3t$1@xivic.prima.de   
   From: Wolfgang.Schelongowski@gmx.de   
      
   Adam  writes:   
      
   >Wolfgang Schelongowski wrote:   
      
   >> Hayakawa, General Semantics   
   >> William Kent, Data and Reality - Basic assumptions in Data Processing   
   >>   Reconsidered   
   >   
   >Thanks for the recommendations!  I'll have to look for all of them   
   >at the library.   
      
   I forgot:   
   Whorf, Benjamin Lee: Language, Thought, and Reality   
      
   >> I've been de_compiling_ parts of programs for fun and for profit.   
   >   
   >I gather decompiling (as opposed to disassembling) still involves a   
   >lot of guesswork.   
      
   It did so last times I decompiled. A little bit of knowledge about   
   code generation and the linkage editor is necessary. It was always   
   a time consuming and rather tedious task, but it's what you do when   
   you haven't got the sources and 1) the %$&! SCO UNIX 3.2.2 kernel   
   barfs when the driver uses the arguments according to the interface   
   description or 2) (BSD4.2) you want to move around as wizard in the   
   levels of rogue - even those _above_ the surface.   
      
   >                   Can you recommend any decent decompilers?   
      
   Me, if you drop the 'decent' ;-) I usually started with output of the   
   disassembler, but sometimes ... (walks down memory lane, gets mugged).   
      
   >For a while I was part of the team working on the JL2005B/C/D driver   
   >for gphoto2.   
      
   The current mailing list appears not to be very helpful to me.   
      
   >              I was on the "dirty room" end of reverse engineering   
   >the OEM driver, so I dealt with piles of disassemblies of the   
   >Windows driver.   
      
   In my misspent youth^W^W^WWhile studying physics I had two 'hats':   
   1. member of the systems group (access to sources[1], allowed to cross   
      the red line around the usual place of the chief operator)   
   2. one of the physicists who needed a better listing by the linkage   
      editor specifying which subroutines were used by which other   
      subroutines   
   With hat 1 I inspected the sources and created one page of patches   
   in hex, commented, of course. With hat 2 I moved the pages to the   
   physicists. With hat 1 on I sent the patches to the GMD[2] in   
   Darmstadt and received a letter of "thank you" from their   
   systems group.   
      
   >                 At one point I had to tell the "clean room" end   
   >that only the bottom seven bits of a particular byte were   
   >significant, but I couldn't suggest any code for that, even though   
   >99% of C programmers would have taken care of it the same way.   
      
   Oh no, there is eternal dissent between the honorable members of   
   the hex tribe and the heathen idol worshippers of the octal !!!11!   
      
      
   [1] They were on 800bpi-tapes in a special place, and the operator had   
       been instructed not to get them except for the exalted few, all   
       according to the rules of the producer of the computer.   
   [2] IIRC they later called themselves DRZ which is short for   
       (translated) German Computing center.   
   --   
   The first entry of Sin into the mind occurs when, out of cowardice or   
   conformity or vanity, the Real is replaced by a comforting lie.   
     -- Integritas, Consonantia, Claritas   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)