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Biosophy

Biosophy, meaning wisdom of life, is "the science and art of intelligent living based on the awareness and practice of spiritual values, ethical-social principles and character qualities essential to individual freedom and social harmony". It stands in relation to biology, which can be broadly described as the understanding of life.

History
The term Biosophy was probably first used in 1806 by Ignaz Paul Vitalis Troxler, a Swiss philosopher whose early works followed F. W. J. Schelling. It was later used by other philosophers like Peter Wessel Zapffe (1899–1990), who used biology as the foundation of his philosophy. Zapffe first set out his ideas in Den sidste Messias (en. The Last Messiah) (1933). Later Zapffe gave a more systematic defence in his philosophical treatise Om det tragiske (en. On the tragic) (1941). The Biosophical Institute claims that Frederick Kettner (1886-1957) was the founder of Biosophy. Kettner was himself originally inspired by the organicism of Constantin Brunner.

Contemporary biosophers include Jong Bhak, who defines Biosophy as a "new way of performing philosophy generated from scientific and biological awareness". Bhak developed his theory of Biosophy while studying at Cambridge University in 1995 and afterwards. The main difference of Bhak's biosophy from other philosophy is that his biosophy is a computable philosophy. It borrows Bertrand Russell logicism and extends it to a computational set of ideas and knowledge. One ultimate aim of biosophy is to construct a logical thinking machine that can do philosophy for human beings.

Biosophy Program
The Biosophy Program was presented on the internet by Anna Öhman and Svenolov Lindgren in January 1998. They noted that "the term biosophy was previously used by Zapffe (1941) in a literary context for the analysis of human social life based on philosophy of existence and biological facts. Such a narrow circumscription of biosophy is in our opinion no obstacle to widen the definition to encompass all systematic thinking on biological issues."

The Biosophy Program was intended to circumscribe and systemize biological studies in a philosophical framework to support teaching at courses on philosophy and courses on biology. The biosophical thinking is defined by Öhman and Lindgren in five philosophical fields and discriminated from Næss’ ecosophy.

Objectives

 * To create biosophical groups for character and peace education where the individual has opportunities of self-improvement.
 * To encourage integration among individuals based on their mutual interest in a spiritual purpose in life.
 * To network with other groups and organizations interested in character and peace education working cooperatively with them.
 * To replace the blind acceptance of theological beliefs, superstitions and dogmas with the cultivation of spiritual intelligence as the basis for the Religion of Freedom and Friendship.
 * To create a world-fellowship of peace-loving human beings who have overcome religious, national, racial and social prejudices who can work creatively for the growth of democracy, spiritual personal growth and world peace.
 * To work for the synthesis of religion, philosophy, science, education and art.
 * To perpetuate and advance Kettner's principles and work for the development and cultivation of the character and peace nature in young people.
 * To create a Peace Department in national governments headed by a Secretary of Peace, and to establish peace universities.
 * To establish a world-fellowship of thinking human beings who can work creatively for the growth of spiritual democracy and world peace.
 * To cooperate in the advancement of humanity from civilization to the age of "soulization".

title: Biosophy


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Computer terminal

A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that can be used for entering data into, and transcribing data from, a computer or a computing system. Most early computers only had a front panel to input or display bits and had to be connected to a terminal to print or input text through a keyboard. Teleprinters were used as early-day hard-copy terminals and predated the use of a computer screen by decades. The computer would typically transmit a line of data which would be printed on paper, and accept a line of data from a keyboard over a serial or other interface. Starting in the mid-1970s with microcomputers such as the Sphere 1, Sol-20, and Apple I, display circuitry and keyboards began to be integrated into personal and workstation computer systems, with the computer handling character generation and outputting to a CRT display such as a computer monitor or, sometimes, a consumer TV, but most larger computers continued to require terminals.

Early terminals were inexpensive devices but very slow compared to punched cards or paper tape for input; with the advent of time-sharing systems, terminals slowly pushed these older forms of interaction from the industry. Related development were the improvement of terminal technology and the introduction of inexpensive video displays. Early Teletypes only printed out with a communications speed of only 75 baud or 10 5-bit characters per second, and by the 1970s speeds of video terminals had improved to 2400 or 9600. Similarly, the speed of remote batch terminals had improved to at the beginning of the decade and  by the end of the decade, with higher speeds possible on more expensive terminals.

The function of a terminal is typically confined to transcription and input of data; a device with significant local, programmable data-processing capability may be called a "smart terminal" or fat client. A terminal that depends on the host computer for its processing power is called a "dumb terminal" or a thin client. In the era of serial (RS-232) terminals there was a conflicting usage of the term "smart terminal" as a dumb terminal with no user-accessible local computing power but a particularly rich set of control codes for manipulating the display; this conflict was not resolved before hardware serial terminals became obsolete.

A personal computer can run terminal emulator software that replicates functions of a real-world terminal, sometimes allowing concurrent use of local programs and access to a distant terminal host system, either over a direct serial connection or over a network using, e.g., SSH. Today few if any dedicated computer terminals are being manufactured, as time sharing on large computers has been replaced by personal computers, handheld devices and workstations with graphical user interfaces. User interactions with servers use either software such as Web browsers, or terminal emulators, with connections over high-speed networks.

History
The console of Konrad Zuse's Z3 had a keyboard in 1941, as did the Z4 in 1942–1945. However, these consoles could only be used to enter numeric inputs and were thus analogous to those of calculating machines; programs, commands, and other data were entered via paper tape. Both machines had a row of display lamps for results.

In 1956, the Whirlwind Mark I computer became the first computer equipped with a keyboard-printer combination with which to support direct input of data and commands and output of results. That device was a Friden Flexowriter, which would continue to serve this purpose on many other early computers well into the 1960s.

Hard-copy terminals
Early user terminals connected to computers were, like the Flexowriter, electromechanical teleprinters/teletypewriters (TeleTYpewriter, TTY), such as the Teletype Model 33, originally used for telegraphy; early Teletypes were typically configured as Keyboard Send-Receive (KSR) or Automatic Send-Receive (ASR). Some terminals, such as the ASR Teletype models, included a paper tape reader and punch which could record output such as a program listing. The data on the tape could be re-entered into the computer using the tape reader on the teletype, or printed to paper. Teletypes used the current loop interface that was already used in telegraphy. A less expensive Read Only (RO) configuaration was available for the Teletype.

Custom-designs keyboard/printer terminals that came later included the IBM 2741 (1965) and the DECwriter (1970). Respective top speeds of teletypes, IBM 2741 and the LA30 (an early DECwriter) were 10, 15 and 30 characters per second. Although at that time "paper was king" the speed of interaction was relatively limited.

The DECwriter was the last major printing-terminal product. It faded away after 1980 under pressure from video display units (VDUs), with the last revision (the DECwriter IV of 1982) abandoning the classic teletypewriter form for one more resembling a desktop printer.

Video display unit
A video display unit (VDU) displays information on a screen rather than printing text to paper and typically uses a cathode-ray tube (CRT). VDUs in the 1950s were typically designed for displaying graphical data rather than text and were used in, e.g., experimental computers at institutions like MIT; computers used in academia, government and business, sold under brand names like DEC, ERA, IBM and UNIVAC; military computers supporting specific defence applications such as ballistic missile warning systems and radar/air defence coordination systems like BUIC and SAGE.

Two early landmarks in the development of the VDU were the Univac Uniscope  and the IBM 2260, both in 1964. These were block-mode terminals designed to display a page at a time, using proprietary protocols; in contrast to character-mode devices, they enter data from the keyboard into a display buffer rather than transmitting them immediately. In contrast to later character-mode devices, the Uniscope used synchronous serial communication over an EIA RS-232 interface to communicate between the multiplexer and the host, while the 2260 used either a channel connection or asynchronous serial communication between the 2848 and the host. The 2265, related to the 2260, also used asynchronous serial communication.

The Datapoint 3300 from Computer Terminal Corporation, announced in 1967 and shipped in 1969, was a character-mode device that emulated a Model 33 Teletype. This reflects the fact that early character-mode terminals were often deployed to replace teletype machines as a way to reduce operating costs.

The next generation of VDUs went beyond teletype emulation with an addressable cursor that gave them the ability to paint two-dimensional displays on the screen. Very early VDUs with cursor addressibility included the VT05 and the Hazeltine 2000 operating in character mode, both from 1970. Despite this capability, early devices of this type were often called "Glass TTYs". Later, the term "glass TTY" tended to be restrospectively narrowed to devices without full cursor addressibility.

The classic era of the VDU began in the early 1970s and was closely intertwined with the rise of time sharing computers. Important early products were the ADM-3A, VT52, and VT100. These devices used no complicated CPU, instead relying on individual logic gates, LSI chips, or microprocessors such as the Intel 8080. This made them inexpensive and they quickly became extremely popular input-output devices on many types of computer system, often replacing earlier and more expensive printing terminals.

After 1970 several suppliers gravitated to a set of common standards:

 * ASCII character set (rather than, say, EBCDIC or anything specific to one company), but early/economy models often supported only capital letters (such as the original ADM-3, the Data General model 6052 – which could be upgraded to a 6053 with a lower-case character ROM – and the Heathkit H9)
 * RS-232 serial ports (25-pin, ready to connect to a modem, yet some manufacturer-specific pin usage extended the standard, e.g. for use with 20-mA current loops)
 * 24 lines (or possibly 25 – sometimes a special status line) of 72 or 80 characters of text (80 was the same as IBM punched cards). Later models sometimes had two character-width settings.
 * Some type of cursor that can be positioned (with arrow keys or "home" and other direct cursor address setting codes).
 * Implementation of at least 3 control codes: Carriage Return (Ctrl-M), Line-Feed (Ctrl-J), and Bell (Ctrl-G), but usually many more, such as escape sequences to provide underlining, dim or reverse-video character highlighting, and especially to clear the display and position the cursor.

The experimental era of serial VDUs culminated with the VT100 in 1978. By the early 1980s, there were dozens of manufacturers of terminals, including Lear-Siegler, ADDS, Data General, DEC, Hazeltine Corporation, Heath/Zenith, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, TeleVideo, Volker-Craig, and Wyse, many of which had incompatible command sequences (although many used the early ADM-3 as a starting point).

The great variations in the control codes between makers gave rise to software that identified and grouped terminal types so the system software would correctly display input forms using the appropriate control codes; In Unix-like systems the termcap or terminfo files, the stty utility, and the TERM environment variable would be used; in Data General's Business BASIC software, for example, at login-time a sequence of codes were sent to the terminal to try to read the cursor's position or the 25th line's contents using a sequence of different manufacturer's control code sequences, and the terminal-generated response would determine a single-digit number (such as 6 for Data General Dasher terminals, 4 for ADM 3A/5/11/12 terminals, 0 or 2 for TTYs with no special features) that would be available to programs to say which set of codes to use.

The great majority of terminals were monochrome, manufacturers variously offering green, white or amber and sometimes blue screen phosphors. (Amber was claimed to reduce eye strain). Terminals with modest color capability were also available but not widely used; for example, a color version of the popular Wyse WY50, the WY350, offered 64 shades on each character cell.

VDUs were eventually displaced from most applications by networked personal computers, at first slowly after 1985 and with increasing speed in the 1990s. However, they had a lasting influence on PCs. The keyboard layout of the VT220 terminal strongly influenced the Model M shipped on IBM PCs from 1985, and through it all later computer keyboards.

Although flat-panel displays were available since the 1950s, cathode-ray tubes continued to dominate the market until the personal computer had made serious inroads into the display terminal market. By the time cathode-ray tubes on PCs were replaced by flatscreens after the year 2000, the hardware computer terminal was nearly obsolete.

Character-oriented terminals
A character-oriented terminal is a type of computer terminal that communicates with its host one character at a time, as opposed to a block-oriented terminal that communicates in blocks of data. It is the most common type of data terminal, because it is easy to implement and program. Connection to the mainframe computer or terminal server is achieved via RS-232 serial links, Ethernet or other proprietary protocols.

Character-oriented terminals can be "dumb" or "smart". Dumb terminals are those that can interpret a limited number of control codes (CR, LF, etc.) but do not have the ability to process special escape sequences that perform functions such as clearing a line, clearing the screen, or controlling cursor position. In this context dumb terminals are sometimes dubbed glass Teletypes, for they essentially have the same limited functionality as does a mechanical Teletype. This type of dumb terminal is still supported on modern Unix-like systems by setting the environment variable TERM to dumb. Smart or intelligent terminals are those that also have the ability to process escape sequences, in particular the VT52, VT100 or ANSI escape sequences.

Text terminals
A text terminal, or often just terminal (sometimes text console) is a serial computer interface for text entry and display. Information is presented as an array of pre-selected formed characters. When such devices use a video display such as a cathode-ray tube, they are called a "video display unit" or "visual display unit" (VDU) or "video display terminal" (VDT).

The system console is often a text terminal used to operate a computer. Modern computers have a built-in keyboard and display for the console. Some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux and FreeBSD have virtual consoles to provide several text terminals on a single computer.

The fundamental type of application running on a text terminal is a command-line interpreter or shell, which prompts for commands from the user and executes each command after a press of. This includes Unix shells and some interactive programming environments. In a shell, most of the commands are small applications themselves.

Another important application type is that of the text editor. A text editor typically occupies the full area of display, displays one or more text documents, and allows the user to edit the documents. The text editor has, for many uses, been replaced by the word processor, which usually provides rich formatting features that the text editor lacks. The first word processors used text to communicate the structure of the document, but later word processors operate in a graphical environment and provide a WYSIWYG simulation of the formatted output. However, text editors are still used for documents containing markup such as DocBook or LaTeX.

Programs such as Telix and Minicom control a modem and the local terminal to let the user interact with remote servers. On the Internet, telnet and ssh work similarly.

In the simplest form, a text terminal is like a file. Writing to the file displays the text and reading from the file produces what the user enters. In Unix-like operating systems, there are several character special files that correspond to available text terminals. For other operations, there are special escape sequences, control characters and  functions that a program can use, most easily via a library such as ncurses. For more complex operations, the programs can use terminal specific ioctl system calls. For an application, the simplest way to use a terminal is to simply write and read text strings to and from it sequentially. The output text is scrolled, so that only the last several lines (typically 24) are visible. Unix systems typically buffer the input text until the Enter key is pressed, so the application receives a ready string of text. In this mode, the application need not know much about the terminal. For many interactive applications this is not sufficient. One of the common enhancements is command-line editing (assisted with such libraries as readline); it also may give access to command history. This is very helpful for various interactive command-line interpreters.

Even more advanced interactivity is provided with full-screen applications. Those applications completely control the screen layout; also they respond to key-pressing immediately. This mode is very useful for text editors, file managers and web browsers. In addition, such programs control the color and brightness of text on the screen, and decorate it with underline, blinking and special characters (e.g. box-drawing characters). To achieve all this, the application must deal not only with plain text strings, but also with control characters and escape sequences, which allow moving the cursor to an arbitrary position, clearing portions of the screen, changing colors and displaying special characters, and also responding to function keys. The great problem here is that there are many different terminals and terminal emulators, each with its own set of escape sequences. In order to overcome this, special libraries (such as curses) have been created, together with terminal description databases, such as Termcap and Terminfo.

Block-oriented terminals
A block-oriented terminal or block mode terminal is a type of computer terminal that communicates with its host in blocks of data, as opposed to a character-oriented terminal that communicates with its host one character at a time. A block-oriented terminal may be card-oriented, display-oriented, keyboard-display, keyboard-printer, printer or some combination.

The IBM 3270 is perhaps the most familiar implementation of a block-oriented display terminal, but most mainframe computer manufacturers and several other companies produced them. The description below is in terms of the 3270, but similar considerations apply to other types.

Block-oriented terminals typically incorporate a buffer which stores one screen or more of data, and also stores data attributes, not only indicating appearance (color, brightness, blinking, etc.) but also marking the data as being enterable by the terminal operator vs. protected against entry, as allowing the entry of only numeric information vs. allowing any characters, etc. In a typical application the host sends the terminal a preformatted panel containing both static data and fields into which data may be entered. The terminal operator keys data, such as updates in a database entry, into the appropriate fields. When entry is complete (or ENTER or PF key pressed on 3270s), a block of data, usually just the data entered by the operator (modified data), is sent to the host in one transmission. The 3270 terminal buffer (at the device) could be updated on a single character basis, if necessary, because of the existence of a "set buffer address order" (SBA), that usually preceded any data to be written/overwritten within the buffer. A complete buffer could also be read or replaced using the  command or   command (unformatted or formatted in the case of the 3270).

Block-oriented terminals cause less system load on the host and less network traffic than character-oriented terminals. They also appear more responsive to the user, especially over slow connections, since editing within a field is done locally rather than depending on echoing from the host system.

Early terminals had limited editing capabilities – 3270 terminals, for example, only could check entries as valid numerics. Subsequent "smart" or "intelligent" terminals incorporated microprocessors and supported more local processing.

Programmers of block-oriented terminals often used the technique of storing context information for the transaction in progress on the screen, possibly in a hidden field, rather than depending on a running program to keep track of status. This was the precursor of the HTML technique of storing context in the URL as data to be passed as arguments to a CGI program.

Unlike a character-oriented terminal, where typing a character into the last position of the screen usually causes the terminal to scroll down one line, entering data into the last screen position on a block-oriented terminal usually causes the cursor to wrap— move to the start of the first enterable field. Programmers might "protect" the last screen position to prevent inadvertent wrap. Likewise a protected field following an enterable field might lock the keyboard and sound an audible alarm if the operator attempted to enter more data into the field than allowed.

Common block-oriented terminals

 * Hard-copy
 * IBM 1050
 * IBM 2740

 * Remote job entry
 * IBM 2770
 * IBM 2780
 * IBM 3770
 * IBM 3780

• IBM 2260
 * Display

• IBM 3270

• IBM 5250

• Burroughs Corporation TD-830

• AT&T Dataspeed 40 (3270 clone manufactured by Teletype Corporation)

• TeleVideo 912,920, 925, 950

• Tandem Computers VT6530

• Hewlett-Packard VT2640

• UNIVAC Uniscope series

• Digital Equipment Corporation VT61, VT62

• Lear Siegler ADM31 (optional)

• Honeywell VIP 7700/7760

• ITT Corporation Courier line

• Bull Questar

• ICL 7500 series

Graphical terminals
A graphical terminal can display images as well as text. Graphical terminals are divided into vector-mode terminals, and raster mode.

A vector-mode display directly draws lines on the face of a cathode-ray tube under control of the host computer system. The lines are continuously formed, but since the speed of electronics is limited, the number of concurrent lines that can be displayed at one time is limited. Vector-mode displays were historically important but are no longer used. Practically all modern graphic displays are raster-mode, descended from the picture scanning techniques used for television, in which the visual elements are a rectangular array of pixels. Since the raster image is only perceptible to the human eye as a whole for a very short time, the raster must be refreshed many times per second to give the appearance of a persistent display. The electronic demands of refreshing display memory meant that graphic terminals were developed much later than text terminals, and initially cost much more.

Most terminals today are graphical; that is, they can show images on the screen. The modern term for graphical terminal is "thin client". A thin client typically uses a protocol like X11 for Unix terminals, or RDP for Microsoft Windows. The bandwidth needed depends on the protocol used, the resolution, and the color depth.

Modern graphic terminals allow display of images in color, and of text in varying sizes, colors, and fonts (type faces).

In the early 1990s, an industry consortium attempted to define a standard, AlphaWindows, that would allow a single CRT screen to implement multiple windows, each of which was to behave as a distinct terminal. Unfortunately, like I2O, this suffered from being run as a closed standard: non-members were unable to obtain even minimal information and there was no realistic way a small company or independent developer could join the consortium.

Intelligent terminals
An intelligent terminal does its own processing, usually implying a microprocessor is built in, but not all terminals with microprocessors did any real processing of input: the main computer to which it was attached would have to respond quickly to each keystroke. The term "intelligent" in this context dates from 1969.

Notable examples include the IBM 2250, predecessor to the IBM 3250 and IBM 5080, and IBM 2260, predecessor to the IBM 3270, introduced with System/360 in 1964. Most terminals were connected to minicomputers or mainframe computers and often had a green or amber screen. Typically terminals communicate with the computer via a serial port via a null modem cable, often using an EIA RS-232 or RS-422 or RS-423 or a current loop serial interface. IBM systems typically communicated over a Bus and Tag channel, a coaxial cable using a proprietary protocol, a communications link using Binary Synchronous Communications or IBM's SNA protocol, but for many DEC, Data General and NCR (and so on) computers there were many visual display suppliers competing against the computer manufacturer for terminals to expand the systems. In fact, the instruction design for the Intel 8008 was originally conceived at Computer Terminal Corporation as the processor for the Datapoint 2200.

From the introduction of the IBM 3270, and the DEC VT100 (1978), the user and programmer could notice significant advantages in VDU technology improvements, yet not all programmers used the features of the new terminals (backward compatibility in the VT100 and later TeleVideo terminals, for example, with "dumb terminals" allowed programmers to continue to use older software).

Some dumb terminals had been able to respond to a few escape sequences without needing microprocessors: they used multiple printed circuit boards with many integrated circuits; the single factor that classed a terminal as "intelligent" was its ability to process user-input within the terminal—not interrupting the main computer at each keystroke—and send a block of data at a time (for example: when the user has finished a whole field or form). Most terminals in the early 1980s, such as ADM-3A, TVI912, Data General D2, DEC VT52, despite the introduction of ANSI terminals in 1978, were essentially "dumb" terminals, although some of them (such as the later ADM and TVI models) did have a primitive block-send capability. Common early uses of local processing power included features that had little to do with off-loading data processing from the host computer but added useful features such as printing to a local printer, buffered serial data transmission and serial handshaking (to accommodate higher serial transfer speeds), and more sophisticated character attributes for the display, as well as the ability to switch emulation modes to mimic competitor's models, that became increasingly important selling features during the 1980s especially, when buyers could mix and match different suppliers' equipment to a greater extent than before.

The advance in microprocessors and lower memory costs made it possible for the terminal to handle editing operations such as inserting characters within a field that may have previously required a full screen-full of characters to be re-sent from the computer, possibly over a slow modem line. Around the mid-1980s most intelligent terminals, costing less than most dumb terminals would have a few years earlier, could provide enough user-friendly local editing of data and send the completed form to the main computer. Providing even more processing possibilities, workstations like the TeleVideo TS-800 could run CP/M-86, blurring the distinction between terminal and Personal Computer.

Another of the motivations for development of the microprocessor was to simplify and reduce the electronics required in a terminal. That also made it practicable to load several "personalities" into a single terminal, so a Qume QVT-102 could emulate many popular terminals of the day, and so be sold into organizations that did not wish to make any software changes. Frequently emulated terminal types included:
 * Lear Siegler ADM-3A and later models
 * TeleVideo 910 to 950 (these models copied ADM3 codes and added several of their own, eventually being copied by Qume and others)
 * Digital Equipment Corporation VT52 and VT100
 * Data General D1 to D3 and especially D200 and D210
 * Hazeltine Corporation H1500
 * Tektronix 4014
 * Wyse W50, W60 and W99

The ANSI X3.64 escape code standard produced uniformity to some extent, but significant differences remained. For example, the VT100, Heathkit H19 in ANSI mode, Televideo 970, Data General D460, and Qume QVT-108 terminals all followed the ANSI standard, yet differences might exist in codes from function keys, what character attributes were available, block-sending of fields within forms, "foreign" character facilities, and handling of printers connected to the back of the screen.

In the 21st century, the term Intelligent Terminal can now refer to a retail Point of Sale computer.

Contemporary
While early IBM PCs had single-color green screens, these screens were not terminals. The screen of a PC did not contain any character generation hardware; all video signals and video formatting were generated by the video display card in the PC, or (in most graphics modes) by the CPU and software. An IBM PC monitor, whether it was the green monochrome display or the 16-color display, was technically much more similar to an analog TV set (without a tuner) than to a terminal. With suitable software a PC could, however, emulate a terminal, and in that capacity it could be connected to a mainframe or minicomputer. The Data General/One could be booted into terminal emulator mode from its ROM. Eventually microprocessor-based personal computers greatly reduced the market demand for conventional terminals.

In the 1990s especially, "thin clients" and X terminals have combined economical local processing power with central, shared computer facilities to retain some of the advantages of terminals over personal computers:

Today, most PC telnet clients provide emulation of the most common terminal, the DEC VT100, using the ANSI escape code standard X3.64, or could run as X terminals using software such as Cygwin/X under Microsoft Windows or X.Org Server software under Linux.

Since the advent and subsequent popularization of the personal computer, few genuine hardware terminals are used to interface with computers today. Using the monitor and keyboard, modern operating systems like Linux and the BSD derivatives feature virtual consoles, which are mostly independent from the hardware used.

When using a graphical user interface (or GUI) like the X Window System, one's display is typically occupied by a collection of windows associated with various applications, rather than a single stream of text associated with a single process. In this case, one may use a terminal emulator application within the windowing environment. This arrangement permits terminal-like interaction with the computer (for running a command-line interpreter, for example) without the need for a physical terminal device; it can even run multiple terminal emulators on the same device.

Special cases
Several categories of terminals described above have been used as hardware and software consoles, with some variation in the nomenclature.

Hardware consoles
These may be keyboard/printer terminals, keyboard/display terminals, or special applications running on a smaller computer. They frequently attach via a proprietary interface, and supplement or replace the functions of a front panel. They are sometimes referred to as control consoles or system consoles.

Software consoles
These may be keyboard/printer terminals, keyboard/display terminals or applications. On some systems, e.g., OS/360, they have a specialized role with its own command language, unrelated to the command language for user sessions on normal terminals.

On, e.g., Unix-like systems, the software is controlled by users with elevated privileges and a system console is just an ordinary terminal with a privileged user logged on.

It is common for, e.g., Unix-like systems, to include applications with names like command, console, terminal, to serve as consoles for the logged on user.

Emulation
A terminal emulator is a piece of software that emulates a text terminal. In the past, before the widespread use of local area networks and broadband internet access, many computers would use a serial access program to communicate with other computers via telephone line or serial device.

When the first Macintosh was released, a program called MacTerminal was used to communicate with many computers, including the IBM PC.

The Win32 console on Windows does not emulate a physical terminal that supports escape sequences so SSH and Telnet programs (for logging in textually to remote computers) for Windows, including the Telnet program bundled with some versions of Windows, often incorporate their own code to process escape sequences.

The terminal emulators on most Unix-like systems—such as, for example, gnome-terminal, Konsole, QTerminal, xterm, and Terminal.app—do emulate physical terminals including support for escape sequences; e.g., xterm can emulate the VT220 and Tektronix 4010 hardware terminals.

Modes
Terminals can operate in various modes, relating to when they send input typed by the user on the keyboard to the receiving system (whatever that may be):
 * Character mode (a.k.a. character-at-a-time mode): In this mode, typed input is unbuffered and sent immediately to the receiving system.
 * Line mode (a.k.a. line-at-a-time mode): In this mode, the terminal is buffered, provides a local line editing function, and sends an entire input line, after it has been locally edited, when the user presses an, e.g.,, , key. A so-called "line mode terminal" operates solely in this mode.
 * Block mode (a.k.a. screen-at-a-time mode): In this mode (also called block-oriented), the terminal is buffered and provides a local full-screen data function. The user can enter input into multiple fields in a form on the screen (defined to the terminal by the receiving system), moving the cursor around the screen using keys such as tab key and the arrow keys and performing editing functions locally using insert key, delete key, backspace key and so forth. The terminal sends only the completed form, consisting of all the data entered on the screen, to the receiving system when the user presses an  key.

There is a distinction between the return key and the enter key keys. In some multiple-mode terminals, that can switch between modes, pressing the key when not in block mode does not do the same thing as pressing the  key. Whilst the key will cause an input line to be sent to the host in line-at-a-time mode, the  key will rather cause the terminal to transmit the contents of the character row where the cursor is currently positioned to the host, host-issued prompts and all. Some block-mode terminals have both an and local cursor moving keys such as  and.

Different computer operating systems require different degrees of mode support when terminals are used as computer terminals. The POSIX terminal interface, as provided by Unix and POSIX-compliant operating systems, does not accommodate block-mode terminals at all, and only rarely requires the terminal itself to be in line-at-a-time mode, since the operating system is required to provide canonical input mode, where the terminal device driver in the operating system emulates local echo in the terminal, and performs line editing functions at the host end. Most usually, and especially so that the host system can support non-canonical input mode, terminals for POSIX-compliant systems are always in character-at-a-time mode. In contrast, IBM 3270 terminals connected to MVS systems are always required to be in block mode.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Computer terminal


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Robert Schuller

Robert Harold Schuller (September 16, 1926 – April 2, 2015) was an American Christian televangelist, pastor, motivational speaker, and author. In his five decades of television, Schuller was principally known for the weekly Hour of Power television program, which he began hosting in 1970 until his retirement in 2006. His grandson, Bobby Schuller, carries on the Hour of Power now airing for over fifty years. During his time as a minister, Schuller oversaw the construction of two churches in Garden Grove, CA. The first church built under his tenure was the Garden Grove Community Church chapel, which seated 500, and the second that he oversaw was the building of the much larger Crystal Cathedral, which has a seating capacity of 2,200.

Schuller began broadcasting his Hour of Power program from the smaller Garden Grove chapel in 1969. He made the decision to begin his broadcast of Hour of Power shortly after he had received encouragement from longtime friend Billy Graham during a visit with the popular evangelist. The Hour of Power broadcast later continued in the Crystal Cathedral.

Like his good friend Billy Graham, the Schuller organization never became closely associated with any major scandal. During the 1990's, his televised sermons were regularly viewed by an estimated audience of 20 million. Schuller's weekly telecast of his sermons which began in 1969 was one of the first instances of such weekly televised church services, and was the world's most widely watched hour-long church service ever.

Early years
Robert Harold Schuller was born on September 16, 1926, near Alton, Iowa, the second son of Jennie (née Beltman; 1891–1970) and Anthony Schuller (1882–1964). He was the youngest of five children. All of his grandparents were Dutch immigrants, and he was raised on his parents' farm nearby in a small, close-knit community of Dutch-Americans, without running water.

In 1927 on the day of his baptism at his family’s Reformed Church in Newkirk, Iowa, the six month old Schuller was clothed in a certain "baptismal-gown.” Years later Schuller announced that he had kept his baptismal-gown and placed it on display in his office, referring to it as his most-prized-possession. To Schuller apparently the gown had represented the day that his life had first been dedicated to God. In his later years Schuller placed an inscription beneath the gown reading: "This is the reason my life has been a success. As a child I was dedicated to our Lord."

In 1931, just weeks before his fifth birthday a visiting uncle, Henry Beltman, who was a minister had predicted that the young boy was destined to spread the word of God to many when he grew up. Schuller called the moment that he had first heard his uncle's prediction the "single most defining moment of my early life." After graduating from Newkirk High School in Newkirk, Iowa, in 1944, Schuller continued his education at Hope College, located in Holland, Michigan.

Schuller received his Master of Divinity degree in 1950 from Western Theological Seminary, which taught in the theological tradition and practice of John Calvin. He was soon ordained as a minister in the Reformed Church in America. After his ordination, he first worked at Ivanhoe Reformed Church in Riverdale, Illinois, before moving to Garden Grove, California.

Evolution of the Crystal Cathedral
In Garden Grove, California in 1955 Schuller opened what would be his first church in the area, which he called the “Garden Grove Community Church.” As a result of not being able to secure any other suitable places to rent to start a church, Schuller decided to try out a relatively new concept in “church service presentation” known as the “Drive-in Church Model.“ His new church was located in the old Orange Drive-in Movie Theater where churchgoers could enjoy their church services from the comfort of their own cars. For the benefit of those who preferred more traditional church services, he later also rented a 300-seat former Baptist church, about four miles (6 km) down the road from his new drive-in theater church. On Sunday mornings Schuller would first preside at a 9:30 service in the Baptist chapel and then he would deliver his organ to the roof of the concession stand at the old drive-in theater where he would then preside over his second Sunday service. As the size of the congregations grew, Schuller purchased 10 acre of land at 12141 Lewis Street in Garden Grove for a "walk-in, drive-in" church, serving both congregations.

Ground was broken September 10, 1958 for construction of Schuller's second church-home in the area, which was designed by international architect Richard Neutra. This second church was completed in 1961, at a cost of $3 million (equivalent to $ million in ). The dedication service was held November 5, 1961. The design of the new church building enabled Schuller to preach his sermons to worshipers in 500 cars, as well as to members of the congregation inside the church. Schuller's second area church was built on what was to later become a part of the campus of his future (and much larger) "Crystal Cathedral Church."

Seven years later in 1968 a "Tower of Hope" steeple structure was added onto the north side of the property. The Tower of Hope structure rose 13 stories (approximately 130 to 150 feet) into the air and was the tallest structure in Orange County at that time. The steeple structure was then topped by an illuminated cross which added another 90 feet to the structure's overall height.

Also in 1968, Schuller purchased a 10 acre walnut grove that had bordered on the north boundary of the then current Garden Grove Community Church property. This new purchase of land was to enable the construction of a future much larger Crystal Cathedral on the newly expanded property. The architectural firm of Philip Johnson/John Burgee was soon retained to draw up plans for a primarily glass church that would be able to accommodate over 2,000 church goers, which was to be built on a spot on the newly expanded church campus adjacent to the original church structure.

In order to meet the needs of the church's ever expanding congregation, the architectural firm designed a reflective glass building that could seat 2,248 people. At the time that it was built, the church was touted as "the largest glass building in the world." The church was dedicated on September 14, 1980. Once the newer, larger, and more noticeable "Crystal Cathedral" structure was completed, Schuller renamed his organization as the "Crystal Cathedral Ministries." Schuller's Crystal Cathedral Church soon became the iconic backdrop from which he preached his popular Hour of Power broadcasts every Sunday morning for the next 25 years. These broadcasts regularly reached a world wide audience of 20 million.

Ministry
Schuller emphasized what he believed are the positive aspects of the Christian faith. He deliberately avoided condemning people for sin, believing that Jesus "met needs before touting creeds". Once in a relationship with God, Schuller emphasized, someone who is sowing positive faith in his heart and actions will discover that the by-product is a reduction of sin. He was known to say, "Sin is a condition before it is an action." Schuller encouraged Christians and non-Christians to achieve great things through God and to believe in their dreams. He wrote, "If you can dream it, you can do it!"

As the Crystal Cathedral's founding pastor, Schuller was seen and heard internationally on Sundays on the world's most widely watched hour-long church service, the Hour of Power, 1,500 of which were recorded.

Personal life
On June 15, 1950, Schuller married Arvella De Haan (1929–2014), a church organist, who became instrumental in developing the music department at the Crystal Cathedral and was the creator and producer of the Hour of Power for over 40 years. The Schullers had five children: Sheila, Robert, Jeanne, Carol, and Gretchen.

Retirement and succession
On January 22, 2006, Schuller's son, Robert A. Schuller, assumed the role of senior pastor of the Crystal Cathedral. On October 25, 2008, however, he resigned. His father cited "a lack of shared vision" as the cause. Schuller stated that "different ideas as to the direction and the vision for this ministry" with his son "made it necessary ... to part ways in the Hour of Power television ministry". Schuller also said "I love my son and am proud of my son" and that the long-term survival of his ministry was dependent on expanding its imprint beyond the Schuller name. "The real minister's name that we honor is Jesus, not Schuller", he said. The ministry then opened the pulpit to a variety of notable Christian speakers.

On June 11, 2009, Schuller announced that the church's leadership would pass to his eldest daughter, Sheila Schuller Coleman. On July 11, 2010, he announced that he was retiring as principal pastor of the Crystal Cathedral and would become chairman of the church's board of directors. After a year as interim senior pastor, Sheila Schuller Coleman was elevated to senior pastor in July 2010.

Bobby Schuller as pastor of Shepherd's Grove Church
In the wake of Robert Schuller's retirement and after much sorting out, in 2013 Robert H. Schuller's grandson, Bobby V. Schuller moved the remaining congregation from the Crystal Cathedral building and eventually into the somewhat smaller Shepherd's Grove church building in nearby Irvine, CA. Along the way, from 2013 through 2018 the congregation also temporarily leased what had formerly been the St. Callistus Catholic church of Garden Grove for their Sunday services. During these years, Schuller's grandson took over the leadership of the remaining congregation and also resumed the broadcast of his grandfather's Hour of Power weekly TV broadcast.

The Crystal Cathedral building and its campus was then sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange for use as its diocesan cathedral and offices. Subsequently, the Diocese of Orange renamed the building the Christ Cathedral.

Final years and death
On October 18, 2010, Coleman announced that the Crystal Cathedral was seeking bankruptcy protection, in the midst of what became known as the Great Recession.

In May 2011, the senior Schullers, along with their daughter Carol and her husband Tim, were dismissed from the ministry at the Crystal Cathedral. They filed for bankruptcy. The court would eventually allow them approximately 20 percent of what they were owed. The creditors would be paid in full plus interest. In July 2011, it was reported in the Orange County Register that Schuller had been ousted from the Crystal Cathedral board. In July 2011, Coleman attempted to reverse the decision that had been made in her absence, saying, "Dad will continue to provide leadership for this ministry through me for as long as possible" and, "I have and will continue to defer to his wisdom and honor him for his unprecedented accomplishments."

On March 11, 2012, after months of attempting to change the attitude of the ministry's board, Coleman told the Crystal Cathedral congregation that she was leaving to start a new church because of "a hostile work environment". The International Business Times reported that this came following "a bitter fallout between the ministry and its founding family". According to the Religion News Service, the founders were left with little to no assets; their home was fully mortgaged.

On January 24, 2013, the Crystal Cathedral's board of directors voted to make Bobby Schuller, Schuller's grandson (son of Robert Anthony Schuller), the new pastor for the Hour of Power television program as well as a non-voting member of the board.

In late August 2013, Robert H. Schuller was diagnosed with esophageal cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes. A follow-up examination in September 2013 presented Schuller with the possibility of undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy that could extend his life. Schuller then agreed to receive the cancer treatments, which may have been responsible for extending his life by nearly two more years as had been predicted by his physicians.

Arvella Schuller died on February 11, 2014, aged 84. The Schullers had been married for 63 years.

Schuller died peacefully, early on the morning of April 2, 2015 at a nursing facility in Artesia, California, aged 88. His funeral was held at Christ Cathedral, the former campus of the Crystal Cathedral. He is interred next to his wife at the Christ Cathedral Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Garden Grove, California.

Writings
Schuller authored over 30 hardcover books, 6 of which made The New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists, including:

 * Way to the Good Life (1963)
 * Your Future Is Your Friend (1964), Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Reprinted 1991 by Cathedral Press. A devotional on the 23rd Psalm.
 * Move Ahead With Possibility Thinking (1967)
 * Self-Love (1975)
 * You Can Be the Person You Want to Be (1976)
 * Toughminded Faith for Tenderhearted People (1979), Thomas Nelson, ISBN 0-8407-5329-2
 * Self-Esteem: The New Reformation (1982)
 * Tough Times Never Last But Tough People Do (1983), Thomas Nelson ISBN 978-0-8407-5287-1
 * The Power of Being Debt Free (1985); Thomas Nelson Publishing, ISBN 0-8407-5461-2
 * Living Positively One Day at a Time (1986)
 * Success Is Never Ending, Failure Is Never Final (1990)
 * Life's Not Fair, But God Is Good (1991)
 * Possibility Thinking (1993)
 * Prayer: My Soul's Adventure with God (1995), Doubleday ISBN 978-0-385-48505-0
 * If It's Going to Be It's Up to Me (1997)
 * My Journey: From an Iowa Farm to a Cathedral of Dreams (2001)
 * Hours of Power (2004)
 * Don't Throw Away Tomorrow (2005)

title: Robert Schuller


text:
Torc

A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. The great majority are open at the front, although some have hook and ring closures and a few have mortice and tenon locking catches to close them. Many seem designed for near-permanent wear and would have been difficult to remove.

Torcs have been found in Scythian, Illyrian, Thracian, Celtic, and other cultures of the European Iron Age from around the 8th century BC to the 3rd century AD. For Iron Age Celts, the gold torc seems to have been a key object. It identified the wearer, apparently usually female until the 3rd century BC, thereafter male, as a person of high rank, and many of the finest works of ancient Celtic art are torcs. Celtic torcs disappeared in the Migration Period, but during the Viking Age torc-style metal necklaces, mainly in silver, came back into fashion. Similar neck-rings are also part of the jewellery styles of various other cultures and periods.

Terminology and definition

The word comes from Latin torquis (or torques), from torqueo, "to twist", because of the twisted shape many of the rings have. Typically, neck-rings that open at the front when worn are called "torcs" and those that open at the back "collars". Smaller bracelets and armlets worn around the wrist or on the upper arm sometimes share very similar forms. Torcs were made from single or multiple intertwined metal rods, or "ropes" of twisted wire. Most of those that have been found are made from gold or bronze, less often silver, iron or other metals (gold, bronze and silver survive better than other metals when buried for long periods).

Elaborate examples, sometimes hollow, used a variety of techniques but complex decoration was usually begun by casting and then worked by further techniques. The Ipswich Hoard includes unfinished torcs that give clear evidence of the stages of work. Flat-ended terminals are called "buffers", and in types like the "fused-buffer" shape, where what resemble two terminals are actually a single piece, the element is called a "muff".

Bronze Age Europe and the East
There are several types of rigid gold and sometimes bronze necklaces and collars of the later European Bronze Age, from around 1200 BC, many of which are classed as "torcs". They are mostly twisted in various conformations, including the "twisted ribbon" type, where a thin strip of gold is twisted into a spiral. Other examples twist a bar with a square or X section, or just use round wire, with both types in the three 12th– or 11th-century BC specimens found at Tiers Cross, Pembrokeshire, Wales. The Milton Keynes Hoard contained two large examples of thicker rounded forms, as also used for bracelets. The terminals are not emphasized as in typical Iron Age torcs, though many can be closed by hooking the simple terminals together. Many of these "torcs" are too small to be worn round the neck of an adult, and were either worn as bracelets or armlets, or by children or statues. Archaeologists find dating many torcs difficult, with some believing torcs were retained for periods of centuries as heirlooms, and others believing there were two periods of production. Differing ratios of silver in the gold of other objects—typically up to 15% in the Bronze Age but up to 20% in the Iron Age—can help decide the question. There are several flared gold torcs with a C-shaped section in the huge Mooghaun North Hoard of Late Bronze Age gold from 800 to 700 BC found in County Clare in Ireland.

To the East, torcs appear in Scythian art from the Early Iron Age, and include "classicizing" decoration drawing on styles from the east. Torcs are also found in Thraco-Cimmerian art. Torcs are found in the Tolstaya burial and the Karagodeuashk kurgan (Kuban area), both dating to the 4th century BC. A torc is part of the Pereshchepina hoard dating to the 7th century AD. Thin torcs, often with animal head terminals, are found in the art of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, with some other elements derived from Scythian art.

Celtic torcs

Depictions of the gods and goddesses of Celtic mythology sometimes show them wearing or carrying torcs, as in images of the god Cernunnos wearing one torc around his neck, with torcs hanging from his antlers or held in his hand, as on the Gundestrup cauldron. This may represent the deity as the source of power and riches, as the torc was a sign of nobility and high social status.

The famous Roman copy of the original Greek sculpture The Dying Gaul depicts a wounded Gaulish warrior naked except for a torc, which is how Polybius described the gaesatae, Celtic warriors from modern northern Italy or the Alps, fighting at the Battle of Telamon in 225 BC, although other Celts there were clothed. One of the earliest known depictions of a torc can be found on the Warrior of Hirschlanden (6th century BC), and a high proportion of the few Celtic statues of human figures, mostly male, show them wearing torcs.

Other possible functions that have been proposed for torcs include use as rattles in rituals or otherwise, as some have stones or metal pieces inside them, and representations of figures thought to be deities carrying torcs in their hand may depict this. Some are too heavy to wear for long, and may have been made to place on cult statues. Very few of these remain but they may well have been in wood and not survived. Torcs were clearly valuable, and often found broken in pieces, so being a store of value may have been an important part of their use. It has been noted that the Iberian gold examples seem to be made at fixed weights that are multiples of the Phoenician shekel.

With bracelets, torcs are "the most important category of Celtic gold", though armlets and anklets were also worn; in contrast finger-rings were less common among the early Celts. The earliest Celtic torcs are mostly found buried with women, for example, the gold torc from the La Tène period chariot burial of a princess, found in the Waldalgesheim chariot burial in Germany, and others found in female graves at Vix in France (illustrated) and Reinheim. Another La Tène example was found as part of a hoard or ritual deposit buried near Erstfeld in Switzerland. It is thought by some authors that the torc was mostly an ornament for women until the late 3rd century BC, when it became an attribute of warriors. However, there is evidence for male wear in the early period; in a rich double burial of the Hallstatt period at Hochmichele, the man wears an iron torc and the female a necklace with beads. A heavy torc in silver over an iron core with bull's head terminals, weighing over 6 kilos, from Trichtingen, Germany, probably dates to the 2nd century BC (illustrated).

Many finds of torcs, especially in groups and in association with other valuables but not associated with a burial, are clearly deliberate deposits whose function is unclear. They may have been ritual deposits or hidden for safekeeping in times of warfare. Some may represent the work-in-progress of a workshop. After the early period, torcs are especially prominent in the Celtic cultures reaching to a coast of the Atlantic, from modern Spain to Ireland, and on both sides of the English Channel.

Some very elaborately worked torcs with relief decoration in a late form of La Tène style have been found in Britain and Ireland, dating from roughly the 3rd to 1st centuries BC. There may be a connection with an older tradition in the British Isles of elaborate gold neckwear in the form of gold lunulas, which seem centred on Ireland in the Bronze Age, and later flat or curved wide collars; gold twisted ribbon torcs are found from both periods, but also imported styles such as the fused-buffer. The most elaborate late Insular torcs are thick and often hollow, some with terminals forming a ring or loop. The most famous English example is the 1st-century BC multi-stranded electrum Snettisham Torc found in northwestern Norfolk in England (illustrated), while the single hollow torc in the Broighter Gold hoard, with relief decoration all round the hoop, is the finest example of this type from Ireland, also 1st century BC. The Stirling Hoard, a rare find in Scotland of four gold torcs, two of them twisted ribbons, dating from the 3rd to 1st century BC, was discovered in September 2009.

The Roman Titus Manlius in 361 BC challenged a Gaul to single combat, killed him, and then took his torc. Because he always wore it, he received the nickname Torquatus (the one who wears a torc), and it was adopted by his family. After this, Romans adopted the torc as a decoration for distinguished soldiers and elite units during Republican times. A few Roman torcs have been discovered. Pliny the Elder records that after a battle in 386 BC (long before his lifetime) the Romans recovered 183 torcs from the Celtic dead, and similar booty is mentioned by other authors.

It is not clear whether the Gallo-Roman "Warrior of Vacheres", a sculpture of a soldier in Roman military dress, wears a torc as part of his Roman uniform or as a reflection of his Celtic background. Quintilian says that the Emperor Augustus was presented by Gauls with a gold torc weighing 100 Roman pounds (nearly 33 kg), far too heavy to wear. A torc from the 1st century BC Winchester Hoard, is broadly in Celtic style but uses the Roman technique of laced gold wire, suggesting it may have been a "diplomatic gift" from a Roman to a British tribal king.

A very late example of a torc used as ceremonial item in early Medieval Wales can be found in the writings of Gerald of Wales. The author wrote that there still existed a certain royal torc that had once been worn by Prince Cynog ap Brychan of Brycheiniog (fl. 492 AD) and was known as Saint Kynauc's Collar. Gerald encountered and described this relic first-hand while travelling through Wales in 1188. Of it he says, "it is most like to gold in weight, nature, and colour; it is in four pieces wrought round, joined together artificially, and clefted as it were in the middle, with a dog's head, the teeth standing outward; it is esteemed by the inhabitants so powerful a relic, that no man dares swear falsely when it is laid before him." It is of course possible that this torc long pre-dated the reign of Prince Cynog and was a much earlier relic that had been recycled during the British Dark Ages to be used as a symbol of royal authority. It is now lost.

There are mentions in medieval compilations of Irish mythology; for example in the Lebor Gabála Érenn (11th century) Elatha wore 5 golden torcs when meeting Eriu.

Romano-British beaded torcs
After the Roman conquest of Britain, from about 75 AD for a century or more, a different type called the "beaded torc" appears in Roman Britain, mainly in the northern "frontier" region, in two types, A with separate "beads" and B made in one piece. These are in copper alloy rather than precious metal, and evidently more widely spread in society than the elite Iron Age Celtic examples.

Shapes and decoration
Most Achaemenid torcs are thin single round bars with matching animal heads as the terminals, facing each other at the front. Some Early Celtic forms depart from the normal style of torc by lacking a break at the throat, and instead are heavily decorated at the continuous front, with animal elements and short rows of "balusters", rounded projections coming to a blunt point; these are seen both on the sculpted torc worn by the stone "Glauberg Warrior" and a gold torc (illustrated) found in the same oppidum.

Later Celtic torcs nearly all return to having a break at the throat and strong emphasis on the two terminals. The Vix torc has two very finely made winged horses standing on fancy platforms projecting sideways just before the terminals, which are flattened balls under lions' feet. Like other elite Celtic pieces in the "orientalizing" style, the decoration shows Greek influence but not a classical style, and the piece may have been made by Greeks in the Celtic taste, or a "Graeco-Etruscan workshop", or by Celts with foreign training.

Spiral ribbon torcs, usually with minimal terminals, continue a Bronze Age type and are found in the Stirling Hoard from Scotland, and elsewhere: "Although over 110 identifiable British [includes Ireland] ribbon torcs are known, the dating of these simple, flexible ornaments is elusive", perhaps indicating "a long-lived preference for ribbon torcs, which continued for over 1,000 years". The terminals were often slightly flared plain round cylinders which were folded back to hook round each other to fasten the torc at the throat. Other Celtic torcs may use various ways of forming the hoop: plain or patterned round bars, two or more bars twisted together, thin round rods (or thick wire) wound round a core, or woven gold wire. A rarer type twists a single bar with an X profile.

Except in British looped terminals, the terminals of Iron Age torcs are usually formed separately. The "buffer" form of terminal was the most popular in finds from modern France and Germany, with some "fused buffer" types opening at the rear or sides. In both buffer types and those with projecting fringes of ornament, decoration in low relief often continues back round the hoop as far as the midpoint of the side view. In Iberian torcs thin gold bars are often wound round a core of base metal, with the rear section a single round section with a decorated surface.

The c. 150 torcs found in the lands of the Iberian Celts of Galicia favoured terminals ending in balls coming to a point or small buffer ("pears"), or a shape with a double moulding called scotiae. The pointed ball is also found in northern Italy, where the hoops often end by being turned back upon themselves so that the terminals face out to the sides, perhaps enabling closure by hooking round. Both of these mostly used plain round bars or thin rods wound round a core. In the terminals of British torcs loops or rings are common, and the main hoop may be two or more round bars twisted together, or several strands each made up of twisted wire. Decoration of the terminals in the finest examples is complex but all abstract. In these two types the hoop itself normally has no extra decoration, though the large torc in the Irish Broighter Gold hoard is decorated all round the hoop, the only Irish example decorated in this way.

title: Torc


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Holiday Inn (film)

Holiday Inn is a 1942 American musical film starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, with Marjorie Reynolds, Virginia Dale, and Walter Abel. It was directed by Mark Sandrich with music by Irving Berlin. The composer wrote twelve songs specifically for the film, the best known being "White Christmas". The film features a complete reuse of the song "Easter Parade", written by Berlin for the 1933 Broadway revue As Thousands Cheer and used as a highlight of the 1948 film Easter Parade, starring Astaire and Judy Garland. The film's choreography was by Danny Dare.

The film received a 1943 Academy Award for Best Original Song (Berlin's "White Christmas"), as well as Academy Award nominations for Best Score (Robert Emmett Dolan) and Best Original Story (Irving Berlin).

Plot
Jim Hardy, Ted Hanover, and Lila Dixon have a popular New York City song and dance act. On Christmas Eve, Jim prepares for his final performance before marrying Lila and retiring on a farm in Connecticut. Lila tells Jim she has fallen in love with the notorious charmer Ted instead; heartbroken, Jim bids them goodbye.

He tries to make a go of working the farm, but ends up in a sanatorium instead. The following Christmas Eve, Jim is back in New York City with plans to turn his farm into "Holiday Inn," an entertainment venue open only on holidays, to the amusement of Ted and his agent Danny Reed. In a flower shop, Danny is pitched by sales girl and aspiring performer Linda Mason; he steers her to Holiday Inn and Ted's club. Later that night, Linda and Jim accidentally meet at a performance by Ted and Lila. Jim pretends to own a rival club, while Linda postures as a celebrity friend of Ted's, only to flee when Ted and Lila approach.

On Christmas Day, Linda arrives at Holiday Inn and meets Jim, the pair immediately realizing their deception. Jim sings her his new song, "White Christmas".

On New Year's Eve, Holiday Inn opens to a packed house. Back in New York City, Ted learns that Lila is leaving him for a Texas millionaire. Drinking heavily, he arrives at Holiday Inn at midnight and literally stumbles into Linda. They dance and bring down the house, which believes it all to be a polished act. Danny arrives and is ecstatic that Ted has found a new partner, but in the morning, Ted does not remember Linda. Jim hides her, afraid Ted will steal her away.

On Lincoln's Birthday, Ted and Danny search for Linda, but Jim convinces Linda to play the minstrel show number "Abraham" in blackface together to foil them. While applying Linda's makeup, Jim asks her to stay there with him between holidays, which she interprets as a proposal. He affirms it but equivocates that only when he can afford to. Leaving empty-handed, Ted and Danny plan to return.

Rehearsing for Valentine's Day, Jim presents Linda with a new song, "Be Careful, It's My Heart". Ted arrives and launches into an impromptu dance with Linda. Recognizing her from New Year's Eve, he demands that Jim prepare them a number to perform in the next show.

On Washington's Birthday, Ted and Linda dance in elaborate 18th-century period costumes, with Jim sabotaging their tempo from a minuet to jazz throughout. Linda refuses Ted's offer to become his dance partner, saying that she and Jim are to be married. When Ted asks him about the engagement, Jim plays it off, but Ted is unconvinced.

At Easter, romance blossoms between Jim and Linda. They are met by Ted, who asks to remain in Jim's shows to experience "the true happiness" they have found. Linda is charmed, but Jim is suspicious.

Jim's apprehensions are confirmed on Independence Day, when he overhears Ted and Danny's bringing a pair of Hollywood representatives to audition Ted and Linda for motion pictures from that night's show. Jim bribes teamster Gus to stall Linda, who ends up driving the pair into a creek. Linda gets picked up on the roadside by Lila. Having left the penniless "millionaire", she crows that she will be Ted's partner that night for the studio tryout. Assuming that Jim made the switch to keep her from leaving, Linda directs Lila into the creek.

At the inn, Ted is forced to improvise a solo, a fireworks-studded tap dance routine. Linda arrives, irritated that Jim did not trust her to make her own decision. She joins Ted, Hollywood-bound. Jim reluctantly agrees to let the eager producers make a film about Holiday Inn, but vows not to leave the Inn.

Thanksgiving finds the Inn closed, and Jim wallowing in self-pity. As he prepares to mail his new song, his housekeeper Mamie implores him to fight to win Linda back.

Jim arrives in California on Christmas Eve, just as Ted and Linda plan to marry. Jim confronts Ted in his dressing room, gets locked in, then turns the table on Ted and Danny. On the set of Linda's movie, a meticulous recreation of Holiday Inn, Jim leaves his pipe on the piano and hides as Linda enters and performs "White Christmas". Reflexively ringing tiny bells with it as he did, she falters, then continues waveringly as Jim's voice joins her. Jim appears and Linda runs to him.

Back at Holiday Inn on New Year's Eve, Ted is reunited with Lila. Jim and Linda sing a duet, affirming their love.

Production
In May 1940, Irving Berlin signed an exclusive contract with Paramount Pictures to write songs for a musical film based on his idea of an inn that opened only on public holidays. Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire were the stars of Holiday Inn with support from Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale. Filming took place between November 18, 1941, and January 30, 1942. Produced and directed by Mark Sandrich, Holiday Inn had its premiere at the New York City Paramount Theatre August 4, 1942. It was a success in the US and the UK, the highest-grossing film musical to that time. It was expected that "Be Careful, It's My Heart" would be the hit song. While it did very well, "White Christmas" topped the charts in October 1942 instead, and stayed there for eleven weeks. Another Berlin song, "Happy Holiday", is featured over the opening credits and within the film storyline.

Filming outside the studio occurred at the Village Inn Resort in Monte Rio on the Russian River, in Sonoma County, California.

Many segments of the film are preceded by shots of a calendar with a visual symbol of the given holiday. For November, an animated turkey is shown running back and forth between the third and fourth Thursdays, finally shrugging its shoulders in confusion. This is a satirical reference to the "Franksgiving" controversy created when President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to expand the Christmas shopping season by declaring Thanksgiving a week earlier than before, leading to Congress setting Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November by law.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii occurred halfway through filming. As a result, the Fourth of July segment was expanded beyond Fred Astaire's firecracker dance to include the patriotic number that highlights the strength of the US military.

"White Christmas"

The song that would become "White Christmas" was conceived by Berlin on the set of the film Top Hat in 1935. He hummed the melody to Astaire and the film's director Mark Sandrich as a song possibility for a future Astaire-Ginger Rogers vehicle. Astaire loved the tune, but Sandrich passed on it. Berlin's assignment for Paramount was to write a song about each of the major holidays of the year. He found that writing a song about Christmas was the most challenging, due to his Jewish upbringing. When Crosby first heard Berlin play "White Christmas" in 1941 at the first rehearsals, he did not immediately recognize its full potential. Crosby simply said: "I don't think we have any problems with that one, Irving."

Although "White Christmas" has become iconic, this was not the original intention. The song "Be Careful, It's My Heart", played during the Valentine's Day section of the film, was originally intended to be a bigger hit when production of Holiday Inn commenced.

The song is used during the Christmas holiday sections of the movie, most notably when it is introduced to Linda Mason (Reynolds) by Jim Hardy (Crosby) while she is trying to obtain a position in the shows at the inn. Hardy begins playing the song to her allowing her to join him and eventually perform solo. The song is also reprised near the end of the movie. Chrysotile asbestos was used to make the fake snow used in this scene.

Song releases
Full-length studio recordings of the film's songs, differing slightly from those in the movie, were made for commercial release. Initially issued on 78rpm records, they were later collected on LP, cassette and CD.

Soundtrack
Soundtrack from Holiday Inn is a soundtrack album of Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire singing Irving Berlin songs that were taken directly from Holiday Inn. This soundtrack was first released on vinyl LP. These songs differ slightly and are often faster to save time than the ones released to the public on 78 rpm phonograph records.

It was not until 1979, 37 years after the making of the film, that a full soundtrack was released on Sunbeam Records (STK-112) of the songs in the movie.

In 2004, the Soundtrack Factory label released a soundtrack of the original recordings taken directly from the movie. Martha Mears performed Marjorie Reynolds' singing in the movie, so it is she who is performing on this recording as well. All songs sung by Bing Crosby unless stated. The track list is:

 * 1) Main Title: Overture
 * 2) I'll Capture Your Heart Singing (with Fred Astaire & Virginia Dale)
 * 3) Lazy
 * 4) You're Easy to Dance With (Fred Astaire)
 * 5) White Christmas (with Marjorie Reynolds)
 * 6) Happy Holiday (with Marjorie Reynolds)
 * 7) Let's Start the New Year Right
 * 8) Abraham (with Marjorie Reynolds & Louise Beavers)
 * 9) Be Careful, It's My Heart
 * 10) I Can't Tell a Lie (Fred Astaire)
 * 11) Easter Parade
 * 12) Song of Freedom
 * 13) Let's Say It with Firecrackers (sung by chorus as Fred Astaire dances)
 * 14) I've Got Plenty to Be Thankful For
 * 15) Hollywood Medley
 * 16) White Christmas [second version] (with Marjorie Reynolds)
 * 17) Ending Medley (with Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds & Virginia Dale)
 * 18) Holiday Inn movie trailer (audio only - bonus track)

Home media
Holiday Inn was first released on VHS and Beta formats in September 1981 by MCA Home Video, re-released in 1986 and again, on VHS only, in 1992.

It was first released on DVD paired with another Crosby vehicle, Going My Way (1944). It added a trailer for each film and some text-based extras. This version is also available in many boxed set collections of holiday-themed or Crosby-themed movies.

In 2006, it was released as a single-disc "Special Edition" featuring a commentary by Ken Barnes, with interspersed archival comments by Crosby and Astaire. It also included A Couple of Song and Dance Men, a documentary on Astaire and Crosby; All-Singing All-Dancing, a featurette on audio recording of movie musicals; and a reissue theatrical trailer.

In 2008, it was released as a three-disc "Collector's Edition" containing the previous DVD and a second disc with a newly computer-colorized version and Coloring a Classic, a featurette on the colorization. Also included was a CD of the 12-track Song Hits from Holiday Inn album, featuring original full-length studio recordings of the film's songs.

In 2014, it was released on Blu-ray as a single disc edition featuring both black and white and colorized versions and all previous DVD extras.

In 2017, it was released again on both formats, this time including a second disc featuring a performance of the 2016 Broadway adaptation.

Reception
The film ranked No. 6 in the list of top-grossing movies for 1942 in the US.

Theodore Strauss of The New York Times described it as "all very easy and graceful; it never tries too hard to dazzle; even in the rousing and topical Fourth of July number, it never commits a breach of taste by violently waving the flag. Instead, it has skipped back over the year in an affectionate and light-hearted spirit." Variety called it "a winner all the way" with "sterling" performances by the male leads. Harrison's Reports called it "a most delightful entertainment... The performances of the leading players are very good." Film Daily described it as "a completely satisfying musical filled with crisp comedy, fetching music, snappy dance routines, first-rate acting, smart story touches, and lavish and beautiful settings".

Legacy
The success of the song "White Christmas" eventually led to another film based on the song, White Christmas (1954), which starred Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. It was an extremely loose remake of Holiday Inn, with a plot again involving an inn, but otherwise different from the earlier film. Fred Astaire was offered the second lead in the new film, but after reading the script, he declined. The role was then offered to Donald O'Connor, but he was injured before filming began. Danny Kaye ultimately took the role.

In 2004, the American Film Institute listed White Christmas at No. 5 in its 100 Years...100 Songs.

A colorized version of Holiday Inn was released by Universal on October 14, 2008. The colorization was done by Legend Films, which used Edith Head’s sketch artist, Jan Muckelstone, as a color design consultant for costume authenticity.

The name of the Holiday Inn hotel chain was inspired by the film. The title of the film also inspired the 1946 renaming of a small 19th century inn in Intervale, New Hampshire. By right of precedence its owners were able to bar any other use of the name in that area of New Hampshire until they chose to relinquish it.

Blackface controversy
Beginning in the 1980s, some broadcasts of the film have entirely omitted the "Abraham" musical number, staged at the Inn for Lincoln's Birthday, because of its depiction of a blackface minstrel show incorporating racist images and behaviors. However, because Turner Classic Movies airs films uncut and unedited, the network has left the "Abraham" number intact during their screenings of Holiday Inn. AMC also aired the film intact before it became an advertiser-supported channel. To avoid advertiser objections, the edited version now airs annually on AMC.

In 2018, British Prime Minister Theresa May named Holiday Inn as her favorite Christmas film, causing controversy due to the blackface performance in the "Abraham" segment.

Adaptations
Holiday Inn was dramatized as a half-hour radio play on the January 11, 1943, CBS broadcast of The Screen Guild Theater, starring Crosby and Astaire with Dinah Shore. On December 15, 1952, The Railroad Hour presented a half-hour adaption of the film. The episode starred Gordon MacRae and Dorothy Warenskjold.

In 2013, Universal Stage Productions, the live theater division of Universal Pictures, invited Goodspeed Musicals to develop a stage adaptation of the film. With book by Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge, music from the films Holiday Inn and White Christmas (since ViacomCBS through Paramount Pictures now remains and currently owns the rights for the 1954 adaptation of White Christmas) plus other Berlin songs, and directed by Greenberg, the musical premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut on September 19, 2014. The Roundabout Theatre Company production of Holiday Inn began previews on Broadway at Studio 54 on September 1, 2016, before the official opening on October 6. The cast included Bryce Pinkham as Jim, Megan Lawrence as Louise, Corbin Bleu as Ted, and Lee Wilkof as Danny.

title: Holiday Inn (film)


text:
Greco-Roman religion

Greco-Roman religion may refer to:
 * Ancient Greek religion
 * Hellenistic religion
 * Mystery religions, initiatory cults of the Greco-Roman world
 * Interpretatio graeca, the translation or interpretation of Greek and Roman deities in comparison to other myths and religions
 * Religion in ancient Rome, which encompasses various religions, including Greek, practiced by peoples under Roman rule
 * Classical mythology

title: Greco-Roman religion


text:
Cynognathus

Cynognathus is an extinct genus of large-bodied cynodontian therapsids that lived in the Middle Triassic. It is known from a single species, Cynognathus crateronotus. Cynognathus was a predator closely related to mammals and had a southern hemispheric distribution. Fossils have so far been recovered from South Africa, Argentina, Antarctica, and Namibia.

Description
Cynognathus was a heavily built animal, and measured around 1.2 m in snout-to-vent body length and up to 2 m in total length. It had a particularly large head, up to 40 cm in length, with wide jaws and sharp teeth. Its hindlimbs were placed directly beneath the body, but the forelimbs sprawled outwards in a more reptilian fashion. This form of double (erect/sprawling) gait is also found in some primitive mammals alive today.

Possible autapomorphies of C. crateronotus include an extremely elongated postorbital bar and sectorial postcanine teeth with two serrated cusps distal to a recurved apex.

Discovery and naming
During 1888 and 1889, the British paleontologist Harry Govier Seeley visited southern Africa. In 1889, near Lady Frere, at a location where earlier Alfred Brown had discovered a tooth, Seeley excavated a skull and partial postcranial skeleton of a cynodontian. In 1894, Seeley named the genus Cynognathus with as type species Cynognathus crateronotus. Simultaneously, he named three other species in the genus: Cynognathus berryi, honouring James Berry who had assisted in the excavations, Cynognathus platyceps, the "flat jaw", and Cynognathus leptorhinus, the "slender nose". The generic name Cynognathus is derived from Greek kyon and gnathos, meaning "dog jaw". In 1895, Seeley published a more comprehensive description of these finds.

Fossil material probably belonging to the genus has been given several different names over the years. Generic synonyms include Cynidiognathus, Cynogomphius, Karoomys, Lycaenognathus, Lycochampsa and Lycognathus. Opinions vary as to whether all remains belong to the same species. The genus Karoomys is known only from a tiny juvenile. Species-level synonyms of Cynognathus crateronotus include Cynidiognathus broomi, Cynidiognathus longiceps, Cynidiognathus merenskyi, Cynognathus berryi, Cynognathus minor, Cynognathus platyceps, Cynogomphius berryi, Karoomys browni, Lycaenognathus platyceps, Lycochampsa ferox, Lycognathus ferox, and Nythosaurus browni.

Distribution
Fossils have been found in the Karoo, the Puesto Viejo Formation, Fremouw Formation, in South Africa/Lesotho, Argentina and Antarctica.

Cynognathus lived between the Anisian and the Ladinian (Middle Triassic).

This genus forms a Cynognathus Assemblage Zone in the Beaufort Group of the Karoo Supergroup.

Classification
Seeley in 1894/1895 placed Cynognathus in a separate family Cynognathidae, within the Cynodontia. Cynognathus is presently the only recognized member of the family Cynognathidae. Later a clade Cynognathia was named after the genus, within the Eucynodontia.

Cynognathus crateronotus in a cladogram after Stefanello et al. (2023):

Paleobiology
The dentary was equipped with differentiated teeth that show this animal could effectively process its food before swallowing. The presence of a secondary palate in the mouth indicates that Cynognathus would have been able to breathe and swallow simultaneously.

The possible lack of belly ribs, in the stomach region, suggests the presence of an efficient diaphragm: an important muscle for mammalian breathing. Pits and canals on the bone of the snout indicate concentrations of nerves and blood vessels. In mammals, such structures allow hairs (whiskers) to be used as sensory organs.

title: Cynognathus


text:
Talk:Fermat's principle

Untitled
❌ in June 2003. — Gavin R Putland (talk) 11:58, 29 September 2019 (UTC).

Better image
I think this image should be translated and used or perhaps just added and leaving the original image. Any thoughts? Cristan 23:00, 13 November 2006 (UTC).
 * ❌. Implicitly rejected? For the time being, and perhaps for the long term, I have cited a standard rare-to-dense refraction diagram in connection with the lifeguard analogy. — Gavin R Putland (talk) 13:03, 29 September 2019 (UTC).

Proof?
✅ (I hope) by: (i) adding a "Derivation" section; (ii) mentioning, in the "Analogies" subsection, the deduction of the classical path of a particle from its wave function; and (iii) linking to the article on Snell's law, which includes a derivation of that law from Fermat's principle. — Gavin R Putland (talk) 11:58, 29 September 2019 (UTC).

 * Not entirely.Extent content to see why it is ambiguous. Nikosbinis (talk) 11:22, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

Better statement
✅ (I hope) in the rewrite of August 2019, if not earlier. — Gavin R Putland (talk) 11:53, 29 September 2019 (UTC).

Extremum principle of mechanics
✅ (I hope) under the headings "Analogies" and "Modern version". — Gavin R Putland (talk) 13:21, 29 September 2019 (UTC).

"Incompleteness of the principle"
✅ The first part (May 2009) was promptly resolved by deleting the offending passage. The second part (January 2011) refers to an earlier version and (I hope) has now been resolved in the "Derivation" section. — Gavin R Putland (talk) 09:37, 30 September 2019 (UTC).

Not really "time", since velocity is phase velocity, not group velocity
✅ This section seems to refer to an earlier version of the article. In any case, the article now distinguishes the "ray velocity" from the "phase velocity" and the "group velocity". — Gavin R Putland (talk) 10:36, 30 September 2019 (UTC).

Not Least, but Extremum
✅, but not by claiming an extremum. The stationarity in the traversal time is either a local minimum or something more complicated; it is never a local maximum if all modes of variation are taken into account. (Search text for "maximum".)

— Gavin R Putland (talk) 15:17, 29 September 2019 (UTC).

Ptolemy
I added a reference to Ptolemys work and his influence in Alhacen´s work.--Knight1993 (talk) 15:07, 10 April 2010 (UTC).
 * ✅. In later amendments, Ptolemy has been dropped for want of specifics; but Alhacen is still mentioned in the Notes, and other characters have been added. — Gavin R Putland (talk) 15:03, 29 September 2019 (UTC).

The "Modern version" is not clearly stated
✅ (quietly) by defining "ray velocity". While a negative index doesn't mean a negative group velocity, it does mean a negative ray velocity, hence a negative contribution to the notional traversal time. — Gavin R Putland (talk) 10:14, 30 September 2019 (UTC).

Same old error
✅ by defining the "ray index" and distinguishing the "ray velocity" from the phase and group velocities. — Gavin R Putland (talk) 10:39, 30 September 2019 (UTC).

Deleted final sentence of introductory section
I removed statement about Hamiltonian optics that seems better suited to and appears at that page; also who the heck is Winston - either Newton or Lagrange, but even correcting that - it seems out of context to bring this up here. Netrapt (talk) 23:29, 17 December 2011 (UTC).
 * ✅, but moot due to later amendments. Hence it is also moot that "Winston" could be William Whiston. — Gavin R Putland (talk) 14:11, 29 September 2019 (UTC).

External links modified
❌; the reference has been replaced by a later version. — Gavin R Putland (talk) 13:46, 29 September 2019 (UTC).

Complete rewrite
The issues addressed so far include the following: — Gavin R Putland (talk) 15:04, 23 August 2019 (UTC).
 * I hope the "Derivation" makes it clear why traversal time is more important than length.
 * The "Derivation" doesn't merely treat Fermat's principle as the "definition" of a ray, but explains why such a theoretical definition ought to correspond to empirical ones (line of sight; narrow beam).
 * The ray index is distinguished from the usual refractive index.
 * The ray velocity is distinguished from both the phase velocity and the group velocity (see "Notes").
 * The subsection on Hamilton's principle has been rearranged for easier and more frequent comparison with the references. (Disclosure: This is the subsection that I know least about; I tend to take Fermat's principle on its own terms.)
 * "Quantum electrodynamics" is not currently mentioned in the draft. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that for matter waves, Fermat's principle for the phase/ray velocity corresponds to Maupertuis's principle for the group velocity. I'm not sure if it's helpful to include that. (And if I can understand it, it isn't really QED!) (P.S.: Matter waves and the classical path are now mentioned briefly under "Analogies", with two references. — Gavin R Putland (talk) 08:47, 28 August 2019 (UTC).)
 * Euclid is relegated to the "Notes" due to uncertain authorship. (P.S.: After checking against Sabra, Euclid is now mentioned in the References, citing his Optics, not the pseudo-Euclidean Catoptrics. — Gavin R Putland (talk) 23:15, 27 August 2019 (UTC).)
 * Ptolemy is no longer mentioned; I think the information would need to be more specific if it were to warrant inclusion. Ibn al-Haytham is not quite a precedent and has been relegated to the "Notes". The same "Note" mentions Boelmans, who did scoop Fermat, albeit not in terms of time.
 * Oh, and Huygens' principle is not "earlier" than Fermat's.

A specific objection is that the lead paragraph is rather formidable. Why not start with the principle of least time, which is what Fermat said, and then in later paragraphs introduce waves and extrema? And what the heck is stasimochrome? Did you make that up, or can you source that terminology? Is your derivation and approach following sources more generally? There's a ton to check here. Dicklyon (talk) 14:49, 28 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Thank you. I hope my latest edit addresses most of these concerns. In particular, it belatedly occurs to me that the place to define a ray path as a "path of stationary traversal time" is immediately before we justify that definition in terms of lines of sight and narrow beams. That gets rid of the need to coin a separate term to be used only eight times.  P.S.: That edit was on 29 August. Belated signature: Gavin R Putland (talk) 14:55, 29 September 2019 (UTC).

unnecessarily complicated
I could not understand this article, I really wish math and science wikis had summaries that curious lay people could parse. not sure why an encyclopedia would require so much prior knowledge like a academic article 2600:1702:1DA0:1700:911C:95B2:7E98:B039 (talk) 20:27, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

 * IMO this drive-by comment is not substantiated in any way. Maybe the lede could be a bit cleaner but compared with other pages this one has nice long ramp up. Nice work! Johnjbarton (talk) 16:25, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Fermat's principle