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From: Mary Ann Horton <mah@mhorton.net>
To: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org
Subject: Re: [TUHS] screen editors / machine load
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2020 07:00:08 -0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <81cf0f73-2141-10c9-7352-51c0aac76959@mhorton.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CANq1pfn5ENTZVvZfH5F=6TOWc82txnTP9oZ5kwk6JGUjq8J-ew@mail.gmail.com>

Yes, it was a real concern. Physical memory on the shared PDP-11 was 
limited, and if everyone had a separate copy of vi running the machine 
would swap itself silly.

This only mattered if everyone had their own separate copy of vi 
installed. The fix was to put vi in a single system directory, such as 
/usr/ucb or /exptools. The instruction part of its memory would be 
shared among all the users, resulting in much less swapping.

In the early days, people tended to have their own personal copy because 
the Berkeley tools did not come standard with UNIX, especially at Bell 
Labs. That was one of the main motivations for Exptools (the 
"experimental tools"), which were basically 2BSD's applications and some 
other tools like Warren Montgomery's emacs. Disk space and people's time 
spend installing were also good reasons.

     Mary Ann

On 1/10/20 5:41 AM, Mike Markowski wrote:
> seeing him fire up vi was practically sci-fi to me.  He showed me a 
> few commands and vowed me to secrecy for fear if all students started 
> using it, it would bring the 11/70 to its knees.  Were multiple vi 
> sessions really such a potential burden to the machine?  I wouldn't 
> think so with the slow nature of human i/o, yet there certainly were 
> times when the pdp-11/70 crashed as project due dates loomed closer 
> and closer!

  parent reply	other threads:[~2020-01-10 15:00 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 84+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2020-01-08  7:39 [TUHS] screen editors Thomas Paulsen
2020-01-08 15:58 ` Steve Nickolas
2020-01-08 23:41   ` Dave Horsfall
2020-01-09  1:43     ` Nemo Nusquam
2020-01-08 21:49 ` Dave Horsfall
2020-01-08 22:01   ` Clem Cole
2020-01-17 23:38     ` Dave Horsfall
2020-01-18  0:07       ` Ryan Casalino
2020-01-18 23:02       ` greg travis
2020-01-10  8:13   ` markus schnalke
2020-01-10  8:17     ` U'll Be King of the Stars
2020-01-11 19:58       ` markus schnalke
2020-01-11 20:54         ` Derek Fawcus
2020-01-11 21:27         ` Henry Bent
2020-02-04  8:40         ` Sijmen J. Mulder
2020-02-04 20:14           ` [TUHS] pronouncing *nix formulas (was: screen editors) G. Branden Robinson
2020-02-04 21:05             ` Dave Horsfall
2020-02-04 21:52               ` Derek Fawcus
2020-02-04 23:27                 ` Rob Pike
2020-02-05  3:34                   ` Warner Losh
2020-02-05  9:49                   ` Angelo Papenhoff
2020-02-05 11:40                     ` Rob Pike
2020-02-05 11:43                       ` Brantley Coile
2020-02-05 10:58                   ` Ralph Corderoy
2020-02-05 11:45                     ` Rob Pike
2020-02-05  8:45             ` arnold
2020-02-05 13:35               ` Clem cole
2020-02-05 16:11                 ` [TUHS] pronouncing *nix formulas Arthur Krewat
2020-02-05 16:16                   ` Clem Cole
2020-02-05 17:05                     ` Jon Steinhart
2020-02-05 17:09                       ` Clem Cole
2020-02-08  3:31                         ` Ronald Natalie
2020-02-08  4:19                           ` Rob Pike
2020-02-11  1:16                             ` George Michaelson
2020-02-11  6:38                               ` Rob Pike
2020-02-05 20:26                       ` David Arnold
2020-02-05 19:37                 ` [TUHS] pronouncing *nix formulas (was: screen editors) Dave Horsfall
2020-02-05 19:57                   ` Clem Cole
2020-02-05 20:50                 ` Rob Pike
2020-02-05 21:43                   ` Clem Cole
2020-02-05 21:59                   ` Steve Nickolas
2020-02-05 22:22                   ` Ed Carp
2020-02-06  2:43                     ` Dan Cross
2020-02-06  3:00                       ` Larry McVoy
2020-02-06  5:20                         ` Vincenzo Nicosia
2020-02-06 14:54                           ` Richard Salz
2020-02-06 15:10                             ` [TUHS] pronouncing *nix formulas Lars Brinkhoff
2020-02-06 20:14                               ` Dave Horsfall
2020-02-06 20:20                                 ` Warner Losh
2020-02-06 19:55                       ` [TUHS] pronouncing *nix formulas (was: screen editors) Dave Horsfall
2020-02-06 21:48                         ` Michael Parson
2020-02-06 23:56                           ` Michael Parson
2020-02-06 22:17                         ` Clem Cole
2020-02-07  0:21                         ` [TUHS] finger usage (was: pronouncing *nix formulas (was: screen editors)) Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2020-02-07  0:27                           ` Steve Nickolas
2020-02-07  0:54                             ` [TUHS] finger usage (was: pronouncing *nix formulas Arthur Krewat
2020-02-07  1:00                               ` Richard Salz
2020-02-07  5:26                               ` Peter Jeremy
2020-02-07  4:31                             ` [TUHS] finger usage (was: pronouncing *nix formulas (was: screen editors)) Dave Horsfall
2020-02-07  5:07                               ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2020-02-07  5:39                                 ` Steve Nickolas
2020-02-07 21:39                                   ` Dave Horsfall
2020-02-07 16:14                                 ` Arthur Krewat
2020-02-07 22:37                                 ` Dave Horsfall
2020-02-07  4:23                           ` Dave Horsfall
2020-02-06  2:23                   ` [TUHS] pronouncing *nix formulas (was: screen editors) Dan Cross
2020-02-06  2:31                     ` Dave Horsfall
2020-02-05 19:08               ` Dave Horsfall
2020-02-05 21:01                 ` Nemo
2020-02-05 22:06                   ` Dave Horsfall
2020-01-10 13:41     ` [TUHS] screen editors / machine load Mike Markowski
2020-01-10 13:56       ` Otto Moerbeek
2020-01-10 15:00       ` Mary Ann Horton [this message]
2020-01-10 15:48         ` Clem Cole
2020-01-10 22:18           ` Adam Thornton
2020-01-11  0:30             ` Christopher Browne
2020-01-10 15:31     ` [TUHS] screen editors Nemo Nusquam
2020-01-10 16:04       ` Clem Cole
2020-01-10 17:10       ` Dan Cross
2020-01-10 17:18         ` Steve Nickolas
2020-01-18  1:55           ` Michael Parson
2020-01-10 15:58     ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2020-01-10 14:35 [TUHS] screen editors / machine load Noel Chiappa
2020-01-10 15:35 Noel Chiappa

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