Tim Bradshaw  <tfb@cley.com> wrote:
+---------------
| * Barry Margolin wrote:
| 
| > I'm not sure of the etymology, but I suspect it may be similar to the word
| > "doping" when used in the context of semiconductors, which refers to adding
| > extra stuff to material.
| 
| Isn't there a term in some US slang `the straight dope'?
+---------------

One of the dictionary definitions of "dope" is "information,
especially from a reliable source" (as in "the inside dope").
The dictionary says it dates back to 1807, and comes from the
Dutch word for "sauce" (as in "dip").

+---------------
| ...I think it's something to do with getting information about
| something, which would explain the `dope vector' usage.
+---------------

Exactly. Typical usage: "Did you get the new dope on the weather?"

By the way, a special case of "dope vectors" are "Iliffe vectors",
which are one implementation of multi-dimensional arrays. (See
<URL:http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~pjj/cs2111/ho/node17.html> for more
discussion of both of these.)

The ALGOl-60 compiler on the DEC PDP-10 used  Iliffe vectors, since
that made array addressing almost trivial given the PDP-10's multi-level
index+indirect modes in memory-reference instructions. If a, b, & c
were already in the proper registers, "foo[a,b,c] := foo[a,b,c] + 1"
could be done in *one* instruction!! (No joke.)


-Rob

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