactly specify volume id, blocking factors,
tape densities and so on. The IBM dd statement looks very much like the Unix
dd command. I always assumed that the person who named the Unix dd just
followed the IBM naming conventions, for some warped and perverted reason.
From bzs@world.std.com Sun Apr 22 19:24:47 1990
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: etymology of the Unix "dd" command
Date: 22 Apr 90 19:19:28 GMT
Organization: The World @ Software Tool & Die
In-Reply-To: throoph@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU's message of 18 Apr 90 04:44:23 GMT
>Does anyone know how the Unix "dd" command got its name?
It's a play on the IBM/JCL DD command, DD stood for DATA DEFINITION in
JCL and was how you attached files to a job. All files had to be
pre-allocated and were defined externally to the job, sort of like the
Unix commands only absurdly complicated.
The cards looked like:
//sysin dd *
which meant attach the symbolic input name (sysin) to the rest of this
card deck (*), but more telling are things like:
//sysin dd lrecl=80,blksiz=800,disp=(new,new,save),
space=(20,20,rlse)
(hmm, doesn't look quite right, who cares)
starting to look familiar? There were around 200 options available,
and the defaults were almost always wrong...
The job accessed the symbol SYSIN (or whatever, you just made it up,
but a lot of packages used SYSIN, SYSOUT, SYSPRINT and SYSPUNCH as a
standard) as if it were a file and the file was attached externally
through a DSNAME (data set name) card who's format was described in
the DD card.
Let's put it this way, it took a reasonably seasoned programmer to
just make a copy of a file...
The fun part was that JCL errors where I worked years ago cost about
$1.50 each due to minimum costs of running one job through and having
it bomb out. I went through over $1,000 one evening, in real money,
trying to get one lousy JCL bug out which turned out to be a change
someone in systems had made in a standard JCL utility program...
The point being, DD cards were loathsome things so making a Unix
command with that name was black humor.
--
-Barry Shein
Software Tool & Die | {xylogics,uunet}!world!bzs | bzs@world.std.com
Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202 | Login: 617-739-WRLD
Origin of dd
August 5, 2008Origin of alloca
August 5, 2008From dmr@bell-lbs.com Wed Feb 2 00:02:18 2000 Path: news.eng.us.uu.net!uunet!ffx.uu.net!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!news From: Dennis Ritchie Newsgroups: comp.std.c Subject: Re: !alloca (was: Re: How's this: Where do I get a C99 compiler?) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 19:08:12 +0000 Organization: Lucent Technologies, Columbus, Ohio Lines: 17 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: centaur.cs.bell-labs.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 [en] (WinNT; U) Xref: news.eng.us.uu.net comp.std.c:32470 As a point of history, alloca was first done by Ken Thompson between the 6th and 7th edition PDP-11 systems. Because of the stack layout, this was trivial and robust against most of the obvious failures (not f(a, alloca(10), b) though.) When we started doing the Interdata port, alloca looked quite hard to do and much less robust. So I extirpated it; none of our distributions had it. Somehow, however, it had escaped, perhaps in a PWB distribution. Or perhaps it was reinvented. Dennis
Dysfunctional Basement Bands
August 5, 2008
From: jeffnmoe@MCS.COM (jeffnmoe)
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar
Subject: dysfunctional basement bands
Date: 11 Dec 1995 07:47:04 -0600
Organization: MCSNet Services
Lines: 83
NNTP-Posting-Host: mars.mcs.com
How do you know you are in a dysfunctional basement band?
Well, here are a few signs fresh in my mind from yesterdays
'jam'...
1) you have to POINT to the notes on the neck for the bass
player, even on songs you've been playing for several
years ("..then we go to an A...no, A...bottom string,
fifth fret...no, THICKEST string, not 'bottom'...(at
this point I'm pointing at the neck of his bass).
2) Ronco Two-Speed Drummer(tm) - All New From Ronco! Like
the old GM Powerglide transmission, has only two speeds:
Keith Moon-style abandonment, with fills and rolls at
every turn, dynamics be dammed; or, when hangover or lack
of sleep has dulled his senses/energy level, a
continuously variable feature which allows him to slew
seamlessly from 85 to 92 to 87 BPM.
3) "Uh, hey guys, you know, the bass and drums should lock
in together, sort of...". They stare at me intently like
smart dogs, cocking their heads slightly as if they
almost understand.
4) Hey, I Don't Just Play Bass - I'm A Keyboard Player Too!
He's a great accumulator of equipment. Now, if he'd just
learn how to play any of it (I thought that convincing
him to buy the 'Learning to Play Bass' video at Guitar
Center last spring, after we'd been playing for a year,
would have been sort of a clue. I think he watched it
once. No notes were taken). He also has four or five
keyboards, arranged quite nicely near his bass setup.
Can't play them either, but it doesn't stop him. Wouldn't
bother me either, if he'd learn another chord shape (he
stumbled across some faintly consonant fingering one day
and never let go).
5) Can I Solo Now? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Due to previously mentioned points #1 and #3, any deviation
from the chord progression by the guitar player (whether its
a solo, or even a different voicing of the A-D-E change I've
been banging on for 15 minutes) results in a quite amusing
(to the observer) scrum where the bass stumbles off
chromatically in an attempt to locate the now missing chord,
and the drummer, who receives his time signature inputs by
watching my fingers, abandons any attempt to Hold Down the
Previously Implied Beat and attempts to follow me, teeth
gritted and a doomed but heroic glint in his eye, to wherever
I'm going.
6) We've Got An Effects Pedalboard and We're Gonna Use It!
(the typist is uncharacteristically non-verbose on this issue)
7) Are There Gonna Be Girls There? Lookit Me, I'm In The Band!
Playing in front of people, whether its visitors or the
occasional party, eventually clears the room. When actual
live women are present, all of the above features are magnified
by testosterone crossed with a certain musical lockjaw whose
usual attempted circumvention is volume, volume, volume. All
original stuff is forgotten, and the last person who goes upstairs
to get a beer (must be a long line, no one's returned yet) does
so usually to a bad 12-bar blues or some hoary old chestnut
refried punk-style (why don't they get the irony in 'Wildfire'
through my 4x12?).
8) Hey, We'd Really Rock If We Had A Singer.
(Many are called, few are chosen)
9) One Pearl In a 4000 Pound Pile of Garbage.
Occasionally, you'll stumble across a groove. Never from the first
note, mind you, but after 15-30 minutes and the right combination
of alcohol mixed with several hours of playing will eventually
round off the sharp edges and produce something sort of
compelling. Even if it's only five minutes out of six hours, it's
enough to keep you coming back (and leads to lots of false hubris
about your 'band' and how good they are, as your mind naturally
keeps and remembers the good stuff and jettisons the rest). Which
leads us to #10...
10) Why Keep Coming Back For More?
Because they're your friends...plus, the bass player owns the
house with the basement.
jeff (jeffnmoe@mcs.com)
D-Mac's Stuff 