Re: Extra QEX copy

#424

They are. Current annual prices, IIRC, are $59 for ARRL membership, which includes online access to both QST and QEX. Printed copies of QST are an extra $25/yr and printed copies of QST are an extra $29/yr.

DaveD
KC0WJN

Show quoted text

On Wed, Feb 5, 2025 at 15:04 Ray, W4BYG via <w4byg=[email protected]> wrote:

Bruce,
Sometime back, the ARRL notified subscribers about the potential change from hard copy to online. However, they gave an option for subs to continue to receive hard copies, which I elected for, (don't remember if there were conditions). So I still receive QEX as well as QST hard copies. I am a life member, so that may have been a consideration.

You might give them a call and see if any option is available.
Ray, W4BYG

On 2/5/2025 13:15, ebrucehunter via wrote:

Dave,

?

I was surprised to learn you are still continuing to receive printed copies of QEX.? I haven't been receiving printed copies of any ARRL publications - only an email message with links to the ARRL publications to which I have subscribed.? I was thinking of dropping ARRL membership as QST is not of much interest and online access to QEX not so much either.? I realize printed copies of QST were being discontinued and assumed that economy step must have included QEX when I stopped receiving copies.? Are others receiving printed copies of QEX?

?

Bruce, KG6OJI
-- 
"The world is desperate for a faith that combines two things: awestruck sight of unshakable divine Truth, and 
utterly practical, round-the-clock power to make a liberating difference in life"... John Piper

Re: Extra QEX copy

#423

Called ARRL as Ray suggested and learned I have not been subscribed to QEX since 2022.? Subscribing again appears to have fixed things.

Thanks Ray.

?

Bruce, KG6OJI

Re: Extra QEX copy

#422

开云体育

Bruce,
Sometime back, the ARRL notified subscribers about the potential change from hard copy to online. However, they gave an option for subs to continue to receive hard copies, which I elected for, (don't remember if there were conditions). So I still receive QEX as well as QST hard copies. I am a life member, so that may have been a consideration.

You might give them a call and see if any option is available.
Ray, W4BYG

On 2/5/2025 13:15, ebrucehunter via groups.io wrote:

Dave,

?

I was surprised to learn you are still continuing to receive printed copies of QEX.? I haven't been receiving printed copies of any ARRL publications - only an email message with links to the ARRL publications to which I have subscribed.? I was thinking of dropping ARRL membership as QST is not of much interest and online access to QEX not so much either.? I realize printed copies of QST were being discontinued and assumed that economy step must have included QEX when I stopped receiving copies.? Are others receiving printed copies of QEX?

?

Bruce, KG6OJI

-- 
"The world is desperate for a faith that combines two things: awestruck sight of unshakable divine Truth, and 
utterly practical, round-the-clock power to make a liberating difference in life"... John Piper

Re: [nanovna-users] Extra QEX copy

#421

All,

The extra copy of QEX has ?been spoken for.

DaveD
KC0WJN

Show quoted text

On Wed, Feb 5, 2025 at 12:56 Dave Daniel via <kc0wjn=[email protected]> wrote:

Does anyone want a copy of the January/February 2025 issue of QEX? The ARRL
sent me two copies. It has the tinySA tracking generator design article in
it.

Of so *respond to me privately* at

kc0wjn at gmail dot com

Responses to the list will be ignored.

The magazine is free; shipping cost from 32754 USA to be paid to me by
PayPal F&F (the shipping cost using USPS Media Mail is probably trivial).

DaveD
KC0WJN

Re: Extra QEX copy

#420

Bruce,

After much hemming and hawing I re-upped with the ARRL last month after letting my membership lapse last year. I decided to receive print copies of QEX but not QST, which I don't get much out of anymore. I prefer printed copies of periodicals and books, being somewhat older. I still have around 1500-2000 books. I still get Fine Woodworking and the Microwave Journal, but I dropped my IEEE membership which also wasn't doing me any good now that I'm retired.

I'm not entirely sure whether rejoining ARRL was the right thing to do. It's now relatively expensive; I think I understand why that is but I'm not sure that the current management is doing a good job. The ransomeware incident last year hit the ARRL pretty hard financially.?

We'll see what happens this year. It would be bad if the ARRL went under. We depend on them to run interference with the FCC.?

DaveD
KC0WJN

Show quoted text

On Wed, Feb 5, 2025 at 13:15 ebrucehunter via <Brucekareen=[email protected]> wrote:

Dave,

?

I was surprised to learn you are still continuing to receive printed copies of QEX.? I haven't been receiving printed copies of any ARRL publications - only an email message with links to the ARRL publications to which I have subscribed.? I was thinking of dropping ARRL membership as QST is not of much interest and online access to QEX not so much either.? I realize printed copies of QST were being discontinued and assumed that economy step must have included QEX when I stopped receiving copies.? Are others receiving printed copies of QEX?

?

Bruce, KG6OJI

Re: Extra QEX copy

#419

Dave,

?

I was surprised to learn you are still continuing to receive printed copies of QEX.? I haven't been receiving printed copies of any ARRL publications - only an email message with links to the ARRL publications to which I have subscribed.? I was thinking of dropping ARRL membership as QST is not of much interest and online access to QEX not so much either.? I realize printed copies of QST were being discontinued and assumed that economy step must have included QEX when I stopped receiving copies.? Are others receiving printed copies of QEX?

?

Bruce, KG6OJI

Extra QEX copy

#418

Does anyone want a copy of the January/February 2025 issue of QEX? The ARRL sent me two copies. It has the tinySA tracking generator design article in it.

Of so *respond to me privately* at

kc0wjn at gmail dot com

Responses to the list will be ignored.

The magazine is free; shipping cost from 32754 USA to be paid to me by PayPal F&F (the shipping cost using USPS Media Mail is probably trivial).

DaveD
KC0WJN

ADA4817-1 FastFET Op Amplifier based on-PCB probe buffer project

#417

On 1/29/25 17:33, Reginald Beardsley via groups.io wrote:
A battery powered OSHW 1 GHz active probe to which I could connect anything via SMA would be hugely valuable. There are some
awesome instruments which are encumbered by the lack of active probes. They were built for a different use case, testing disk drives.

On 2/2/25 16:25, Reginald Beardsley via groups.io wrote:
So if some folks will design and validate an active probe module designed around this or similar, I'll order prototypes and test them.

If someone familiar with the openEMS package can simulate a PCB layout, I can verify the simulations. I've also got a machine that
can run them. No issue with making boards to test the simulations.I've done one OSHW project and earned maybe $2.60/hour.    This could be fun and low time drain though...  But not quick -- I have too many other projects going.  Who else is interested?  I can do the layout with pcb-rnd sch-rnd for any kind of vias or layers or stripline or ?.

John Griessen
compiling OpenEMS...

Re: OT: Almost licensed again....

#416

I just ordered the really small (<4' collapsed), light weight (<4 lbs) 33' Wimo fiberglass mast from DX. I'm going to make a mount that straps to the rear wheel of my Toyota GR86 for a trip out west. The trunk layout of the car will let me sleep in it very comfortably. I just need a fold out table in the trunk and a tent to cover the rear for cooking and operating the radio.

On Sunday, November 24, 2024 at 10:42:47 AM CST, Karl Heinz Kremer - K5KHK <khk@...> wrote:

It’s 18 days.?

de K5KHK

Re: OT: Almost licensed again....

#415

Thank you. I know W5UHU i not in use and is the logical follow on to my initial call. I doubt it's ever been issued. That gives me time to order an antenna mast ;-)

Have Fun!
Reg

On Sunday, November 24, 2024 at 10:42:47 AM CST, Karl Heinz Kremer - K5KHK <khk@...> wrote:

It’s 18 days.?

de K5KHK

Re: OT: Almost licensed again....

#414

I plan to print the license pools, read them and then take a paper exam for both at the same time. 20 minutes and done.

The rules are the hard things as they MUST be memorized. which is not my strong suite. I think if I read the actual rules before looking at the license pools it will be easier. Logic I can follow. There is a purpose and logic to the rules and that makes them easier to remember.

I'm sure W5UHU won't show in ULS before Monday at best. There is NO feedback from FCC, neither license grant nor vanity call request. Just my payment. I did find a page that stated W5UHU as "Pending", but can't find it again.

I've gotten obsessed with the head copy problem. Fewer than 300 words constitute about 1/2 of all English. They are also the start of majority of words. So if one builds a frequency of occurrence tree one gets a probabilistic view of the next characters. Haven't quite sorted how to print it, but I've processed the Brown corpus as the base with proper names, dates, etc removed. The logic to print it so it is meaningful is the challenging part. What I have is the number of times each word appears in over 88 million words. It's a solid representation of common English usage.

There's a single 2 letter word, "an", but a huge number of words which begin with those two such as "and", "any", etc. The number of commonly used words in English is surprisingly small.

Lots of short words are the start of longer words and knowing what to expect can help with the longer word decoding in your head. This is basic cryptanalytic technique applied to head copy.

I've seen marked deterioration in all manual skills with lack of use, especially playing guitar for 50+ years. Loss of manual dexterity is the most distressing. Only one way to get it back. Take things apart and put them back together. Just a few days not practicing keying and it's gone. I could run the alphabet cleanly at 25 wpm. I can rarely manage 20 at the moment. But I'm now focused on head copy, not keying.

Have Fun!
Reg

On Sunday, November 24, 2024 at 07:38:55 AM CST, Dave Daniel via groups.io <kc0wjn@...> wrote:

I do see KJ5JBH in the QRZ database and not W5UHU.

Good luck with the General and Extra exams. I recall that I took the General exam more or less without studying much except things that had to be memorized, such as the ham bans privileges, FCC rules, etc., on the spur of the moment while I was attending a hamfest in Colorado. The engineering questions were fairly easy to deal with. I need to do the same thing with the Extra ticket, but as I haven't put up antennas since moving, it's a sort of moot point right now.

QRZ has practice exams.

Plus, most of my ham gear is Heathkit SB series and, like my Tektronix 'scope collection, many of the SB rigs were purposely purchased for little money and in need of repair. Between the test equipment, ham gear and vintage audio gear, I was glad to have a stack of projects to keep me busy.

I think I may have overdid it, though.

The CW fist speed issue is an interesting one. I easily passed the General CW test, but I don't think I could do that today. I'll have to start practicing again. The best way to maintain the skill is to practice it on the air, once one is competent enough to do so.

73,
DaveD
KC0WJN

On 11/22/2024 3:21 PM, Reginald Beardsley via groups.io wrote:

I was issued KJ5JBH, so I coughed $35 for a "vanity call" of W5UHU which would have been my call if I could have afforded a station in the late '60s and upgraded from WN5UHU before it expired. The change still had not shown up in the ULS the last time I looked, but KJ5JBH did ;-)
So at least I'm licensed.

I just sent an email asking the VE if I can take the General and Extra parts on paper in December or January. Those Extra CW segments are nice. I really want to work 40 & 20 from a QRP dipole in the back yard. Classic radio.

Now I need to master solid head copy at 15-20 wpm. I've loaded the 134 2 & 3 character words in my Morserino and am practicing with it using a frequency of occurrence file.

Have Fun!
Reg

On Friday, November 22, 2024 at 01:50:14 PM CST, Dave Daniel via groups.io <kc0wjn@...> wrote:

Excellent. Congratulations!

DaveD

On 11/20/2024 10:58 PM, Reginald Beardsley via groups.io wrote:
> Just because it took so long to finally do it.
>
> I? took the Tech section and passed it yesterday.? 35/35 but? a minor miracle with a wonky tablet to take the exam on.? Many thanks to the VEs in Russellville.? I was totally clueless of the FCC exam protocol which was nearly catastrophic.
>
> No official response yet, but I assume that's coming.? After years of procrastination, I certainly can't complain about a day of delay.? Really weird exam experience relative to 40-50 years ago.? Paper & #2 pencil forever!? I'll request that for parts 3 & 4.
>
> Hope to work some of you in the next year.
>
> Have Fun!
> Regq
>
>
>
>
>

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.

Virus-free.

Re: OT: Almost licensed again....

#413

It’s 18 days.?

de K5KHK

Re: OT: Almost licensed again....

#412

It has been a long time since I checked - but the last time I looked, Vanity call sign applications took about a month to be approved.? Maybe that is/was only under certain circumstances - e.g., if the callsign was previously in use.? It does not take that much time to do the paperwork; it was some sort of required 30-day waiting period.? Again, I am not up to speed on that anymore.

?

I knew someone with the initials JBH.? He would have liked your current callsign.

?

I would think that your VE ought to be able to accommodate your desire for a pencil-and-paper option.? If not, try another VE.? (But I say this without knowing what the current test requirements are.)? My last FCC exam was not that long ago and it was pencil-and-paper.

?

Andy

?

Re: OT: Almost licensed again....

#411

开云体育

I do see KJ5JBH in the QRZ database and not W5UHU.

Good luck with the General and Extra exams. I recall that I took the General exam more or less without studying much except things that had to be memorized, such as the ham bans privileges, FCC rules, etc., on the spur of the moment while I was attending a hamfest in Colorado. The engineering questions were fairly easy to deal with. I need to do the same thing with the Extra ticket, but as I haven't put up antennas since moving, it's a sort of moot point right now.

QRZ has practice exams.

Plus, most of my ham gear is Heathkit SB series and, like my Tektronix 'scope collection, many of the SB rigs were purposely purchased for little money and in need of repair. Between the test equipment, ham gear and vintage audio gear, I was glad to have a stack of projects to keep me busy.

I think I may have overdid it, though.

The CW fist speed issue is an interesting one. I easily passed the General CW test, but I don't think I could do that today. I'll have to start practicing again. The best way to maintain the skill is to practice it on the air, once one is competent enough to do so.

73,
DaveD
KC0WJN

On 11/22/2024 3:21 PM, Reginald Beardsley via groups.io wrote:

I was issued KJ5JBH, so I coughed $35 for a "vanity call" of W5UHU which would have been my call if I could have afforded a station in the late '60s and upgraded from WN5UHU before it expired. The change still had not shown up in the ULS the last time I looked, but KJ5JBH did ;-)
So at least I'm licensed.

I just sent an email asking the VE if I can take the General and Extra parts on paper in December or January. Those Extra CW segments are nice. I really want to work 40 & 20 from a QRP dipole in the back yard. Classic radio.

Now I need to master solid head copy at 15-20 wpm. I've loaded the 134 2 & 3 character words in my Morserino and am practicing with it using a frequency of occurrence file.

Have Fun!
Reg

On Friday, November 22, 2024 at 01:50:14 PM CST, Dave Daniel via groups.io <kc0wjn@...> wrote:

Excellent. Congratulations!

DaveD

On 11/20/2024 10:58 PM, Reginald Beardsley via groups.io wrote:
> Just because it took so long to finally do it.
>
> I? took the Tech section and passed it yesterday.? 35/35 but? a minor miracle with a wonky tablet to take the exam on.? Many thanks to the VEs in Russellville.? I was totally clueless of the FCC exam protocol which was nearly catastrophic.
>
> No official response yet, but I assume that's coming.? After years of procrastination, I certainly can't complain about a day of delay.? Really weird exam experience relative to 40-50 years ago.? Paper & #2 pencil forever!? I'll request that for parts 3 & 4.
>
> Hope to work some of you in the next year.
>
> Have Fun!
> Regq
>
>
>
>
>

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.

Virus-free.

Re: OT: Almost licensed again....

#410

I was issued KJ5JBH, so I coughed $35 for a "vanity call" of W5UHU which would have been my call if I could have afforded a station in the late '60s and upgraded from WN5UHU before it expired. The change still had not shown up in the ULS the last time I looked, but KJ5JBH did ;-)
So at least I'm licensed.

I just sent an email asking the VE if I can take the General and Extra parts on paper in December or January. Those Extra CW segments are nice. I really want to work 40 & 20 from a QRP dipole in the back yard. Classic radio.

Now I need to master solid head copy at 15-20 wpm. I've loaded the 134 2 & 3 character words in my Morserino and am practicing with it using a frequency of occurrence file.

Have Fun!
Reg

On Friday, November 22, 2024 at 01:50:14 PM CST, Dave Daniel via groups.io <kc0wjn@...> wrote:

Excellent. Congratulations!

DaveD

Show quoted text

On 11/20/2024 10:58 PM, Reginald Beardsley via groups.io wrote:
> Just because it took so long to finally do it.
>
> I? took the Tech section and passed it yesterday.? 35/35 but? a minor miracle with a wonky tablet to take the exam on.? Many thanks to the VEs in Russellville.? I was totally clueless of the FCC exam protocol which was nearly catastrophic.
>
> No official response yet, but I assume that's coming.? After years of procrastination, I certainly can't complain about a day of delay.? Really weird exam experience relative to 40-50 years ago.? Paper & #2 pencil forever!? I'll request that for parts 3 & 4.
>
> Hope to work some of you in the next year.
>
> Have Fun!
> Regq
>
>
>
>
>

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
www.avast.com

Re: OT: Almost licensed again....

#409

Excellent. Congratulations!

DaveD

Show quoted text

On 11/20/2024 10:58 PM, Reginald Beardsley via groups.io wrote:
Just because it took so long to finally do it.

I  took the Tech section and passed it yesterday.  35/35 but  a minor miracle with a wonky tablet to take the exam on.  Many thanks to the VEs in Russellville.  I was totally clueless of the FCC exam protocol which was nearly catastrophic.

No official response yet, but I assume that's coming.  After years of procrastination, I certainly can't complain about a day of delay.  Really weird exam experience relative to 40-50 years ago.  Paper & #2 pencil forever!  I'll request that for parts 3 & 4.

Hope to work some of you in the next year.

Have Fun!
Regq

-- 
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
www.avast.com

OT: Almost licensed again....

#408

Just because it took so long to finally do it.  

I  took the Tech section and passed it yesterday.  35/35 but  a minor miracle with a wonky tablet to take the exam on.  Many thanks to the VEs in Russellville.  I was totally clueless of the FCC exam protocol which was nearly catastrophic.

No official response yet, but I assume that's coming.  After years of procrastination, I certainly can't complain about a day of delay.  Really weird exam experience relative to 40-50 years ago.  Paper & #2 pencil forever!  I'll request that for parts 3 & 4.

Hope to work some of you in the next year.

Have Fun!
Regq

Re: Some questions on digital filter design

#407

Thanks to  Jeff Anderson's kindness I have now created my first non-minimum phase causal filter.  The emphasis on minimum phase is such a dominant part of DSP in the geophysics community that I was *very* confused to find almost no mention of it at all in the EE DSP literature.  John H. Karl is a professor of Physics and Astronomy.  His graphic showing the division of causal filters into  minimum and non-minimum phase branches  combined with Jeff's patient persistence resolved my confusion.

The filter example is centered on 12 kHz with 1 Hz frequency bins and 24 kHz Nyquist. Time domain is 48 kSa/s. The prototype skirts are the same width as the pass band and have a sine taper. I then truncated the central part of the time domain response which produced the sinc side lobes in the frequency domain. Log scale is amplitude so 20*log(abs) rather than the 10*log(abs) for power.

I used Octave  on Debian 10 for the examples simply because I didn't want to go hunting for an FFT of which I have so many from which to choose on my Solaris 10_u8 research system.  It is much too old to connect to the Internet.  I've also  not done any serious software development in nearly 10 years and am a Sun Forte diehard.  Best debugger ever.  The only one that will let you evaluate a long FORTRAN expression on the debugger command line.  I use mixed C89 and FORTRAN 77 and switch languages whenever it is more convenient to use the other language.  This provides absolute control of variable scope and memory allocation as well as access to a vast library of very thoroughly tested dusty deck numerical codes, e.g. SLATEC, etc.  So I always know exactly what the computer is doing.   None of the infinitely many layers of obfuscation inherent in C++ and modern FORTRAN.  Also much more economical use of core.  That really matters when your data arrays run into many GB and the input data is many TB.  I no longer do that, but having had to work my way down through layer upon layer of C++ classes I prefer simplicity and economical use of resources.

Have Fun!
Reg

Re: OT Software compilation was Re: [qex] Some questions on digital filter design

#406

My opinion:?

Bugs are a GOOD thing, in many applications. Sorry, this could be a controversial opinion, but it is my firm opinion. I worked commercially in software development in investment banking for 22 years. A bug could cost $millions in seconds, if it was a bad kind of bug. Yet, I still believe bugs are a good thing.?

Once, around 2009 or so, I was heading up a rapid application dev team at a famous UK investment bank, developing highly complex supercomputer pricing and risk management applications for exotic commodity?derivatives. One day the head commodities trader telephoned me and summoned me to his desk on the trading floor. I could hear the anger in his voice and walked there with some trepidation. He was an American, living in London. He yelled, Hans, there is a bug! Look! Why are there always bugs in your system??

I explained. There are bugs because you want us to be quick. You want us to achieve impossible things with a small team (we were 10, between London and New York), at low cost and unbelievably fast. If we are to ensure that there are no bugs, we cannot turn around your requests in one day. We will need a team 5x as large, and it will take longer. And you know that if it takes longer, your profit opportunity will evaporate and some other bank will have taken the trade. Therefore you need bugs, bugs are not a bad thing. We need a BALANCE. The red colour disappeared?from his face, and he sat down, and stared again at his screens. I took it as his approval and I retreated. The subject wasn't raised again. Though we sometimes had bugs, we were incredibly fast, and the code we developed enabled amazing things.

This is the point. One cannot universally say that bugs are bad, bugs are shame. Like many other areas of life, what we need is a well-considered balance, not an absolute on one side or another. In many instances, being entirely free of bugs will take too much time and cost too much money, and the benefits of the software will be erased completely, due to this.?

I am not saying a developer should not care about quality. Of course, he should care. He should be highly skilled and capable. He should always do the best he can within the constraints. But like all engineering - software engineering is no different - the application will have some target parameters, and this will vary from one application to another; cost, development speed, bug risk, all are inter-related and the target intersection will not necessarily be at one extreme or another. A medical application or a space or military application may have a lot tighter constraints than a doodling drawing game for toddlers.?

Even in my firmware on my kits, yes, there are bugs. But accepting the bugs let me release radios with great performance and low cost, sooner and cheaper, and in general the user community appreciate the chance to have great radios sooner, and be there on the journey while the bugs are resolved over time, rather than to wait longer for a more expensive product that is more highly polished. Again it's a question of the application. I am proud of the balance, not ashamed of the existence of bugs.?

It isn't black and white.?

73 Hans G0UPL

Re: OT Software compilation was Re: [qex] Some questions on digital filter design

#405

There was nothing insular about that port. The initial target systems were SunOS 4.1, BSD, and Intergraph CLIX, bare SYS V with the 15 or 16 character filename limit. We then added support on the other systems. Officially 4, but as I had access to SGI and Ultrix systems I compiled it on them also. No problems because by that point we had cleaned up the code. All warnings from any compiler were examined and dealt with.

The only #ifdefs were for byte sex and FORTRAN RECL, words or bytes. All the systems ran the exact same code. It had C calling FORTRAN calling C calling FORTRAN ad nauseum. There was a single conditional not related to the byte sex and RECL issues. Sun improperly set errno in a call to getcwd(3c) in a Solaris release which caused my check after the call to fail. The fix the other contractor applied was to change the test on Sun to see if getcwd(3c) returned a null pointer.

Finding test cases is the hard part, *really* hard part. When I was doing the rock physics work I created a test suite which I used to validate commercial packages. In essence I ran the equations backwards to generate the input.

As a summer intern I was asked for help with a 3D FFT running on an Intel 386 Hypercube. It took me 5 minutes to find the problem. I initialized the array with all ones and called the FFT. That immediately disclosed the indexing error.

I supported the open source package, Seismic Unix, for close to 15 years. I finally quit because the person controlling it kept breaking my code. He also stripped my copyright and changed the names of the programs which forced me to maintain my own copies so I could still run old seismic processing jobs. I had spent 60+ hours testing a release to make sure it built on every system I had available. I sent him the package. He didn't use it and put out a release that did not build on *any* system. He also shipped some experimental code I had told him not to distribute as it still needed further testing. That was the last straw.

After being sole support for 2.5 million lines of other people's code I do know a fair bit about bugs. In production code I check every return code from every system call. No exceptions.

Have Fun!
Reg

On Thursday, July 11, 2024 at 09:47:49 AM CDT, Chuck Harris <cfharris@...> wrote:

Open source projects are a rather challenging environment
ranging from the one-guy team (with an itch that needs scratching)
to corporate teams with hundreds of salaried developers).

The one thing they all have in common is a very blighted channel
between the developer and the "customer".

I can't think of many open source projects that are so limited that
you can try all possible inputs.? I can't think of too many developers
that are naive enough to think that they can even think of all possible
inputs on even a trivially complicated app.

For example, your application ran on a VAX, using VMS.? And later
HPUX on some HP computers.? That is the very definition of an insular
environment.

Octave runs a gadzillian combinations of operating system, hardware,
builds, compilers, libraries, ranging from super computers to smart
phones and watches....? Even the big-endian vs little-endian differences
still cause problems.

I don't think I would be very quick to disparage folks that work in
the open source environment.

Don't believe me?? Try adopting a tiny little library program, like say
PyPDF2.? And get back to me in a while...

-Chuck Harris

Show quoted text

On Thu, 11 Jul 2024 14:16:55 +0000 (UTC) "Reginald Beardsley via
groups.io" <pulaskite@...> wrote:
>? Not programing ability. Exhaustive test. The most complex part of my
> libraries was the parser written using lex and yacc. If you feed a
> program *all possible input* and it does what it is supposed to do
> you can confidently say it is bug free. The other library was
> wrappers for the C standard library to replace the VAX run time
> library calls. That's pretty easy to get right.
>
> It was not a complex grammar, so the possible valid input set was
> small and if the input did not comply with the grammar it reported
> the error in the input to the user in human intelligible form.
>
> This was part of a 500 kLOC port from VMS to Unix. The VMS version
> stored the data format in the ALC which was not possible in Unix.
>
> We had fewer than a dozen bug reports the first year in use which was
> 250,000 runs of various parts of the package. It was instrumented to
> report usage back to Dallas from around the world. We found many more
> in our testing, but those were fixed *before* the code was released.
> We built a huge regression test suite for the package which ran every
> time I built the system. If a bug appeared in an intermediate build
> all work stopped until we had fixed it and added additional tests.
> Same if we got a user submitted bug.
>
> The bug reports asymptotically approached zero over 6 years.
>
> There were three aspects that made this possible:
>
> 1) Developer attitude, most of the work was done by two people who
> were *very* obsessive about quality. I found a bug in our code and
> went to ask the other contractor how we could have missed it. He
> started trembling because he thought I was accusing him of creating
> the bug which was not the case. We had both worked on that particular
> piece of code and had both missed the error and I wanted to see if we
> could figure out how to avoid repeating such things. It was a very
> subtle error which got caught when I constructed some new test cases.
>
> 2) The system was officially released on SunOS 4.1, Intergraph Clix
> and AIX. Any error or warning reported on any system was fixed. We
> also did a port to HP-UX, but I don't think it was ever shipped
> because the affiliate that wanted it refused to pay for the 4 man
> weeks of work to validate the results of the regression test suite. I
> did the Ultrix and Irix ports as an afternoon lark but did not test
> them. But I did get a clean compile and link. The IBM compiler caught
> numerous violations of the F77 standard which we fixed. I kept a copy
> of the F77 standard by my workstation and Plauger and Brodie's
> "Standard C" which is by my workstation still as I type this.
>
> 3) The regression test suite which was created as we wrote the code
> in incremental fashion.
>
> The bottom line is that if the developers really care about code
> quality and take the necessary steps it makes a huge difference in
> the result.
>
> No claim that I am superman. Merely that I *really* care about code
> quality and do everything I know to ensure that it is correct. Same
> with my posts. I reread them many times checking for errors.
>
> Have Fun!
> Reg
>?
> On Wednesday, July 10, 2024 at 11:46:09 PM CDT, David Kirkby
> <drkirkby@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> I have certainly read before that all non-trivial software has bugs.
> You might believe that your own coding abilities don’t produce bugs.
> I can not dispute that.
>
>
>?
>
>
>
>
>