Re: Still dreaming of GS/OS 7.0

["Tim Haynes" <timhaynes@alumni.NO.SPAM.PLEASE.uwaterloo.ca>]

He probably means this one:

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WhatIsaThunk

 In PCs, to convert a 16-bit memory address to a 32-bit address, and vice
versa. Thunking is necessary because Intel's older 16-bit microprocessors
used an addressing scheme called segmented memory, whereas their new 32-bit
microprocessors use a flat address space . Windows 95 supports a thunk
mechanism to enable 32-bit programs to call 16-bit DLLs. This is called a
flat thunk. On the other hand, 16-bit applications running under Windows 3.x
and Windows for Workgroups cannot use 32-bit DLLs unless the 32-bit
addresses are converted to 16-bit addresses. This is the function of Win32s,
and is called a universal thunk.

According to folklore, the term thunk was coined by the developers of the
Algol-60 programming language, who realized late one night that the data
type of parameters could be known with a little forethought by the compiler.
That is, by the time the compiler processed the parameters, it had already
thought of (thunked) the data types. The meaning of the term has changed
considerably in recent years.



"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote in message
20030421163058.18876.00000381@mb-m24.aol.com">news:20030421163058.18876.00000381@mb-m24.aol.com...
> Dosius wrote:
>
> >I, personally, think an '816/3 is fine for GS/OS, but an '816/20 (� la
> >the SuperCPU) would be nicer *g*. Even better would be an '816 with a
> >thunk to 32-bit mode *g*
>
> From the Hacker's Dictionary:
>
> thunk /thuhnk/ n.
>
> 1. [obs.]"A piece of coding which provides an address", according to
> P. Z. Ingerman, who invented thunks in 1961 as a way of binding
> actual parameters to their formal definitions in Algol-60 procedure
> calls. If a procedure is called with an expression in the place of a
> formal parameter, the compiler generates a thunk which computes
> the expression and leaves the address of the result in some standard
> location. 2. Later generalized into: an expression, frozen together with
> its environment, for later evaluation if and when needed (similar to what
> in techspeak is called a `closure'). The process of unfreezing these
> thunks is called `forcing'. 3. A stubroutine, in an overlay programming
> environment, that loads and jumps to the correct overlay. Compare
> 'trampoline'. 4. People and activities scheduled in a thunklike manner.
> "It occurred to me the other day that I am rather accurately modeled
> by a thunk -- I frequently need to be forced to completion." -- para-
> phrased from a plan file.
>
> I'm curious about what meaning you attach to "thunk".
> -michael
>
> Check out amazing quality 8-bit Apple sound on my
> Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/