home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
ftp.cs.arizona.edu
/
ftp.cs.arizona.edu.tar
/
ftp.cs.arizona.edu
/
icon
/
newsgrp
/
group98b.txt
/
000093_icon-group-sender _Thu Jun 18 12:58:11 1998.msg
< prev
next >
Wrap
Internet Message Format
|
2000-09-20
|
3KB
Return-Path: <icon-group-sender>
Received: from kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU (kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU [192.12.69.239])
by baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU (8.8.8/8.8.7) with SMTP id MAA01774
for <icon-group-addresses@baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU>; Thu, 18 Jun 1998 12:58:11 -0700 (MST)
Received: by kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU (5.65v4.0/1.1.8.2/08Nov94-0446PM)
id AA22775; Thu, 18 Jun 1998 12:58:01 -0700
Message-Id: <v03102801b1af164869df@[128.102.120.213]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 11:28:04 -0800
To: icon-group@baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU
From: Michael Shafto <mshafto@mail.arc.nasa.gov>
Subject: here's a funnny one!
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@optima.CS.Arizona.EDU
Status: RO
Content-Length: 2511
This is a kind of semi-meta-story about Icon:
It's not really about Icon, but it's a lot
funnier if you have written a bit of
Icon code.
I was at home playing with my laptop like
a cub bear with a box of candy.
I had 8 text files consisting of Icon
source code (about 10 pages of print-out
per file). I could have, as in years past,
copied these files onto a diskette, put the
diskette in my pocket, and trekked off to
work.
But no.
In the spirit of learning by doing, I dragged
the files into a 'Transfer' folder on my laptop,
and dragged them out of a similar folder on my
work computer.
I edited away for a while (mercifully, as
it turned out, altering only three of the
eight files), dragged 'em back into the
work 'Transfer' folder, and out again on
the laptop at home.
This is where the funny part happens: The
demons which had been lashed to the oars of the
file transfer process had surgically removed
every token preceded by a backslash (\). Let
that sink in for a minute while I provide a
few examples:
"\n"
"\B0"
and lots of other things
map to ""
\x[3]
maps to [3]
(\smfun)(ar)
maps to ()(ar)
\Ck_disable
maps to _disable [sic -- demons break for _]
if \altered then bazz(fazz)
maps to
if then bazz(fazz)
dyv <:= \ymin
dyv >:= \ymax
n := N+1
maps to
dyv <:=
dyv >:=
n := N+1
Funny, no?
Even funnier is the following conjecture:
Let wu (or Griswold's Fraction) be the probability
that an Icon procedure containing at least one such
alteration will compile with a "no errors" message.
Then wu is in the closed interval (0.67,0.75).
Telecommuters everywhere, beware!
I have no idea what "software product" is responsible
for this problem (certainly it has nothing to do with Icon),
but I'm a little suspicious of the RTF step which I know
is part of this transfer sequence.
Anyway, the experience is a bit like sitting on
a cactus, and I expect to be in recovery for a few more
days.
Mike
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -------
Mike Shafto (mshafto@mail.arc.nasa.gov)
Chief, Human-Automation Integration Research Branch
On detail (6/1/98 - 9/30/98) to the Computational Sciences Division
http://olias.arc.nasa.gov/
Mail Stop 262-4
NASA-Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
---------------------------------------------------------------
Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others.
-- Groucho Marx
---------------------------------------------------------------