TUHS

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6531 discussions

by Doug McIlroy

> cpio, expr, xargs, yacc, and lex first appeared outside > the Bell Labs boundary in the PWB release This gently corrects a statement in my posting: the name of one of the PWB-originated programs is expr, not eval. Doug

9 years, 7 months

Re: [TUHS] System III - TCP/IP

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Dave Horsfall <dave(a)horsfall.org> > I thought PWB (makers of "make") came from Harvard? PWB? As in "Programmer's Work Bench"? The OS part of that came straight out of Bell - see pg. 266 in the first Unix BSTJ issue. Not sure about all the applications (well, SCCS came from Bell). Noel

9 years, 7 months

Re: [TUHS] RIP Ken Iverson

by Doug McIlroy

Dan, I wrote: Quiz for the occasion: which major Unix utility adopted IPL's unprecedented expression syntax? You correctly responded: troff. I suppose, in a sense, that 'dc' also fits the bill but given that that is inherent in it's stack based nature, I doubt that is what you meant. The notion of precedence pertains specifically to infix notation, so postfix dc is definitely not in the running. Idle thought about my typo: Though APL is famously inscrutable, IPL (specifically IPL-V) outshined it in that department. Doug

9 years, 8 months

Re: [TUHS] RIP Ken Iverson

by Doug McIlroy

Quiz for the occasion: which major Unix utility adopted IPL's unprecedented expression syntax? doug

9 years, 8 months

RIP Ken Iverson

by Dave Horsfall

Loved or loathed for inventing APL, we lost him in 2004. The best thing you can say about APL (I used APL\360) is that it's, err, concise... -- Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer."

9 years, 8 months

RIP Dennis Ritchie

by Dave Horsfall

In 2011. Enough said... -- Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer."

9 years, 8 months

nice interviews with Brian Kernighan

by Aharon Robbins

Sent to me by a friend: https://youtu.be/vT_J6xc-Az0 There's another one there about "The C Programming Language" book as well. And looks like more to come. Arnold

9 years, 8 months

Re: [TUHS] Questions regarding early Unix contributors

by Nelson H. F. Beebe

On Fri, 2 Oct 2015 12:00:08 -0600, I posted to this list a summary of the earliest mentions of Unix in several corporate technical journals. This morning, I made a similar search in the complete bibliographies of 29 journals on the history of computing, mathematics, and science listed at http://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/index.html#content As might be expected, there is little mention of Unix (or Linux) in those publications: they only ones that I found are these: +-----------------------+------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | filename | label | substr(title,1,80) | +-----------------------+------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | cryptologia.bib | Morris:1982:CFU | Cryptographic Features of the UNIX Operating System | | annhistcomput.bib | Tomayko:1989:ACI | Anecdotes: a Critical Incident; The First Port of UNIX | | annhistcomput.bib | Tomayko:1989:AWC | Anecdotes: The Windmill Computer---An Eyewitness Report of the Scheutz Differenc | | ieeeannhistcomput.bib | Toomey:2010:FEU | First Edition Unix: Its Creation and Restoration | | ieeeannhistcomput.bib | Sippl:2013:IIM | Informix: Information Management on Unix | +-----------------------+------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Nelson H. F. Beebe Tel: +1 801 581 5254 - - University of Utah FAX: +1 801 581 4148 - - Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB Internet e-mail: beebe(a)math.utah.edu - - 155 S 1400 E RM 233 beebe(a)acm.org beebe(a)computer.org - - Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9 years, 8 months

Re: [TUHS] Questions regarding early Unix contributors

by Nelson H. F. Beebe

Recent traffic on the TUHS list has discussed early publications about UNIX at DECUS. The Digital Technical Journal of Digital Equipment Corporation began publishing in August 1985, and there is a nearly complete bibliography at http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/dectechj.bib Change .bib to .html for a version with live hyperlinks. The first publication there that mentions ULTRIX in its title is from March 1986. Unix appears in a title first in Spring 1995. The document collection at http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/decus/ doesn't appear to have much that might be related to Unix ports to DEC hardware. The Hewlett-Packard Journal is documented in http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/hpj.bib The first paper recorded there that mentions Unix or HP-UX is from March 1984. The Intel Technical Journal is covered in those archives as well at http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/intel-tech-j.bib but it only began relatively recently, in 1997. The IBM Systems Journal began in 1962, and the IBM Journal of Research and Development in 1957, and both are in those archives at http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/ibmsysj.bib http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/ibmjrd.bib In the Systems Journal, the first mention of Unix or AIX is in Fall 1979 (Unix) and then December 1987 (AIX). In the Journal of R&D, AIX appears in January 1990, and Unix appears in abstracts sporadically, but is in a title first in late Fall 2002. In the Bell Systems Technical Journal, covered at http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/bstj1970.bib (and other decades from 1920 to 2010), the first mention of Unix in a title is July/August 1978. There may have been similar corporate technology journals at other computer companies, such as CDC, Cray, Data General, English Electric, Ferranti, Gould, Harris, NCR, Pr1me, Univac, Wang, and others, but I've so far made no attempt to track them down and add bibliographic coverage. Suggestions are welcome! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Nelson H. F. Beebe Tel: +1 801 581 5254 - - University of Utah FAX: +1 801 581 4148 - - Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB Internet e-mail: beebe(a)math.utah.edu - - 155 S 1400 E RM 233 beebe(a)acm.org beebe(a)computer.org - - Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9 years, 9 months

Re: [TUHS] Questions regarding early Unix contributors

by Norman Wilson

Dave Horsfall: Oh, and I also wrote many articles for AUUGN, and presented the original Unix paper at a DECUS conference, just to stir up the VMSoids. ===== Do you mean the first UNIX-related paper ever at a DECUS? If so, do you mean DECUS Australia or DECUS at all? I'm pretty sure there was UNIX-related activity in DECUS US in 1980, probably earlier, and am quite sure there was by 1981 when I was on the sidelines of what eventually became the UNIX SIG. It was initially called the Special Software and Operating Systems SIG, because DECUS US leadership always included a somewhat stodgy subgroup who were more afraid of offending Digital's marketing people than of serving the membership. So we ended up with a code name. Since there were in fact Digital technical and marketing people supporting the new SIG, it was only a couple of years before the name was fixed. Norman Wilson Toronto ON (Lived in Los Angeles and then New Jersey during that period)

9 years, 9 months

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