19 Feb
2018
19 Feb
'18
6:28 a.m.
On Sun, 18 Feb 2018, Norman Wilson wrote:
I also wrote a paper about the work, which was
published in (of all
places) AUUGN. I haven't read it in years but it was probably a bit
snotty. It nevertheless ended up causing a local UNIX-systems-software
company to head-hunt me (but at the time I had no interest in leaving
Caltech), so it must not have been too rude.
Norman is obviously too modest to toot his own trumpet, so me being me
I'll do it for him:
AUUGN-V04.2.pdf A bastardized paging UNIX
ABSTRACT
One of the VAXes in the Caltech High Energy Physics Group runs a
peculiar hybrid of several versions of UNIX. Its principle claim to
fame is that it is recognizably a variant of UNIX/TS, but has virtual
memory code grafted in from Berkeley’s 4BSD. It is also compatible
with the UNIX/TS system run on our PDP-II/45. This paper is meant to
give some idea of what our system is, why it exists, and how much
effort went into its creation.
My favourite quote:
Philosophy - We feel that many of Berkeley’s changes to the
system and the supporting programs are unnecessary, un-UNIX-like,
and just plain silly. To take a favourite example: anyone who
will add a flag to _cat_ to make it number lines, remove blank
lines, and make control characters visible, rather than writing
separate filters, simply doesn’t understand what UNIX is all
about.
Well said, bro!
--
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will
suffer."