All, we just had about a dozen new subscribers to the TUHS list. Rather than e-mail you all individually, I thought I'd use the list itself to say "Welcome!". The TUHS list generally has a high signal/noise ratio on the history of Unix, the systems and software, and anecdotes from those who used the various flavours. Occasionally, we drift a bit off-topic and I'll gently nudge the conversation back to Unix history. The list archives are at: https://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/ and you should browse the last couple of months to get a feel for what we talk about. Cheers, Warren
On Thu, Oct 10, 2019 at 06:13:21AM +1000, Warren Toomey wrote:
> All, we just had about a dozen new subscribers to the TUHS list. Rather than
> e-mail you all individually, I thought I'd use the list itself to say
> "Welcome!".
Aloha!
SunOS/Solaris 1992-1995 (user)
AIX - a very short period inside Solaris period (user)
Linux 1994-... (finally, a small time admin)
OpenBSD ... (if I migrate there) - ...
--
Regards,
Tomasz Rola
--
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. **
** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home **
** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... **
** **
** Tomasz Rola mailto:tomasz_rola@bigfoot.com **
On Thu, 10 Oct 2019, Warren Toomey wrote:
> All, we just had about a dozen new subscribers to the TUHS list. Rather
> than e-mail you all individually, I thought I'd use the list itself to
> say "Welcome!".
May this list live forever!
-- Dave
On Thu, Oct 10, 2019 at 06:13:21AM +1000, Warren Toomey wrote:
> The TUHS list generally has a high signal/noise ratio on the history of
> Unix, the systems and software, and anecdotes from those who used the
> various flavours. Occasionally, we drift a bit off-topic and I'll gently
> nudge the conversation back to Unix history.
Heh, I just realised that I'm the UNIX of mail list administrators. I say
nothing when you do the usual things, but give you a cryptic warning when
you do something not quite right :)
Ciao, Warren
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 864 bytes --] On Thursday, 10 October 2019 at 6:13:21 +1000, Warren Toomey wrote: > All, we just had about a dozen new subscribers to the TUHS > list. Rather than e-mail you all individually, I thought I'd use the > list itself to say "Welcome!". "Welcome!". > The TUHS list generally has a high signal/noise ratio on the history of > Unix, the systems and software, and anecdotes from those who used the > various flavours. Occasionally, we drift a bit off-topic and I'll gently > nudge the conversation back to Unix history. You might like to point at the COFF list (coff@tuhs.org) for (slightly) off-topic posts. Greg -- Sent from my desktop computer. Finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key. See complete headers for address and phone numbers. This message is digitally signed. If your Microsoft mail program reports problems, please read http://lemis.com/broken-MUA [-- Attachment #2: signature.asc --] [-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 163 bytes --]
On Thu, 10 Oct 2019, Warren Toomey wrote:
> Heh, I just realised that I'm the UNIX of mail list administrators. I
> say nothing when you do the usual things, but give you a cryptic warning
> when you do something not quite right :)
Was it "ed" that only gave two error messages? Something like "tmp" for
/tmp being full, and "?" for "error - you get to figure it out"?
And there was the car (ObUS: auto) that only had a single warning light:
"The user is supposed to know what it means."
-- Dave
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 662 bytes --] On Wed, Oct 9, 2019 at 8:03 PM Dave Horsfall <dave@horsfall.org> wrote: > And there was the car (ObUS: auto) that only had a single warning light: > "The user is supposed to know what it means." > > -- Dave > "Ken Thompson has an automobile which he helped design. Unlike most automobiles, it has neither speedometer, nor gas gauge, nor any of the other numerous idiot lights which plague the modern driver. Rather, if the driver makes a mistake, a giant “?” lights up in the center of the dashboard. “The experienced driver,” says Thompson, “will usually know what’s wrong.”" (https://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/new90/366.html) [-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1069 bytes --]
On 09/10/2019 21:13, Warren Toomey wrote: > All, we just had about a dozen new subscribers to the TUHS list. Rather than > e-mail you all individually, I thought I'd use the list itself to say > "Welcome!". > [...] Hi, Warren. I'm one of your recent TUHS list subscribers - I first encountered AT&T Version 7 Unix on a PDP11/34 and I've used all sorts of *nix since then. One thing I noticed on this list is people's interest in the use of UPPER/lower case in Unix. It's always puzzled me when everyone talks about [the] PDP11 when, in fact, is says "pdp11" on the system itself: > https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/Pdp-11-40.jpg/250px-Pdp-11-40.jpg DEC seemed to have a schizophrenic attitude to this in their documentation, sometimes using "PDP11" and sometimes "pdp11". Not sure if anyone else had a similar experience to me when visiting the "Computer History Museum" in Palo Alto and being totally shocked to see machines I used 'quite recently' there as museum exhibits! I also made a complaint to the Museum, because the original Donald Becker Beowulf was hidden away in a corner behind a Cray machine :-( Nevertheless, a fantastic museum and I highly recommend a visit! Bye, Tony. -- Minke Informatics Limited, Registered in Scotland - Company No. SC419028 Registered Office: 3 Donview, Bridge of Alford, AB33 8QJ, Scotland (UK) tel. +44(0)19755 63548 http://minke-informatics.co.uk mob. +44(0)7985 078324 mailto:tony.travis@minke-informatics.co.uk
> From: Tony Travis > It's always puzzled me when everyone talks about [the] PDP11 when, in > fact, is says "pdp11" on the system itself: DEC documentation mostly used uppercase in the text; e.g. the "pdp11 peripherals handbook" (to transcribe the cover exactly) uses "PDP-11" several times on pg 1-1. Noel
On 10/9/19, 4:13 PM, "TUHS on behalf of Warren Toomey" <tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org on behalf of wkt@tuhs.org> wrote: > All, we just had about a dozen new subscribers to the TUHS list. Rather than >e-mail you all individually, I thought I'd use the list itself to say >"Welcome!". Hello, Everyone! My first interaction with a UNIX system was with a Dec Alpha in my C programming class ~ 1993. In 1994 I installed Slackware on my 486. I've worked with HP-UX, SCO, BSD, *inux*, Solaris, IRIX, AIX since then. I have a Sun Ultra 1500, Sun Ultra 5 and an SGI Indy R5000 all running at home In my office. Thank you!, Larry Cashdollar. Yes, that's my real name. __
On Thu, 10 Oct 2019, Noel Chiappa wrote:
> DEC documentation mostly used uppercase in the text; e.g. the "pdp11
> peripherals handbook" (to transcribe the cover exactly) uses "PDP-11"
> several times on pg 1-1.
And being an acronym it is of course upper-case...
-- Dave
On 11/10/2019 03:46, Dave Horsfall wrote: > On Thu, 10 Oct 2019, Noel Chiappa wrote: > >> DEC documentation mostly used uppercase in the text; e.g. the "pdp11 >> peripherals handbook" (to transcribe the cover exactly) uses "PDP-11" >> several times on pg 1-1. > > And being an acronym it is of course upper-case... Hi, Dave. On the _machine_ itself, DEC wrote "pdp11"... An acronym doesn't have to be upper-case! Many Unix commands are lower case acronyms: cd = (c)ange (d)irectory pwd (p)rint (w)orking (directory) ls = (l)ist file(s) I guess that my introduction to Seventh Edition Unix running on a "pdp11/34" made me think it was obviously designed to run Unix ;-) Bye, Tony. -- Minke Informatics Limited, Registered in Scotland - Company No. SC419028 Registered Office: 3 Donview, Bridge of Alford, AB33 8QJ, Scotland (UK) tel. +44(0)19755 63548 http://minke-informatics.co.uk mob. +44(0)7985 078324 mailto:tony.travis@minke-informatics.co.uk
On 2019-10-11 07:55, Tony Travis wrote: > On 11/10/2019 03:46, Dave Horsfall wrote: >> On Thu, 10 Oct 2019, Noel Chiappa wrote: >> >>> DEC documentation mostly used uppercase in the text; e.g. the "pdp11 >>> peripherals handbook" (to transcribe the cover exactly) uses "PDP-11" >>> several times on pg 1-1. >> >> And being an acronym it is of course upper-case... > > Hi, Dave. > > On the _machine_ itself, DEC wrote "pdp11"... Well, that's also in-line with their using all lower-case on their logo. > An acronym doesn't have to be upper-case! > > Many Unix commands are lower case acronyms: > > cd = (c)ange (d)irectory > pwd (p)rint (w)orking (directory) > ls = (l)ist file(s) I always thought of it as (l)i(s)t files. > I guess that my introduction to Seventh Edition Unix running on a > "pdp11/34" made me think it was obviously designed to run Unix ;-) > > Bye, > > Tony. -- Michael Parson Pflugerville, TX KF5LGQ
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 413 bytes --] A bit of fun. In appeareance, 39 years later, Ken Thompson's password on BSD Unix has been cracked... Congratulations for the password, by the way. https://thehackernews.com/2019/10/unix-bsd-password-cracked.html Cordiales saludos / Kind Regards. Gracias | Regards - Saludos | Greetings | Freundliche Grüße | Salutations -- *Sergio Pedraja* -- http://www.linkedin.com/in/sergiopedraja ----- [-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 4251 bytes --]
On 10/10/19 22:46, Dave Horsfall wrote: > On Thu, 10 Oct 2019, Noel Chiappa wrote: > >> DEC documentation mostly used uppercase in the text; e.g. the "pdp11 >> peripherals handbook" (to transcribe the cover exactly) uses "PDP-11" >> several times on pg 1-1. > > And being an acronym it is of course upper-case... At the risk of being labelled a pedant. from the OED: acronym orig. U.S. (ˈækrənɪm) [f. acr(o- + -onym after homonym.] A word formed from the initial letters of other words. Hence as v. trans., to convert into an acronym (chiefly pass. and as pa. pple.). Also acroˈnymic a.; acroˈnymically adv.; ˈacronyming vbl. n.; ˈacronymize v. trans. vs. initialism (ɪnˈɪʃəlɪzm) [f. initial n. + -ism.] The use of initials; a significative group of initial letters. Now spec. a group of initial letters used as an abbreviation for a name or expression, each letter or part being pronounced separately (contrasted with acronym). N. > -- Dave
On 12/10/2019 20:39, Nemo Nusquam wrote: > On 10/10/19 22:46, Dave Horsfall wrote: >> On Thu, 10 Oct 2019, Noel Chiappa wrote: >> >>> DEC documentation mostly used uppercase in the text; e.g. the "pdp11 >>> peripherals handbook" (to transcribe the cover exactly) uses "PDP-11" >>> several times on pg 1-1. >> >> And being an acronym it is of course upper-case... > > At the risk of being labelled a pedant. from the OED: Hi, Nemo. It takes one to know one! > https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/acronym What is interesting about this definition is that an 'acronym' is pronounced as a word (i.e. not spelled out as letters). So, from that point of view PDP-11 is an 'initialism' and not an acronym :-) > https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/initialism Which opens up a whole area of controversy about how to pronounce: vi In my experience, research users and hackers spell it out as "vee eye" as originally described by Bill Joy, but business/enterprise users tend to pronounce it as "vye" instead. Well, I'm a research *nix user so I spell "vi" out, but my dark secret is that I do pronounce "vim" as a full word and don't spell it out... I suppose this is just about recognition of a suitable peer group that agree, but it really sets my teeth on edge when people pronounce "vi"! Anyone else got pet hates about how people pronounce *nix commands? There are many pointless discussions about this already on the Internet, so please only post comments here of historical interest like mine :-) Bye, Tony. -- Minke Informatics Limited, Registered in Scotland - Company No. SC419028 Registered Office: 3 Donview, Bridge of Alford, AB33 8QJ, Scotland (UK) tel. +44(0)19755 63548 http://minke-informatics.co.uk mob. +44(0)7985 078324 mailto:tony.travis@minke-informatics.co.uk