Re: [TUHS] dmr streams & networking [was: Re: If not Linux, then what?]

[Angelo Papenhoff <aap@papnet.eu>]

On 28/08/19, Paul Ruizendaal wrote:
> 
> There is some contemporary material that gives a bit of context. The quotes are a bit contradictory and perhaps reflect evolving views.
> 
> [1]
> 
> The original dmr paper (1984) on streams (http://cm.bell-labs.co/who/dmr/st.html) seems to support the no networking view, focussing on terminal handling in its discussion. Also, near the end it says: "Streams are linear connections; by themselves, they support no notion of multiplexing, fan-in or fan-out. [...] It seems likely that a general multiplexing mechanism could help in both cases, but again, I do not yet know how to design it.” This seems to exclude usage for networking, which is typically multiplexed.
> 
> [2]
> 
> However, now that the V8 sources are available it is clear that the streams mechanism was used (by dmr?) to implement TCP/IP networking. He explains how that tallies with the above quote on multiplexing in a 1985 usenet post: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topicsearchin/net.unix-wizards/subject$3Astreams/net.unix-wizards/b7W_j_0qASU
> The config files in the surviving TUHS V8 source tree actually match with the setup that dmr described in the penultimate paragraph.
> 

Something else I found interesting is in v8's blit/Road.map:

"Next, operating systems.  We run under Berkeley 4.1bsd or Dennis Ritchie's
stacked line-discipline system."

That sounds to me like an early v8. If not, what was it? I'm really
interested in the timeline here. How long was research running on a
PDP-11 and when did they move to a VAX?


aap