17 Jun
2022
17 Jun
'22
4:52 p.m.
Rob Pike <robpike(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Excited as I was to see this history of Unix code in a
single repository:
https://github.com/dspinellis/unix-history-repo
it continues the long-standing tradition of ignoring all the work done at
Bell Labs after v7. I consider v8 v9 v10 to be worth of attention, even
influential,
I can think of at least 4 things, some big, some small, where post-V7
Research Unix was influential:
- Streams (as STREAMS in S5R3 & greater)
- The filesystem switch (in S5R3, replaced by Sun vnodes in S5R4)
- /proc ! This lives on in most Unixes and in Linux
- /dev/{stdin,stdout,stderr}, /dev/fd/N - Minor but a nice generalization
The influence was less from code and more from published papers, but
there certainly was a notable influence.
I was lucky enough in the late 80s and 90s to have an inside friend
in the labs (BWK), who was kind enough to obtain for me a real printed
Eighth Edition manual. Later he put me in touch with Doug who at first
wasn't sure, but found out that the could, sell me a Ninth Edition
manual. ($50 IIRC). I bought the published Tenth Edition manuals as well.
It was great to read those things, even if at the time I couldn't
get to the code.
For whatever it's worth,
Arnold