From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Aug 18 17:46:21 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6FA83106568C for ; Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:46:21 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from vogelke@hcst.com) Received: from beta.hcst.com (beta.hcst.com [192.52.183.241]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 156B68FC6D for ; Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:46:20 +0000 (UTC) Received: from beta.hcst.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by beta.hcst.com (8.13.8/8.13.8/Debian-3) with ESMTP id n7IHkJIH017916 for ; Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:46:19 -0400 Received: (from vogelke@localhost) by beta.hcst.com (8.13.8/8.13.8/Submit) id n7IHkJ18017915; Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:46:19 -0400 Received: by kev.msw.wpafb.af.mil (Postfix, from userid 32768) id 683E7B7BD; Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:45:27 -0400 (EDT) To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org In-reply-to: (message from Walt Pawley on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:23:29 -0700) Organization: Oasis Systems Inc. X-Disclaimer: I don't speak for the USAF or Oasis. X-GPG-ID: 1024D/711752A0 2006-06-27 Karl Vogel X-GPG-Fingerprint: 56EB 6DBF 4224 C953 F417 CC99 4C7C 7D46 7117 52A0 Message-Id: <20090818174527.683E7B7BD@kev.msw.wpafb.af.mil> Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:45:27 -0400 (EDT) From: vogelke+unix@pobox.com (Karl Vogel) Subject: Re: please help to uninstall FreeBSD!!! X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: vogelke+unix@pobox.com List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:46:21 -0000 >> On Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:23:29 -0700, >> Walt Pawley said: W> As speculation on my part, perhaps the six character limitation is less W> a software issue than an early architecture issue - DEC's PDP-6/10 W> design used 36-bit words and packed six characters (clearly from a W> limited subset of the then current ASCII) per word, making simple W> searches very effective through symbol tables with a simple word level W> compare loop. I'll second that. My first job for Uncle Sugar was on a DEC 10/55 for the Air Force, and 36-bit words were a fact of life. There were lots of programs around for conversion to/from 32-bit words, just so we could talk to everybody else on Earth. -- Karl Vogel I don't speak for the USAF or my company Men are liars. We'll lie about lying if we have to. I'm an algebra liar. I figure two good lies make a positive. --Tim Allen