Xref: utzoo comp.sys.atari.st:9443 comp.lang.c:9787
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!gorodish!guy
From: guy@gorodish.Sun.COM (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: CURSES package for Atari ST
Message-ID: <51411@sun.uucp>
Date: 30 Apr 88 01:38:59 GMT
References: <711@leah.Albany.Edu> <3640@haddock.ISC.COM> <192@obie.UUCP>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Followup-To: comp.lang.c
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> > What do you mean, "on the VAX and the UNIX"???  Everyone knows that "VAX"
> > and "UNIX" are synonymous!  Just ask the folks at Berkeley!

"Mr. Lint" may explain this, but I'll mention it as well:

	Statements such as the above are generally referred to as "sarcasm".  I
	somehow suspect Karl knows better than to equate VAXes and UNIX.
	Unfortunately, there are zillions of people out there who *don't* know
	better.

> Come on, Mr. Lint!  EVERYONE knows that UNIX is synonymous with SPARC!

Gee, I don't "know that UNIX is synonymous with SPARC"; my current machine
happens to have a SPARC chip in it, but I work with 68K machines and
occasionally 80386 machines and VAXes as well.  (The nice thing about a
portable OS such as UNIX is that 99% of the time it doesn't matter what chip
the machine uses; the same OS runs there.)

It is conceivable that some Sun sales and marketing people may be trying to
convey the *impression* that UNIX is synonymous with SPARC; such people should
be tarred and feathered and dumped outside the city limits.

> (Ack!  Phhpptttt!  Panic: no TAS instruction!  vmcore dumped)

No, SPARC has no instruction named TAS; the test-and-set instruction on SPARC
is called LDSTUB (Atomic Load-Store Unsigned Byte).

Have you actually *read* the architecture manual carefully, or do you just
think a detailed knowledge of something is unnecessary if you want to make
reasonable comments about it?