2 Jun
2024
2 Jun
'24
3:59 a.m.
A small reflection on the marvels of ancient writing...
Today, I went to the local Unix user group to see what that was like. I
was pleasantly surprised to find it quite rewarding. Learned some new
stuff... and won the door prize, a copy of a book entitled "Introducing
the UNIX System" by Henry McGilton and Rachel Morgan. I accepted the
prize, but said I'd just read it and recycle it for some other deserving
unix-phile. As it turns out, I'm not giving it back, I'll contribute
another Unix book. I thought it was just some intro unix text and
figured I might learn a thing or two and let someone else who needs it
more have it after I read it, but it's a V7 book! I haven't seem many of
those around and so, I started digging into it and do I ever wish I'd
had it when I was first trying to figure stuff out! Great book, never
heard of it, or its authors, but hey, I've only read a few thousand tech
books.
What was really fun, was where I went from there - the authors mentioned
some bit about permuted indexes and the programmer's manual... So, I
went and grabbed my copy off the shelf and lo and behold, my copy either
doesn't have a permuted index or I'm not finding it, I was crushed. But,
while I was digging around the manual, I came across Section 9 - Quick
UNIX Reference! Are you kidding me?!! How many years has it taken me to
gain what knowledge I have? and here, in 20 pages is the most concise
reference manual I've ever seen.
Just the SH, TROFF and NROFF sections are worth the effort of digging up
this 40 year old text.
Anyhow, following on the heels of a recent dive into v7 and Ritchie's
setting up unix v7 documentation, I was yet again reminded of the golden
age of well written technical documents. Oh and I guess my recent
perusal of more modern "heavy weight" texts (heavy by weight, not
content, and many hundreds of pages long) might have made me more
appreciative of concision - I long for the days of 300 page and shorter
technical books :). In case you think I overstate - just got through a
pair of TCL/TK books together clocking in at 1565 pages.
Thank you Henry McGilton, Rachel Morgan, and Dennis Ritchie and Steve
Bourne and other folks of the '70s and '80s for keeping it concise. As a
late to the party unix enthusiast, I greatly value your work and am
really thankful you didn't write like they do now...
Later,
Will
2 Jun
2 Jun
4:53 a.m.
Good writing is an art form. I used to be awful, then I met Udi Manber
and did some work with him. When I told him I struggled to write a good
paper (I was either a senior or a grad student, so not a lot of practice)
he was flabbergasted and said "writing papers is easy". I said "do
tell".
Here is what he told me:
A) You have to know what you are writing about, no amount of writing chops
will cover up a lack of knowledge.
B) You have to have a good outline. Organize what you want to tell
people and get it in the right order and with the right level of detail.
The outline is like the skeleton of a ship. Once you have that, you are
just nailing on boards. Same thing for a paper. A good outline and
good knowledge, now you are just typing and filling in the details.
But to get back to your point, Will, great writing is all of that but
just enough words, no more, no less. You need skill to do that but you
also need to care about what you are writing, it's easy to write crap
if you don't care. It's hard to write well, even with all skills, I
used to call writing being mentally constipated, the good stuff didn't
come out easily.
The early Unix papers were very well written. The Bell Labs technical
journal papers about Unix are fantastic in my opinion.
On Sat, Jun 01, 2024 at 08:59:42PM -0500, Will Senn wrote:
A small reflection on the marvels of ancient
writing...
Today, I went to the local Unix user group to see what that was like. I was
pleasantly surprised to find it quite rewarding. Learned some new stuff...
and won the door prize, a copy of a book entitled "Introducing the UNIX
System" by Henry McGilton and Rachel Morgan. I accepted the prize, but said
I'd just read it and recycle it for some other deserving unix-phile. As it
turns out, I'm not giving it back, I'll contribute another Unix book. I
thought it was just some intro unix text and figured I might learn a thing
or two and let someone else who needs it more have it after I read it, but
it's a V7 book! I haven't seem many of those around and so, I started
digging into it and do I ever wish I'd had it when I was first trying to
figure stuff out! Great book, never heard of it, or its authors, but hey,
I've only read a few thousand tech books.
What was really fun, was where I went from there - the authors mentioned
some bit about permuted indexes and the programmer's manual... So, I went
and grabbed my copy off the shelf and lo and behold, my copy either doesn't
have a permuted index or I'm not finding it, I was crushed. But, while I was
digging around the manual, I came across Section 9 - Quick UNIX Reference!
Are you kidding me?!! How many years has it taken me to gain what knowledge
I have? and here, in 20 pages is the most concise reference manual I've ever
seen.
Just the SH, TROFF and NROFF sections are worth the effort of digging up
this 40 year old text.
Anyhow, following on the heels of a recent dive into v7 and Ritchie's
setting up unix v7 documentation, I was yet again reminded of the golden age
of well written technical documents. Oh and I guess my recent perusal of
more modern "heavy weight" texts (heavy by weight, not content, and many
hundreds of pages long) might have made me more appreciative of concision -
I long for the days of 300 page and shorter technical books :). In case you
think I overstate - just got through a pair of TCL/TK books together
clocking in at 1565 pages.
Thank you Henry McGilton, Rachel Morgan, and Dennis Ritchie and Steve Bourne
and other folks of the '70s and '80s for keeping it concise. As a late to
the party unix enthusiast, I greatly value your work and am really thankful
you didn't write like they do now...
Later,
Will
--
---
Larry McVoy Retired to fishing http://www.mcvoy.com/lm/boat
5:12 a.m.
On 6/1/24 10:02 PM, Grant Taylor via TUHS wrote:
On 6/1/24 20:59, Will Senn wrote:
0-07-045001-3
1983 - McGraw Hill
Black cover, gray and white text, orangegish boxes:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2398130.Introducing_the_UNIX_System
Mine doesn't have the "A BYTE BOOK" or "McGraw-Hill Software Series
for
Computer Professionals headings" printed on the top, but otherwise it's
the same book
... "Introducing the UNIX System" by
Henry McGilton and Rachel Morgan
Would you please share the ISBN for the book?
It looks like there may be two different covers and I'm curious which
one you're referring to.
6:34 a.m.
On 6/1/24 22:12, Will Senn wrote:
0-07-045001-3
1983 - McGraw Hill
Black cover, gray and white text, orangegish boxes:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2398130.Introducing_the_UNIX_System
Thank you.
Mine doesn't have the "A BYTE BOOK" or
"McGraw-Hill Software Series for
Computer Professionals headings" printed on the top, but otherwise it's
the same book
:-)
--
Grant. . . .
9:28 a.m.
Will Senn <will.senn(a)gmail.com> wrote:
FWIW, my copy does have the "A BYTE BOOK" and the "McGraw-Hill Software
Series for Computer Professionals" headings, and has the same ISBN and
publish date (1983), 556 total pages including the index.
The book doesn't appear to have any printing version on the copyright
page, just this above the ISBN, which I have no idea what it means:
12 13 14 15 DODO 898765
scot
On 6/1/24 10:02 PM, Grant Taylor via TUHS wrote:
> On 6/1/24 20:59, Will Senn wrote:
>> ... "Introducing the UNIX System" by Henry McGilton and Rachel Morgan
This is a great book, and much of it is still relevant today. The editor
tutorials and the document formatting chapters are outstanding.
Would you
please share the ISBN for the book?
It looks like there may be two different covers and I'm curious which
one you're referring to.
0-07-045001-3
1983 - McGraw Hill
Black cover, gray and white text, orangegish boxes:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2398130.Introducing_the_UNIX_System
Mine doesn't have the "A BYTE BOOK" or "McGraw-Hill Software Series
for
Computer Professionals headings" printed on the top, but otherwise it's
the same book 
3 Jun
3 Jun
6:47 p.m.
Does it happen to Nicole's, or anyone else's extension or just yours?
From: "Will Senn" <will.senn(a)gmail.com>
To: "TUHS" <tuhs(a)tuhs.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 1, 2024 9:59:42 PM
Subject: [TUHS] Old documentation - still the best
A small reflection on the marvels of ancient writing...
Today, I went to the local Unix user group to see what that was like. I was pleasantly
surprised to find it quite rewarding. Learned some new stuff... and won the door prize, a
copy of a book entitled "Introducing the UNIX System" by Henry McGilton and
Rachel Morgan. I accepted the prize, but said I'd just read it and recycle it for
some other deserving unix-phile. As it turns out, I'm not giving it back, I'll
contribute another Unix book. I thought it was just some intro unix text and figured I
might learn a thing or two and let someone else who needs it more have it after I read it,
but it's a V7 book! I haven't seem many of those around and so, I started
digging into it and do I ever wish I'd had it when I was first trying to figure stuff
out! Great book, never heard of it, or its authors, but hey, I've only read a few
thousand tech books.
What was really fun, was where I went from there - the authors mentioned some bit about
permuted indexes and the programmer's manual... So, I went and grabbed my copy off
the shelf and lo and behold, my copy either doesn't have a permuted index or I'm
not finding it, I was crushed. But, while I was digging around the manual, I came across
Section 9 - Quick UNIX Reference! Are you kidding me?!! How many years has it taken me to
gain what knowledge I have? and here, in 20 pages is the most concise reference manual
I've ever seen.
Just the SH, TROFF and NROFF sections are worth the effort of digging up this 40 year old
text.
Anyhow, following on the heels of a recent dive into v7 and Ritchie's setting up unix
v7 documentation, I was yet again reminded of the golden age of well written technical
documents. Oh and I guess my recent perusal of more modern "heavy weight" texts
(heavy by weight, not content, and many hundreds of pages long) might have made me more
appreciative of concision - I long for the days of 300 page and shorter technical books
:). In case you think I overstate - just got through a pair of TCL/TK books together
clocking in at 1565 pages.
Thank you Henry McGilton, Rachel Morgan, and Dennis Ritchie and Steve Bourne and other
folks of the '70s and '80s for keeping it concise. As a late to the party unix
enthusiast, I greatly value your work and am really thankful you didn't write like
they do now...
Later,
Will
6:52 p.m.
Sorry folks, please ignore that one!
From: "Jim Capp" <jcapp(a)anteil.com>
To: "Will Senn" <will.senn(a)gmail.com>
Cc: "TUHS" <tuhs(a)tuhs.org>
Sent: Monday, June 3, 2024 12:47:59 PM
Subject: Re: [TUHS] Old documentation - still the best
Does it happen to Nicole's, or anyone else's extension or just yours?
From: "Will Senn" <will.senn(a)gmail.com>
To: "TUHS" <tuhs(a)tuhs.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 1, 2024 9:59:42 PM
Subject: [TUHS] Old documentation - still the best
A small reflection on the marvels of ancient writing...
Today, I went to the local Unix user group to see what that was like. I was pleasantly
surprised to find it quite rewarding. Learned some new stuff... and won the door prize, a
copy of a book entitled "Introducing the UNIX System" by Henry McGilton and
Rachel Morgan. I accepted the prize, but said I'd just read it and recycle it for
some other deserving unix-phile. As it turns out, I'm not giving it back, I'll
contribute another Unix book. I thought it was just some intro unix text and figured I
might learn a thing or two and let someone else who needs it more have it after I read it,
but it's a V7 book! I haven't seem many of those around and so, I started
digging into it and do I ever wish I'd had it when I was first trying to figure stuff
out! Great book, never heard of it, or its authors, but hey, I've only read a few
thousand tech books.
What was really fun, was where I went from there - the authors mentioned some bit about
permuted indexes and the programmer's manual... So, I went and grabbed my copy off
the shelf and lo and behold, my copy either doesn't have a permuted index or I'm
not finding it, I was crushed. But, while I was digging around the manual, I came across
Section 9 - Quick UNIX Reference! Are you kidding me?!! How many years has it taken me to
gain what knowledge I have? and here, in 20 pages is the most concise reference manual
I've ever seen.
Just the SH, TROFF and NROFF sections are worth the effort of digging up this 40 year old
text.
Anyhow, following on the heels of a recent dive into v7 and Ritchie's setting up unix
v7 documentation, I was yet again reminded of the golden age of well written technical
documents. Oh and I guess my recent perusal of more modern "heavy weight" texts
(heavy by weight, not content, and many hundreds of pages long) might have made me more
appreciative of concision - I long for the days of 300 page and shorter technical books
:). In case you think I overstate - just got through a pair of TCL/TK books together
clocking in at 1565 pages.
Thank you Henry McGilton, Rachel Morgan, and Dennis Ritchie and Steve Bourne and other
folks of the '70s and '80s for keeping it concise. As a late to the party unix
enthusiast, I greatly value your work and am really thankful you didn't write like
they do now...
Later,
Will
8 Jun
8 Jun
3:58 a.m.
At Sat, 1 Jun 2024 20:59:42 -0500, Will Senn <will.senn(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Subject: [TUHS] Old documentation - still the best
Just the SH, TROFF and NROFF sections are
worth the effort of digging up this 40
year old text.
You might be interested in this one by the same author too:
Title: Typesetting Tables on the UNIX System
Author: Henry McGilton; Mary McNabb (With)
Publisher: Trilithon Press
Date: 1990-04
ISBN: 9780962628900 / 0962628905
https://archive.org/details/typesettingtable0000mcgi/mode/2up
I found it invaluable back when I was using troff frequently, and it too
is, IMHO, very well written.
--
Greg A. Woods <gwoods(a)acm.org>
Kelowna, BC +1 250 762-7675 RoboHack <woods(a)robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods(a)planix.com> Avoncote Farms <woods(a)avoncote.ca>
149
days inactive
155
days old
8 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
Grant Taylor -
Greg A. Woods -
Jim Capp -
Larry McVoy -
Scot Jenkins -
Will Senn