From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.9 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, PLING_QUERY,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 8a1b7ca7 for ; Sun, 13 Oct 2019 15:33:30 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 441309BBE4; Mon, 14 Oct 2019 01:33:29 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4B0C3946B9; Mon, 14 Oct 2019 01:33:12 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id CA893946B9; Mon, 14 Oct 2019 01:33:10 +1000 (AEST) Received: from freefriends.org (freefriends.org [96.88.95.60]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 60EBC93DBB; Mon, 14 Oct 2019 01:33:10 +1000 (AEST) X-Envelope-From: arnold@skeeve.com Received: from freefriends.org (freefriends.org [96.88.95.60]) by freefriends.org (8.14.7/8.14.7) with ESMTP id x9DFX9ZH028136 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NOT); Sun, 13 Oct 2019 09:33:09 -0600 Received: (from arnold@localhost) by freefriends.org (8.14.7/8.14.7/Submit) id x9DFX9Ev028135; Sun, 13 Oct 2019 09:33:09 -0600 From: arnold@skeeve.com Message-Id: <201910131533.x9DFX9Ev028135@freefriends.org> X-Authentication-Warning: frenzy.freefriends.org: arnold set sender to arnold@skeeve.com using -f Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2019 09:33:09 -0600 To: wkt@tuhs.org, tuhs@tuhs.org References: <20191010205546.GA29154@minnie.tuhs.org> In-Reply-To: <20191010205546.GA29154@minnie.tuhs.org> User-Agent: Heirloom mailx 12.5 7/5/10 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [TUHS] What was your "Aha, Unix!" moment? X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" Warren Toomey wrote: > So I'll kick off another thread. What was your "ahah" moment when you > first saw that Unix was special, especially compared to the systems you'd > previously used? I first met Unix in the fall of 1980, after a two-year hiatus from college. Up to then, I'd only used Sperry Univac mainframes and a weird Xerox computer (only a little) and punch cards on an IBM 1130. In the interim, the college gave the undergrads access to a PDP-11/70 at the med school running IS/1 - Interactive Systems' commercial version of V6. No access for us to source code, though. :-( I/O redirection and space separated arguments were really cool, as well as pipelines. Light years ahead of anything else. More or less simultaneously, someone lent me their copies of "Software Tools" and "The C Programming Language" (which I immediately got my own copies of). Software Tools opened my eyes to the whole Unix philosophy. K&R was so dense that my head was swimming after the first read. I then read it through again, and everything pretty much clicked. I decided pretty quickly during the course of that first year with Unix that I only wanted to work with C and Unix. Both were so far ahead of everything else... Arnold