ancient kernels 2574

Reading it without first getting my hands on a copy would be quite challenging. The libraries I normally use don't have it, so I'd either have to get special permission to use a library that does have it or request it on interlibrary loan or find a way to purchase it or have Barnes and Noble bring it in specially, hoping that they can get it and won't make me pay for it in advance. It is listed at abebooks.com as selling for 40 or 50 dollars. That is more than I am usually willing to invest in someone else's well-intended suggestion that I read a certain book, even if I like the book, especially if I haven't had an opportunity to examine the book.

That being the case, I didn't think it was unreasonable to ask for a little more information about the merits of the book.

Once I get my hands on the book, buttuming I'm willing to go to all that effort, it might indeed turn out to be too much of a challenge. The differences in architecture and programming environment between the PDP-11 and other machines I'm familiar with are not necessarily something I can simply gloss over although I'm glad to learn, according to another respondent's suggestion, that there are emulators available for the PDP-11. (I remember how miserable I was trying to find out how to do even the simplest things on a PDP-11 when referred to the large bookshelf of looseleaf books containing the documentation and how rarely I succeeded, despite the fact that everyone else considered it all obvious, so I am a little bit prejudiced against PDP-11's; on the positive side, I once had PDP-11 console in my office and managed to get it to add 2+2 by toggling in some machine code on the bit switches...)

Even under the best of conditions, it isn't very easy for me to read computer books. Even when I understand them, which is not very often, I don't usually find them very interesting, even though I know the information they contain is often useful. Knuth's books are an exception. On the other hand, I do like trying to read source code and I find it somewhat helpful to know that, unlike authors of books, authors of source code do have to say exactly what they mean, unambiguously, and in all necessary detail. -- Ignorantly, * Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and * comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.