V. good. "Incunabulum" is very carefully worded, in particular please note
the phrase "an interpreter fragment on the AT&T 3B1 computer" and the year
"1989".
A couple of somewhat relevant anecdotes:
0. From an upcoming paper:
Roger Hui and Whitney were undergraduates at the University of Alberta in
the 1970s and became acquainted in Professor Muldowney’s real analysis
class. Hui was a summer student at
IPSA Calgary in 1975 where Whitney was the year before. In the mid 1980s,
Iverson and Hui were employed at IPSA Toronto; the seeds of their
collaboration were planted by the paper *Some Uses of* { *and* } [Hui
1987]. When Iverson and Whitney met to discuss APL at the Kiln Farm one
summer weekend in 1989, Hui was present on the first day by Whitney’s
invitation. The “one page thing” (§10.2) that Whitney wrote on the
afternoon of the second day provided the final impetus that got J started.
Between 1989 and 2004, Hui apprenticed with Iverson working on J.
1. From memory:
In the early days J was first developed on a Sun 386i workstation. To make
it much more readily available the code had to be ported to an IBM PC (AT,
I think). The work was done in Ken Iverson's condo on 70 Erskine Avenue,
Toronto, and for much of that time Ken and I were at our computers working
back-to-back. (I was doing the porting; Ken was doing his Ken things.) It
was a hard slog, much like the travails described in ethiejiesa's report,
and the key was replacing "int" (32 bits on the Sun but 16 bits on the PC)
by "long", both the explicit and the implicit uses. Final success came
unexpectedly and suddenly, at which point I exclaimed: Ken, look at this!
On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 4:58 AM ethiejiesa via Chat <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Legend speaks of an ancient, ineffible tribe called The Hui. Tales of their
> deeds are only spoken in whispers and shattered through the kaleidescope
> of a
> thousand myths. However, one story that remains in tact is that of The
> Whitney and The Incunabulum[0].
>
> Nobody quite knows what The Whitney really is. Some claim it is the Mortal
> Name
> of an immortal wizard, others claim it is the name of a deep Structure
> within
> the Magick of which the Hui are Guardians and Masters. Either way, in much
> the
> same way that the Abrahamic God birthed the cosmos from His essence in the
> span
> of six days, The Hui recount how The Whitney spake The Incunabulum into
> creation in the span of a single summer afternoon. Scholars still debate
> what
> this truly means.
>
> However, whether it took uncountable aeons or the blink of an eye, we
> mortals
> are left with this Deep and Beautiful Magick called The Incunabulum. Four
> suns
> have passed as I have dedicated my life and soul to plumbing its depths.
> Here
> is my story:
>
>
> Snow sputters into sleet as Spring once again battles to dethrone the Long
> and
> Deep Winter. They say that The Incunabulum derives its energy from the
> Disputes
> of the Seasons, so I decided to strike while the iron is hot and release it
> from its Ancient Bonds, giving the Standard Incantation of Release:
>
> $ gcc -o ji incunabulum.c
>
> Nay, what angry protective angels spout for their warnings. They do no
> appreciate being woken from the Ancient Slumber. I try again, adding a
> lilt of
> the Ancient Tongue:
>
> $ gcc -ansi -o ji incunabulum.c
>
> This seems to slightly appease the angels, but my spells are not enough to
> fully allay their disgruntlement. Despite this precipitous start, I decide
> to
> weather the dangers and poke the Summoned Incunabulum:
>
> $ ./ji
>
> It remains ominously silent. Ready, but giving no indication of its intent.
> This reminds me of the ancient teacher they call Ed from whom we receive
> the
> koan "?" any time our Magick is Untrue. The fables of Ed guide me as I
> decide
> to speak to the Summoned Incunabulum:
>
> 1
> Segementation fault
>
> Oh, may the Gods of Mercy see my pure intent, this is the Refutation of
> Irrefutability. The Incunabulum is displeased with my Magick. I try again,
> this
> time adding protective wards to my incantation so I may petition the help
> of
> the Lesser Daemons:
>
> $ gcc -ansi -g -o ji incunabulum.c
> $ gdb ./ji
> (gdb) run
> Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
> _int_malloc (av=av@entry=0x7ffff7f999e0 <main_arena>,
> bytes=bytes@entry=1024) at malloc.c:3742
> 3742 malloc.c: そのようなファイルやディレクトリはありません.
>
> The helper daemons gleefully show me the error of my ways, but as Lesser
> Daemons they know not the Language of Men:
>
> (gdb) bt
> #0 _int_malloc (av=av@entry=0x7ffff7f999e0 <main_arena>,
> bytes=bytes@entry=1024) at malloc.c:3742
> #1 0x00007ffff7e667e4 in __GI___libc_malloc (bytes=1024) at
> malloc.c:3058
> #2 0x00007ffff7e5098c in __GI__IO_file_doallocate (fp=0x7ffff7f9a500
> <_IO_2_1_stdout_>) at filedoalloc.c:101
> #3 0x00007ffff7e5f040 in __GI__IO_doallocbuf (fp=fp@entry=0x7ffff7f9a500
> <_IO_2_1_stdout_>) at libioP.h:948
> #4 0x00007ffff7e5e248 in _IO_new_file_overflow (f=0x7ffff7f9a500
> <_IO_2_1_stdout_>, ch=10) at fileops.c:749
> #5 0x00007ffff7e54a2e in putchar (c=10) at putchar.c:28
> #6 0x000055555555558c in nl () at incunabulum.c:26
> #7 0x00005555555555df in pr (w=0x555555559920) at incunabulum.c:27
> #8 0x0000555555555869 in main () at incunabulum.c:42
>
> However, I have trained in their tongue and consulting the Incunabulum
> Scroll,
> I see a suspicious Rune:
>
> $ sed -n 8p incunabulum.c
> I *ma(n){R(I*)malloc(n*4);}mv(d,s,n)I *d,*s;{DO(n,d[i]=s[i]);}
>
> How silly of me. The Magick of the Ancients is not like the Magick of Men.
> They
> knew how to wield their Power with Wands that were compact and tidy, only
> half
> the size of our Modern Excesses. I know not such Ancient Skills, so I
> attempt
> a hybrid spell of New and Old at my own peril:
>
> $ sed -i 8s/4/8/ incunabulum.c
> $ gcc -ansi -o ji incunabulum.c
> $ ./ji
> 1
> Segementation fault
>
> Am I meddling in Magick that is best left to enjoy its Rest? Pushing my
> luck, I
> once again enlist the Lesser Daemons and read the Original Runes,
> searching for
> what I have missed. Ah ha!
>
> $ sed -n 37,40p incunabulum.c
> noun(c){A z;if(c<'0'||c>'9')R 0;z=ga(0,0,0);*z->p=c-'0';R z;}
> verb(c){I i=0;for(;vt[i];)if(vt[i++]==c)R i;R 0;}
> I *wd(s)C *s;{I a,n=strlen(s),*e=ma(n+1);C c;
> DO(n,e[i]=(a=noun(c=s[i]))?a:(a=verb(c))?a:c);e[n]=0;R e;}
>
> The Whitney wielded Magick with utmost efficiency, not a single wasted
> rune.
> This is a Lore almost completely forgotten. The "noun" rune chooses to not
> announce its Return Gift, meaning it holds to the Bare Truth "all is an
> int".
> But now our Long Wands do not match those of the ancients. I once again
> risk
> Heresy and try again:
>
> $ sed -i '37s/^/A /' incunabulum.c
> $ gcc -ansi -o ji incunabulum.c
> $ ./ji
> 1
>
> 1
>
> Success! An intrepid thought rises in my bosom:
>
> 1+1
>
> 2
>
> Great Whitney! Praise the Hui! This ancient parchment is alive! Having
> read the
> runes carefully, I know The Incunabulum tolerates only statements of Single
> Runes, an demonstration of the austere Beauty in Concision:
>
> 10
> Segmentation fault
>
> We are punished severely for our heresy: "1" is not of The Monads.
>
>
> I am both chastened and emboldened by this experience. The Whitney,
> whatever
> its True Form may be, has taught me a Deep Beauty that I both knew but
> never
> discovered.
>
>
> [0]: https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Essays/Incunabulum
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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