Conference 7.286::digital

    Martin... I, and many others will miss your Candor, your wit, and your
    clever hacks. Good luck at Apple... I hope they aren't translating you
    to the Left Coast, as well, then we will have to miss your Parties.
    
    Good luck.

    Your note brought some things together for me, Martin. Thanks. Some
    things about Digital have always brought a smile to my face, and
    one of them is "Martin in the Mill with DECtalk" - something we've
    done right! I'm proud to have worked at the same company with you.
    
    Keep that tux spiffy! And keep in touch.
    
    Regards,
    
    Janet
    
    P.S.  Will the talking apples now have your accent?
    

    Martin,
    
    My first experience with Digital's hardware and software had your name
    all over it - RSTS/E on a PDP-11/40, in 1977.  It was that experience
    that convinced me that quality really meant something in our business,
    and that Digital meant quality.  So it saddens me to hear of your departure.
    
    Although we've never met, and you don't know me from Adam, I hope you
    fare well at Apple.  Good luck.
    
    tim
    

    re: .1 Martin is moving to Cupertino, so we'll have to utilise his
    floor.
    
    On-On!
    
    	- andy

    Allright....where's that IOT documentation??????
    
    
    Good luck Martin.
    
    Marc H.

	Martin, forgive my gut reaction, but I can't express it any better.
    It's been real *and* fun.  Take care guy,

					   -davo
				([email protected])

Goodbye, Martin, and good luck.

I learned a fair bit of my C from your notes in the VAXC notesfile.
After a few weeks of wading through the garbage, I found that the
best way to spend my spare bits of time was to type
dir/author=minow and just read from that list.

I also snitched a copy of the DECUS C source and had a lot of fun
rooting around in it to see how it works.

I hope you enjoy working for Apple.

I suggest you plan to come back here in the Autumn --
that's the season that I missed most when I was out there.

John Hainsworth
DECstudio and XSight development
formerly DECpresent and DECwrite Equation Editor

I'm very sad to hear of your departure, Martin.

Like many others, I've never met you, but I have benefitted
immensely from your knowledge and patience in explaining that
knowledge to others.

I hope that Apple suits your style.  On the positive side, 
there are a lot of nice places around there, and Apple folks can
be pretty fun to work with.  Be sure to trundle over the hill to Santa Cruz
(my old stomping grounds) for relaxation.

Cheers,
Kevin Farlee

    Good luck too - from another one 'taking the package' - but coming
    from the 'lost Large System Market' [which took us a hell of a time
    to win via good ole Arpanet...].
    
    rgds,
    bernie.
    

    Re .0
    
    Martin, Good Luck. I don't think we've ever met but you're one of the
    reasons I came to work for Digital in the UK in 1979. I spent a large
    proportion of my 3 years at Southampton University trying to hack the
    campus RSTS system. Decompiled system programs etc. Got listings that
    had your name all over them. Developed a great reverence for DEC
    software and hence the company. RSTS, now there was a system. We never
    did break the kernel though. Had lots of fun with EMT using it to
    escape from the BASIC RTL to run 'machine language' programs.
    
    Enjoy yourself at Apple. DEC is poorer for you leaving.
    And just where did those DECtalk accents come from....
    
    Dave

    Martin

    Best of luck to you at Apple. I learned a lot from when  we worked
    together during the 70's and part of 80's.   It was an honor to know
    you and have spent time with you.  

    By the way Martin,  I too am SERPing, hope to see you out there.

     Bill Aupperlee

    Well, Martin, you don't know me from Adam either, and I wouldn't
    recognize you if we passed in a hallway someplace.  But you were one of
    the very first people I met when I joined DEC back in August '81.  I
    went to work at the DEC Central Region (at the time) office in
    Arlington Heights, Illinois.  The first job I was given was to get
    familiar with the RSTS/E Performance Package, fix any bugs I could
    find, and put together a draft Sales Guide.  
    
    This was the first time I had ever seen documented what all those
    status fields meant and what corrective action made sense.  And each 
    report actually told the user - in English not computerese - why it was
    important.  I remember I was impressed.  And, to this day, I still use
    the lessons I learned from going over that body of software.
    
    Your name was all over the code.
    
    Since then, I've seen you in notes and come to respect you even more.  I
    really hate this sentimental crap, but I'm gonna miss you.
    
    The world is indeed changing.
    
    - Greg Scott

Thanks, Martin, for all the ways you and your tools have helped me. 
Congratulations and best of luck in your new position at Apple.

- Roy

    You'll be missed Martin, but I do have and use regularly your recipe
    for Szechun noodles.
    
    J

           <<< Note 1909.14 by GIAMEM::JLAMOTTE "Come next Monday" >>>
                                    -< Bye >-

=>    You'll be missed Martin, but I do have and use regularly your recipe
=>    for Szechun noodles.
    
How about sharing that with all of us?

Jim

>    Martin, Good Luck. I don't think we've ever met but you're one of the
>    reasons I came to work for Digital in the UK in 1979. I spent a large
>    proportion of my 3 years at Southampton University trying to hack the
>    campus RSTS system. Decompiled system programs etc. Got listings that
>    had your name all over them. Developed a great reverence for DEC
>    software and hence the company. RSTS, now there was a system. We never
>    did break the kernel though. Had lots of fun with EMT using it to
>    escape from the BASIC RTL to run 'machine language' programs.
>    
>    Enjoy yourself at Apple. DEC is poorer for you leaving.
>    And just where did those DECtalk accents come from....

This seems to be a common thread. I took up computing, and Digital computing in
particular, because of my exposure one afternoon in 1975 to RSTS and a nice
little PDP (11/34 I think it was). I never regretted it. I still have my
V7.2/V8.0 internals notes even though I'll probably never touch a PDP again. 

It's nice after all these years to be able to thank the person who started it
all for me.

I look forward to seeing your name on future goodies from Apple... :-)

Gavin

Ahhh Gi'day...�

    While packing up my office to leave Digital on 30th June, I came across
    some  old  RSTS  manuals  and  training  material.   I started this DEC
    crusade  in  the  bowels  of  RSTS  in  78  timeframe, and your name is
    obviously very familiar to me...

    Good luck  Marvin, it's a name I thought I would never be around to see
    move on to better things. Good luck with Apple

    PS I  got  the  first DECtalk that came into Australia.  We spent HOURS
    trying  to stop the thing saying "Right angle bracket" on the adventure
    game. Just how DO you do that???

re: .17:

    PS I  got  the  first DECtalk that came into Australia.  We spent HOURS
    trying  to stop the thing saying "Right angle bracket" on the adventure
    game. Just how DO you do that???

I hacked the dungeon sources to send "don't speak this" and "don't show this"
escape sequences wherever necessary.

By the way, contrary to rumor, I'm not the author of RSTS -- the folk who
did it, primarily Mark Bramhall, Jim Miller and Anton Chernoff, are still
around, productive, and far more worthy of your praise.  My role was to
support it to the field. The support notes resulted from the combination
of the blizzard of '78 and an at-home VT05 and 300 Baud modem. I sat down
and typed the whole thing until I relized that, by leaving at 5 AM, I could
drive to my ski club house without too much worry about getting caught
by the curfew police.

Martin.

    More evidence that the 'New DEC' syndrome is a permanent
    condition.  Good luck from another unknown admirer...

    
    And so who's going to support IOT???
    
    Martin.  Sorry to hear you are leaving us.
    
    It's been nice working with you, good luck at Apple.
    
    Vince Asbridge
    

    Martin, another one who never met you, except through RSTS and an 11/40
    in 1977, and notes since.   OK, so you didn't write the whole thing
    single-handed...  but you were part of Digital.   All the best for
    the future.

OK, so you didn't write RSTS.  But for many of us (including yours truly, then
an OEM and customer), the attitude toward support which you exemplified WAS
Digital.  Ironic, in a way, that movers and shakers of the 90s are claiming to
have just seen the light about delighting customers and providing Quality when
Martin (and Mark, and Anton, and Jim, and Andy, and Simon, and Mark, and Joe,
and Nancy, and Jim, and the others) were living by that credo back in the 70s.

Good luck, Martin.  I hope your new environment renews that spirit.
See you in N'awlins for beignets...

-Bill

    I met Martin before he ever came to DEC.  It was the summer of 1970
    best we can remember it, and we were both hacking SNOBOL at Ohio
    State University.   He was writing this SNOBOL program that generated
    cross reference listings by reading OS/360 object decks...
    
    On a tape here in my file cabinet I still have the original Bell Labs
    source for the SNOBOL4 interpreter, and Martin claims to still have
    his cross reference program somewhere.
    
    - Paul Dickson

	Martin,

	 Have a good rest of your life. 


		One privileged to have made your acquaintance.

    Don't forget that Martin translated "I am Curious, Yellow" into
    English.
    
    There's more to that man than meets the eye :-)

Oh dear, there went my resume...

By the way, I *still* have the Snobol internals document -- I just put it
into a box when I packed my office.

But my Illiac-1 manual is at home.  That was my first computer when I took
the last programming course given on it -- which was also my last course
as an undergraduate.  Almost exactly 30 years to the day of my changing
jobs from Dec to Apple.

This has been fun, reliving old memories. Hope you all keep in touch.

Martin.
[email protected] (now)
[email protected] (I think, soon)

	I'm sorry to enter this under Martin's note...

	It is my hope that this forum will allow me to reach many of the 
	people who I will not be able to contact directly regarding this 
	being my last week at Digital.

	Over the last 12 years I have come to know many of you in one form 
	or another which has certainly been a complement to a very enjoyable 
	working environment.

	The amount of my positive experiences far exceeds any negative 
	encounters making them negligible in retrospect.

	It was also a pleasure to have worked for each and everyone of the 
	managers and supervisors who I have been associated with over the 
	years, in particular Stanley Crosby, Michael Kaczmarek, Ed Nolan, 
	Linda Boucher, Cheryl Wiecek, Larry Camilli, Charlie Dabrowski, 
	Chuck Hede, Dean Maher, and Ron Rainville.

	As I am drawing to close I have already found it a very difficult 
	task to contact the many co-workers / friends who I come to know.

	Also, I never got a chance to write to the Simon Szeto note but
	I was one of the many people who knew him from electronic 
	correspondence and I benefited greatly from his assistance.  I
	realized just how powerful this medium is after learning of his
	passing.

	In closing this has been an environment which encourages and allows
	growth while still maintaining a friendly work place, I hope it
	continues to keep some of its positive qualities.

	Best Regards,
	- Jim Zappia