2020-07-12
Indian Hill, Columbus, Whippany, Holmdel, and
other BTL sites worked on automating the Telephone
system. A lot of the software was designed,
implemented, and deployed into the telcos
and AT&T Longlines on Unix. Operating telcos welcomed
all Unix based systems. I worked on the NOC
(Network Operating Center) in Bedminster, NJ, and
the LMOS (Loop Maintenance Operations system)
both of which were designed, implemented, and
deployed using Unix as the operating system. Unix
was a huge thing throughout the labs for
developing solutions for the Telcos from 1976 onwards.
I was at BTL from 1976-1983 and traveled to
Murray Hill often. I met and engaged with many of
the folks (Feldman, Chesson, Aho, Bourne,
Thompson, Ritchie, Lesk, Weinberger, and even
Doug). All of them were welcoming and
extremely patient with me and to this day I
remember all of them.
Unix was a godsend to me after having to deal
with IBM operating systems for scientific
calculations. I arrived into BTL in 1976
in Columbus, Ohio and all I had ever used before was
punched cards and OS/360 systems. (cbunix uber
alles :-).
"Messages" and "semaphores" were what
was in the Unix (cbunix) we used and I don't recall who
implemented them.("Messages" was interprocess
messages. I even forget how they worked, but using
"messages", I implemented inter-processor
messages where processes on one computer could msg
processes on a 2nd computer without any
modification to the Unix source code.)
The most depressing thing even to today is the
deplorable lack of wisdom demonstrated by IBM,
Microsoft, and AT&T in bringing computing to the
public. LSX could have been deployed on the first
IBM PC (1982). I suspect IBM and its vaunted research
lab and Gates/Allen were singularly ignorant of
the revolutionary ideas from 1127 even in
1981. AT&T was complicit by holding Unix close to
its chest (in search of profit) while enjoying a
government protected monopoly.
Indeed, after spending 17 years in IBM, it is
more than likely IBM was arrogant and dismissive of
'unix' (as was DEC - Digital Equipment Corporation)
and especially the C programming language.
One only needs to look at the source code of AIX
to see that all of Doug's "principals" were
missing and presumed dead in the IBM AIX software
culture.
No software invention in the world of computing
compares to what Ken, Dennis and 1127
folks have given the world. Now, 50 years later,
the world is embracing Unix.
There is a political story here about excellence
and profit and how they relate; not to be
told by me, here.
Ed
PS: I spent approximately 2 hours trying
to get the presentation of this post to look
like what I produced in gvim (vi = Bill Joy).
All formatting WORK is a direct result
of Bill Gates (and Steve Jobs) not understanding
or listening to Doug and his principles of
text, simplicity, and pipes.