From dave at horsfall.org Thu Oct 1 12:09:21 2015 From: dave at horsfall.org (Dave Horsfall) Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2015 12:09:21 +1000 (EST) Subject: [TUHS] Questions regarding early Unix contributors In-Reply-To: <20150928232314.GY81320@eureka.lemis.com> References: <560414A8.2080002@mhorton.net> <4186b45fab3f28605b55591d7d97fd2f.squirrel@webmail.yaccman.com> <20150928232314.GY81320@eureka.lemis.com> Message-ID: On Tue, 29 Sep 2015, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: > You'll note Dave Horsfall's name in the acknowledgements, along with a > number of other (now) well-known names. Ah, my only real claim to Unix fame :-) I helped with the proof-reading, and arranged for the printing on my department's PDP-11 (I think we had a fancy printer). Oh, and I also wrote many articles for AUUGN, and presented the original Unix paper at a DECUS conference, just to stir up the VMSoids. -- Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer." From grog at lemis.com Thu Oct 1 13:52:02 2015 From: grog at lemis.com (Greg 'groggy' Lehey) Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2015 13:52:02 +1000 Subject: [TUHS] Questions regarding early Unix contributors In-Reply-To: References: <560414A8.2080002@mhorton.net> <4186b45fab3f28605b55591d7d97fd2f.squirrel@webmail.yaccman.com> <20150928232314.GY81320@eureka.lemis.com> Message-ID: <20151001035202.GB81320@eureka.lemis.com> On Thursday, 1 October 2015 at 12:09:21 +1000, Dave Horsfall wrote: > > Oh, and I also wrote many articles for AUUGN, and presented the > original Unix paper at a DECUS conference, just to stir up the > VMSoids. I'll address the AUUGN issue some other time (do you want a whole lot of back issues?), but the Unix paper at DECUS reminds me of when I presented a paper entitled "Why BSD is better than Linux" at the 2002 Linux.conf.au. http://www.lemis.com/grog/slashdot/ Greg -- Sent from my desktop computer. Finger grog at FreeBSD.org for PGP public key. 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Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 196 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dave at horsfall.org Thu Oct 1 14:51:59 2015 From: dave at horsfall.org (Dave Horsfall) Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2015 14:51:59 +1000 (EST) Subject: [TUHS] Questions regarding early Unix contributors In-Reply-To: <20151001035202.GB81320@eureka.lemis.com> References: <560414A8.2080002@mhorton.net> <4186b45fab3f28605b55591d7d97fd2f.squirrel@webmail.yaccman.com> <20150928232314.GY81320@eureka.lemis.com> <20151001035202.GB81320@eureka.lemis.com> Message-ID: On Thu, 1 Oct 2015, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: > I'll address the AUUGN issue some other time (do you want a whole lot of > back issues?), No need for the issues; I have a copy of Warren's site on DVD (I was planning on being a mirror for it). > but the Unix paper at DECUS reminds me of when I presented a paper > entitled "Why BSD is better than Linux" at the 2002 Linux.conf.au. > http://www.lemis.com/grog/slashdot/ I'll bet that went over well... -- Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer." From norman at oclsc.org Fri Oct 2 02:37:10 2015 From: norman at oclsc.org (Norman Wilson) Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2015 12:37:10 -0400 Subject: [TUHS] Questions regarding early Unix contributors Message-ID: <1443717434.16726.for-standards-violators@oclsc.org> Dave Horsfall: Oh, and I also wrote many articles for AUUGN, and presented the original Unix paper at a DECUS conference, just to stir up the VMSoids. ===== Do you mean the first UNIX-related paper ever at a DECUS? If so, do you mean DECUS Australia or DECUS at all? I'm pretty sure there was UNIX-related activity in DECUS US in 1980, probably earlier, and am quite sure there was by 1981 when I was on the sidelines of what eventually became the UNIX SIG. It was initially called the Special Software and Operating Systems SIG, because DECUS US leadership always included a somewhat stodgy subgroup who were more afraid of offending Digital's marketing people than of serving the membership. So we ended up with a code name. Since there were in fact Digital technical and marketing people supporting the new SIG, it was only a couple of years before the name was fixed. Norman Wilson Toronto ON (Lived in Los Angeles and then New Jersey during that period) From arnold at skeeve.com Fri Oct 2 04:00:12 2015 From: arnold at skeeve.com (Aharon Robbins) Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2015 21:00:12 +0300 Subject: [TUHS] Questions regarding early Unix contributors In-Reply-To: References: <1443514051.2142.5.camel@papa2> Message-ID: <201510011800.t91I0C4D006370@skeeve.com> This is also in the TUHS archive, for anyone who's mirroring it. It's 177 pages! It looks to be a scan; too bad the orginal troff is probably gone. Thanks! Arnold > Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 08:35:02 -0700 > From: scj at yaccman.com > To: tuhs at minnie.tuhs.org > Subject: Re: [TUHS] Questions regarding early Unix contributors > > That must be what I had remembered. In truth, there was not much (IMHO) > in the first pass worth writing about... > > Steve > > > Hi, > > > > I don't know if John Lions ever wrote a full book about > > PCC, but there is a paper analyzing its second pass: > > > > https://github.com/eunuchs/unix-archive/blob/master/Documentation/Papers/lions_PCCpass2_jun1979.pdf > > > > Hellwig From dave at horsfall.org Fri Oct 2 04:57:11 2015 From: dave at horsfall.org (Dave Horsfall) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2015 04:57:11 +1000 (EST) Subject: [TUHS] Questions regarding early Unix contributors In-Reply-To: <1443717434.16726.for-standards-violators@oclsc.org> References: <1443717434.16726.for-standards-violators@oclsc.org> Message-ID: On Thu, 1 Oct 2015, Norman Wilson wrote: > Dave Horsfall: > > Oh, and I also wrote many articles for AUUGN, and presented the original > Unix paper at a DECUS conference, just to stir up the VMSoids. > > ===== > > Do you mean the first UNIX-related paper ever at a DECUS? If so, do you > mean DECUS Australia or DECUS at all? I'm pretty sure there was > UNIX-related activity in DECUS US in 1980, probably earlier, and am > quite sure there was by 1981 when I was on the sidelines of what > eventually became the UNIX SIG. Ah - minor clarification: it was a summary of the BSTJ paper, at DECUS Australia. Sorry for any confusion (and my poor memory). -- Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer." From beebe at math.utah.edu Sat Oct 3 04:00:08 2015 From: beebe at math.utah.edu (Nelson H. F. Beebe) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2015 12:00:08 -0600 Subject: [TUHS] Questions regarding early Unix contributors Message-ID: Recent traffic on the TUHS list has discussed early publications about UNIX at DECUS. The Digital Technical Journal of Digital Equipment Corporation began publishing in August 1985, and there is a nearly complete bibliography at http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/dectechj.bib Change .bib to .html for a version with live hyperlinks. The first publication there that mentions ULTRIX in its title is from March 1986. Unix appears in a title first in Spring 1995. The document collection at http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/decus/ doesn't appear to have much that might be related to Unix ports to DEC hardware. The Hewlett-Packard Journal is documented in http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/hpj.bib The first paper recorded there that mentions Unix or HP-UX is from March 1984. The Intel Technical Journal is covered in those archives as well at http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/intel-tech-j.bib but it only began relatively recently, in 1997. The IBM Systems Journal began in 1962, and the IBM Journal of Research and Development in 1957, and both are in those archives at http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/ibmsysj.bib http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/ibmjrd.bib In the Systems Journal, the first mention of Unix or AIX is in Fall 1979 (Unix) and then December 1987 (AIX). In the Journal of R&D, AIX appears in January 1990, and Unix appears in abstracts sporadically, but is in a title first in late Fall 2002. In the Bell Systems Technical Journal, covered at http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/bstj1970.bib (and other decades from 1920 to 2010), the first mention of Unix in a title is July/August 1978. There may have been similar corporate technology journals at other computer companies, such as CDC, Cray, Data General, English Electric, Ferranti, Gould, Harris, NCR, Pr1me, Univac, Wang, and others, but I've so far made no attempt to track them down and add bibliographic coverage. Suggestions are welcome! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Nelson H. F. Beebe Tel: +1 801 581 5254 - - University of Utah FAX: +1 801 581 4148 - - Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB Internet e-mail: beebe at math.utah.edu - - 155 S 1400 E RM 233 beebe at acm.org beebe at computer.org - - Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From beebe at math.utah.edu Wed Oct 7 23:26:45 2015 From: beebe at math.utah.edu (Nelson H. F. Beebe) Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2015 07:26:45 -0600 Subject: [TUHS] Questions regarding early Unix contributors Message-ID: On Fri, 2 Oct 2015 12:00:08 -0600, I posted to this list a summary of the earliest mentions of Unix in several corporate technical journals. This morning, I made a similar search in the complete bibliographies of 29 journals on the history of computing, mathematics, and science listed at http://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/index.html#content As might be expected, there is little mention of Unix (or Linux) in those publications: they only ones that I found are these: +-----------------------+------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | filename | label | substr(title,1,80) | +-----------------------+------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | cryptologia.bib | Morris:1982:CFU | Cryptographic Features of the UNIX Operating System | | annhistcomput.bib | Tomayko:1989:ACI | Anecdotes: a Critical Incident; The First Port of UNIX | | annhistcomput.bib | Tomayko:1989:AWC | Anecdotes: The Windmill Computer---An Eyewitness Report of the Scheutz Differenc | | ieeeannhistcomput.bib | Toomey:2010:FEU | First Edition Unix: Its Creation and Restoration | | ieeeannhistcomput.bib | Sippl:2013:IIM | Informix: Information Management on Unix | +-----------------------+------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Nelson H. F. Beebe Tel: +1 801 581 5254 - - University of Utah FAX: +1 801 581 4148 - - Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB Internet e-mail: beebe at math.utah.edu - - 155 S 1400 E RM 233 beebe at acm.org beebe at computer.org - - Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From arnold at skeeve.com Fri Oct 9 04:39:22 2015 From: arnold at skeeve.com (Aharon Robbins) Date: Thu, 08 Oct 2015 21:39:22 +0300 Subject: [TUHS] nice interviews with Brian Kernighan Message-ID: <201510081839.t98IdMeH002814@skeeve.com> Sent to me by a friend: https://youtu.be/vT_J6xc-Az0 There's another one there about "The C Programming Language" book as well. And looks like more to come. Arnold From dave at horsfall.org Mon Oct 12 05:09:50 2015 From: dave at horsfall.org (Dave Horsfall) Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2015 06:09:50 +1100 (EST) Subject: [TUHS] RIP Dennis Ritchie Message-ID: In 2011. Enough said... -- Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer." From ron at ronnatalie.com Mon Oct 12 06:02:46 2015 From: ron at ronnatalie.com (Ron Natalie) Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2015 16:02:46 -0400 Subject: [TUHS] RIP Dennis Ritchie In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <05CF75A8-ABC2-48D5-9983-C74B8C84D2AB@ronnatalie.com> Dennis was one of the friendliest, caring guys I've had the pleasure to meet. He never let it go to his head. > On Oct 11, 2015, at 3:09 PM, Dave Horsfall wrote: > > In 2011. Enough said... > > -- > Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer." > _______________________________________________ > TUHS mailing list > TUHS at minnie.tuhs.org > https://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhs From dave at horsfall.org Wed Oct 21 15:27:26 2015 From: dave at horsfall.org (Dave Horsfall) Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2015 16:27:26 +1100 (EST) Subject: [TUHS] RIP Ken Iverson Message-ID: Loved or loathed for inventing APL, we lost him in 2004. The best thing you can say about APL (I used APL\360) is that it's, err, concise... -- Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer." From gilbertmm at sdf.org Thu Oct 22 01:41:34 2015 From: gilbertmm at sdf.org (Gilbert Morgan) Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2015 11:41:34 -0400 Subject: [TUHS] RIP Ken Iverson In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <6fa781ea64aff1e9c22ddd88754fb0c7.squirrel@wm.sdf.org> RIP. I also meant to acknowledge D. Ritchie some days back as well. > Loved or loathed for inventing APL, we lost him in 2004. The best thing > you can say about APL (I used APL\360) is that it's, err, concise... > > -- > Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will > suffer." > _______________________________________________ > TUHS mailing list > TUHS at minnie.tuhs.org > https://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhs > -- gilbertmm at sdf.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.org From doug at cs.dartmouth.edu Thu Oct 22 22:20:51 2015 From: doug at cs.dartmouth.edu (Doug McIlroy) Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2015 08:20:51 -0400 Subject: [TUHS] RIP Ken Iverson Message-ID: <201510221220.t9MCKprt026184@coolidge.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> Quiz for the occasion: which major Unix utility adopted IPL's unprecedented expression syntax? doug From crossd at gmail.com Thu Oct 22 23:32:06 2015 From: crossd at gmail.com (Dan Cross) Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2015 09:32:06 -0400 Subject: [TUHS] RIP Ken Iverson In-Reply-To: <201510221220.t9MCKprt026184@coolidge.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> References: <201510221220.t9MCKprt026184@coolidge.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> Message-ID: troff. I suppose, in a sense, that 'dc' also fits the bill but given that that is inherent in it's stack based nature, I doubt that is what you meant. On Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 8:20 AM, Doug McIlroy wrote: > > Quiz for the occasion: which major Unix utility adopted IPL's > unprecedented expression syntax? > > doug > _______________________________________________ > TUHS mailing list > TUHS at minnie.tuhs.org > https://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhs > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From crossd at gmail.com Thu Oct 22 23:34:38 2015 From: crossd at gmail.com (Dan Cross) Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2015 09:34:38 -0400 Subject: [TUHS] RIP Ken Iverson In-Reply-To: References: <201510221220.t9MCKprt026184@coolidge.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> Message-ID: (Also, the 7th edition assembler, which was [is?] implicitly a major utility, if seldom invoked by itself.) On Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 9:32 AM, Dan Cross wrote: > troff. > > I suppose, in a sense, that 'dc' also fits the bill but given that that is > inherent in it's stack based nature, I doubt that is what you meant. > > On Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 8:20 AM, Doug McIlroy > wrote: > >> >> Quiz for the occasion: which major Unix utility adopted IPL's >> unprecedented expression syntax? >> >> doug >> _______________________________________________ >> TUHS mailing list >> TUHS at minnie.tuhs.org >> https://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhs >> > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From doug at cs.dartmouth.edu Fri Oct 23 20:59:42 2015 From: doug at cs.dartmouth.edu (Doug McIlroy) Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2015 06:59:42 -0400 Subject: [TUHS] RIP Ken Iverson Message-ID: <201510231059.t9NAxg23001024@coolidge.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> Dan, I wrote: Quiz for the occasion: which major Unix utility adopted IPL's unprecedented expression syntax? You correctly responded: troff. I suppose, in a sense, that 'dc' also fits the bill but given that that is inherent in it's stack based nature, I doubt that is what you meant. The notion of precedence pertains specifically to infix notation, so postfix dc is definitely not in the running. Idle thought about my typo: Though APL is famously inscrutable, IPL (specifically IPL-V) outshined it in that department. Doug