Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!apple!stearns
From: stearns@Apple.COM (Bryan Stearns)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: The number 31 and Apple?
Message-ID: <901@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 10 Mar 89 19:08:18 GMT
References: <10330143@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Organization: Apple
Lines: 20

From article <10330143@accuvax.nwu.edu>, by lentz@accuvax.nwu.edu (Rob Lentz):
> While we are on the subject of traditions (ROM names), I am curious as to
> what special meaning, if any, the number 31 holds for Apple.  After all
> there is no Tech Note 31 for some reason, and one of the most useful items
> of the system has got to be INIT 31.  This is one piece of folklore which
> I have not heard about.

As the original author of INIT 31 (though Larry Kenyon rewrote it before it
shipped), I can safely say that there's no significance to the number (other
than that that was the last INIT that would be found by the original boot
code).

There's no Technical Note 31 because the individual TechNote authors used to
assign their own numbers ("Hey, Scott! What's the next number?") BEFORE
writing the note; sometimes we wouldn't get around to finishing a note, and
the number we picked would get reassigned (or, in this case, not).

... Bryan Stearns
    Apple Computer Finder & Applications Group
    (& former resident of Apple's Papeete Developer Support Center)