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From: clc5q@madras.cs.Virginia.EDU (Clark L. Coleman)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Segmented Architectures ( formerly Re: 48-bit computers)
Message-ID: <1991Apr3.180826.8433@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 3 Apr 91 18:08:26 GMT
References: <23189@as0c.sei.cmu.edu> <1991Mar27.193512.12417@cello.hpl.hp.com> <1991Mar29.044033.222@caliban.uucp>
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In article <1991Mar29.044033.222@caliban.uucp> ig@caliban.uucp (Iain Bason) writes:
>This whole discussion on segmented architectures is getting a little
>confusing.  The problem is that most posters seem to be drawing
>conclusions about segmentation in general based upon their knowledge
>of particular segmented architectures.  Now, there's nothing wrong
>with basing one's opinions on one's experience.

Iain was being charitable, which is not one of my virtues, unfortunately.

There is nothing wrong with basing your opinion on your experience, even
if your experience is limited to one example, as long as you don't have
any pretensions that you are a scientist.  Most "computer programmers"
are mere "coding bums" who call themselves "Computer Scientists" because
it sounds good on their resumes.  A scientist does not make an extrapolation
from a single data point and announce to the world that the final word
has now been spoken on the subject, as we have seen on this thread.

Not that they were not given the education that a scientist should have.
They were taught general principles of computers for several years. Most
of them slept through it all and then complained for years that "they
don't teach you anything useful in college  --- just a lot of theory."
Later in life, they resurface in the ACM Forum column of the Communications
of the ACM, advocating the use of GOTO statements and criticizing the
teachings of Dijkstra, Wirth, et al., ad nauseam.

Now that the lecture is over, please return to the postings that assume
(without saying so, or seeming to realize it) that all segmented machines
have segments fixed at 64KB in size, with only a couple available for data
and one for code, etc.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be 
regarded as a criminal offence." E.W.Dijkstra, 18th June 1975.
|||  clc5q@virginia.edu (Clark L. Coleman)