TRON/TROFF

From: tim lindner <tlindner_at_ix.netcom.com>
Date: Tue Nov 11 13:03:34 2003

Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com> wrote:

> The title of the film comes from the TRON instruction of the PDP-10,
> one of the 64 logical test and modify instructions. The TRON
> mnemonic means _Test accumulator _Right half immediate, set selected
> bits to _One, and skip unless all selected bits are zero (the skip
> phrase being coded as "N" in the mnemonic):
> http://pdp10.nocrew.org/docs/instruction-set/Logical-Tests.html
> It has nothing to do with the "trace on" command in Microsoft BASIC,
> and the PDP-10 does not have a "TROFF" instruction.

On the orignal Laserdisk audio commentary (also included on the 20th
Anniversry DVD release) Steven Lisberger clearly stated:

"The name Tron is derived from 'Electron'. Some programmers think it
refers to Trace On/Trace off, but we learned about that afterwords."

-- 
tim lindner
tlindner_at_ix.netcom.com
Received on Tue Nov 11 2003 - 13:03:34 GMT

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