From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 22547 invoked from network); 18 Nov 2021 19:06:52 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 18 Nov 2021 19:06:52 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 97BB19CA66; Fri, 19 Nov 2021 05:06:49 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B42309CA36; Fri, 19 Nov 2021 05:04:09 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 81CDA9CA36; Fri, 19 Nov 2021 05:04:05 +1000 (AEST) Received: from freefriends.org (freefriends.org [96.88.95.60]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 055939C2A1 for ; Fri, 19 Nov 2021 05:04:03 +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 1AIJ3xUK032413 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NOT); Thu, 18 Nov 2021 12:04:00 -0700 Received: (from arnold@localhost) by freefriends.org (8.14.7/8.14.7/Submit) id 1AIJ3xqk032412; Thu, 18 Nov 2021 12:03:59 -0700 From: arnold@skeeve.com Message-Id: <202111181903.1AIJ3xqk032412@freefriends.org> X-Authentication-Warning: frenzy.freefriends.org: arnold set sender to arnold@skeeve.com using -f Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 12:03:59 -0700 To: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org, pnr@planet.nl References: In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Heirloom mailx 12.5 7/5/10 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Subject: Re: [TUHS] Book Recommendation [ reallly inscrutable languages ] 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" Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS wrote: > Here’s another angle on Perl, perhaps more on topic for TUHS. Let’s > accept for a minute that Perl filled the void between C and shell scripts, > and that there was a latent need for a scripting language like this > on Unix. > > The shell, awk, sed, etc. had arrived at more or less fully formed > versions by 1980. Perl (and TCL) did not appear until the very end of > the 1980’s. What filled the gap in that decade, if anything? Nothing. It was the need for filling the gap that engendered Perl. Remember that Perl 1 through Perl 3 were around durinig the 80s; Perl 4 sort of settled in for a longer time. "New" awk didn't get out of the labs until 1987/1988, and that was only via SVR3.2 and/or the AT&T Toolchest; it wasn't open source, nor did it provide access to many of the needed system calls in the way that Perl did. Also remember that there were plenty of people who were happy working with the shell and the Unix toolkit as-is. Arnold