マイクロソフト社のBASICは、ビル・ゲイツ氏が高校・大学時代にコンピュータの基礎を学んだDEC社のミニコンのBASIC「DEC BASIC」に似た仕様になっています。AppleⅡを開発したスティーブ・ウオズニアク氏はHP社のミニコン上で走る「HP BASIC」を参考にしたので AppleⅡのBASICが「HP BASIC」の仕様に似ているのと対照的です。

MIDなんかの採用もそこからなんすかね。

さて、今回は

Scanned from source published in 80-BUS NEWS from Vol 2, Issue 3 (May-June 1983) to Vol 3, Issue 3 (May-June 1984). Adapted for the freeware Zilog Macro Assembler 2.10 to produce the original ROM code (checksum A934H).

というのを見つけたのでちょっと調べてみたのだけど

Nascom - Wikipedia Nascom 2 microcomputer documentation

6-3 Intrisic functions

MID$関数はあるけど、左辺に置く MID$ Statementは見当たらない。 N-BASICがMID$ Statementの初採用というこたないと思うんだけど、どこで入ったんですかねえ…

String (computer science) - Wikipedia

According to Jean E. Sammet, “the first realistic string handling and pattern matching language” for computers was COMIT in the 1950s, followed by the SNOBOL language of the early 1960s. https://redirect.cs.umbc.edu/courses/undergraduate/331/resources/papers/sammet1972.pdf

VAX PDP-11 PDP-8

Atari BASIC String Manipulation Tricks

BASIC programming languages were influenced, naturally enough, by the minicomputer BASIC languages which preceded microBASIC’s. The most popular of these minicomputer BASICs was probably Digital Equipment Corporation’s (DEC’s) PDP-11 family of BASICs : BASIC-11, BASIC-Plus and BASIC-Plus2. These BASICs possessed (and still possess) special substring manipulation functions such as MID$, LEFT$ and RIGHT$, and implemented “arrays of strings” which were referenced via subscripts exactly like a numeric array. Microsoft BASIC is a child of such ancestry. Other large vendors, including Data General Corporation, used the subscript syntax of A$(X,Y) to handle substrings, which eliminated special syntax (MID$, et al) for substring functions while precluding a “nice” implementation of string arrays. Atari’s BASIC is one of this type. The DEC/Microsoft approach may be more popular than the DG/Atari approach - so much so that it is sometimes necessary to remind ourselves that simpler syntax does not necessarily mean inherently less power.

ということらしいので、bitsaversにあるDEC関連のものからいくつか調べてみたところ

basic-11
- MIDなし SEGなし
BASIC-PLUS2
- MIDなし SEGあり
VAX BASIC
- MIDあり(function, statement両方) SEGあり
EDUCOMP BASIC
- MID あり(functionのみ)

文字列の連結に’&‘を使うものと’+‘を使うものがあって、これもDEC由来だったのかと思ったり。

ところでVAX BASICのマニュアルにはこんな記述があった。

VAX-11 BASIC supplies the MID$ function only for compatibility with BASIC-PLUS and BASIC-PLUS-2. DIGIT AL recommends that you use the SEG$ function for sub- string extraction

え? ＞only for compatibility

TLA+

メモ。

Now 82 years old and nearing retirement, Lamport also hopes the foundation gets TLA+ closer to the mainstream of industrial and academic discussion.

“TLA+ is never going to be as popular as Java. And I’d be happy if someone else made it better at helping engineers think more mathematically,” Lamport says. “The ultimate goal is to get engineers to think rigorously at a higher level about what they are doing.”

FORTRAN Compiler on IBM 704

3LBAR

3LBAR  BSS 1                         STORAGE USED BY ARITHMETIC.        4F10270

名前からしてよくわからんこの変数(と言ってもよかろう)、使われているところを追いかけると

       LXD 3LBAR,A           LOAD LA COUNTERS                           4F13774 25
...
       STQ LAMBDA+11,A                                                  4F13801 
       STQ LAMBDA+8,A                                                   4F13802 
       STQ LAMBDA+5,A                                                   4F13803 
...
       STO LAMBDA+9,A                                                   4F13815 
       STO LAMBDA+6,A                                                   4F13816 
       STO LAMBDA+3,A                                                   4F13817 
       CAL ADSPOP                                                       4F13818 
       SLW LAMBDA+13,A                                                  4F13819 
       SLW LAMBDA+10,A                                                  4F13820 
       SLW LAMBDA+7,A                                                   4F13821 
       PXD ,0                                                           4F13822 
       LDQ E+1                                                          4F13823 
       STQ LAMBDA+1,A                                                   4F13824 
...
       STO LAMBDA+14,A       STO  (N+3) IN LAMBDA+3 (L+4)+2             4F13834 
...
       STO LAMBDA+12,A       STO -(N+2) IN LAMBDA+3 (L+4)               4F13839 
...
       STO LAMBDA+11,A       STO S(N+3) IN LAMBDA  +3(L+3)+2            4F13852 
...
       STO LAMBDA+9,A        STO -0  IN  LAMBDA +3(L+3)                 4F13873 
...
       STO LAMBDA+5,A        STO S(N+1) IN LAMBDA+3(L+1)+2              4F13883 
...
L23090 STO LAMBDA+6,A        STO -N  IN LAMBDA+3(L+2)                   4F13892 
...
       STO LAMBDA+3,A        STO -0  IN LAMBDA+3(L+1)                   4F13895 
...
       STO LAMBDA+9,A        STO -0 IN LAMBDA+3(L+3)                    4F13903 
...
LA4010 STO LAMBDA,A          STO C(ALPHA+A-3) IN LAMBDA+3L              4F13906 
       CLS NBAR                                                         4F13907 
       ARS 18                                                           4F13908 
       SLW ALPHA-2,C         STO-N IN ALPHA+A-2                         4F13909 
       SLW LAMBDA+2,A        STO S(N) IN LAMBDA+3L+2                    4F13910 
       STO LAMBDA+3,A        STO -N IN LAMBOA+3(L+1)                    4F13911 
       PXD ,B                                                           4F13912 
       ARS 18                                                           4F13913 
       STO LAMBDA+5,A        STO S(N+1)  IN  LAMBDA+3(L+1)+2            4F13914 
       STO ALPHA-1,C         STO-(N+1)  IN ALPHA+A-1                    4F13915 
       SSM                                                              4F13916 
       STO LAMBDA+6,A        STO -(N+1)  IN  LAMBDA+3(L+2)              4F13917 
       TXI LA4150,B,-1       -(N+1)  TO -(N+2)                          4F13918 
LA4150 CAL ADSTAR                                                       4F13919 
       SLW LAMBDA+4,A        STO *  IN LAMBDA+3(L+1)+1                  4F13920 
...

やっぱりよくわからんな。 3行連続してストアしているところがあるのでそこから3Lなのかと思ったんだけど。

#映画事故
『ライトスタッフ』

当時バイトしてた映画館で、この映画の休憩時間が１時間位あって疑問に思ったので、支配人に
「何でこんなに休憩が長いんですか？」
と聞いたら

「聞かないで〜
日本で、上映時間がカットされるなんて知らなかった」

と泣いてました。
事実です😅 pic.twitter.com/njrwQgzVCN
— チャッキーくん (@chuckiekun) April 19, 2023

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