6 Mar
2024
6 Mar
'24
7:53 p.m.
Very kind words from Brantley and Clem. It's an interesting notion to
regard Unix as gestational until it came out in public talks (1973) and was
exported to universities.
Maybe I could claim to have laid the groundwork for Unix by causing Multics
to be written in PL/I, a language big and sprawling, like the project
itself. That unintentionally provided plenty of stimulus for thinking
small. Ken was absolutely on his own when he began to fiddle with building
a tiny operating system on the GE 645. I heard about it only after the
fact.
After Multics, I ran interference to keep our once-burned higher management
from frowning too much on further operating-system research. I was aware
that Ken, Dennis and Rudd were discussing the subject down the hall from my
office, but I did not participate in the discussions. At the same time, I
was noodling over what would later be called shell pipelines; but I did not
come up with the vivid term "pipe" or a halfway workable syntax for
another three years. While these actions may have contributed to a
welcoming environment for Unix, they in no way "started" it.
Doug
On Wed, Mar 6, 2024 at 10:03 AM Brantley Coile <brantley(a)coraid.com> wrote:
It all depends on how you define "started."
Your contributions to it was done while it was still in the maternity ward
of the hospital in which it was birthed. I would argue, at length if need
be, but I suspect it's not needed, that you indeed "started to develop
it."
Did only Ken started it. Who was in the room when Ken outlined the file
system? You're finger prints are all over everything from very, very early.
From a quarter the way into the 21st century, you certainly appear to have
started to develop it.
Just my humble opinion. my disclaimer is that I've always held your
contributions in very high regard.
Brantley
those who
"start[ed] to develop it".
On Mar 6, 2024, at 9:55 AM, Douglas McIlroy <
douglas.mcilroy(a)dartmouth.edu> wrote:
When Rudd, Doug, Ken, Dennis, et al start to
develop UNIX
Although I jumped into Unix as soon as it was born, I was not one of
Doug