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* [TUHS] Re: Documents for UNIX Collections
@ 2022-08-12 11:01 Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS
  2022-08-12 11:15 ` arnold
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 16+ messages in thread
From: Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS @ 2022-08-12 11:01 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: tuhs; +Cc: segaloco

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> And I've received the documents!  This is a pastebin with the rough contents of the documentation package.
> 
> https://pastebin.com/jAqqBXA4 <https://pastebin.com/jAqqBXA4>
> 
> Now for some analysis:

I’m interested in the journey of SysV IPC. So far I have established that these originated in CBUnix, with a lot of thinking on how to optimize these around the time that Unix 3.0/4.0/5.0 happened. They did not appear in Unix 3.0 / SysIII, and from the Unix 4.0 documentation I gather that it was not included there either.

This would make Unix 5.0 / SysV R1 the first release with what is now known as SysV IPC. The PDP11 version of R1 has the CBUnix version of shared memory, as the VAX version did not make sense in the limited address space of the PDP11.

From the pastebin summary, it would seem that IPC is not in this documentation either? That would be surprising, and reopens the possibility that IPC was part of Unix 4.0

Paul


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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] Re: Documents for UNIX Collections
@ 2022-08-12  1:33 segaloco via TUHS
  2022-08-12  2:06 ` G. Branden Robinson
  2022-08-12  6:41 ` arnold
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 16+ messages in thread
From: segaloco via TUHS @ 2022-08-12  1:33 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society

And I've received the documents!  This is a pastebin with the rough contents of the documentation package.

https://pastebin.com/jAqqBXA4

Now for some analysis:

The User's Manual is branded System V but also displays a Western Electric Bell logo.  I've seen Release 5.0 manuals displaying the Bell logo and System V manuals without, but never a System V with.  That implies the publication of the manual had to change a few times, one to switch from internal Release 5.0 to commercial System V and another time to remove the Bell logo due to divestiture.  I would have to wonder if similar transition can be seen with different revisions of these documents?

The Release Description manual has a list of System V relevant documents and they all appear to be accounted for here, so this should represent the wealth of documentation available to a user of System V Gold in 1983.

Most documents are traceable to documents in the Unix 4.0 collection.  I've suffixed various documents here with the coordinate to the same in the 4.0 collection.  Changes of note:

- The System V documentation includes instructions for 3B20S machines as well as the instructions for DEC equipment.  PDP-11 and VAX guidance have been combined into a single document.

- The System V documentation adds documents concerning an "Auto Call" feature.  Didn't see this anywhere in 4.0, so should be new circa System V.

- This documentation refers to the last version as System III rather than making any mention of 4.0.  Given that the specific documents mentioning this are System V-branded, and there are comparable documents that are Release 5.0 branded, this implies there may be a document floating around out there somewhere equivalent to the Release Description manual but that actually covers the transition from 4.0 to 5.0.

- The documentation package drops the updated CACM paper, likely because it's available all sorts of other places.

- The summary and documentation roadmap documents appear to have been synthesized and combined into the Release Description.

- Snyder and Mashey's shell tutorial was either dropped or combined with Bourne's shell introduction

- No evidence of an MM foldout like was distributed with 4.0 (and before, there are sources around implying these foldouts started with the PWB group, may have been printed as early as 1977)

- Either the original EQN paper is dropped or relevant bits mashed together with the user's guide

- EFL documentation seems to be dropped, or is merged into one of the other Fortran documents somewhere down in there.  The processor is still in the man pages though.

- ADB documentation seems to be dropped, likewise still in the manuals, listed as DEC only.  Since System V seems to treat DEC as PDP-11+VAX, does this imply there was a VAX ADB?  My understanding is SDB started on 32V and was *the* debugger for VAX.

- Unix Virtual Protocol papers are dropped, they were marked as 3.0 only in the 4.0 manuals anyhow, so probably not relevant.

- The Standalone I/O Library and SASH (Shell) paper is dropped

- None of the internals nor security papers seem to have made it, so no Unix Implemention, I/O Implementation, PDP and Portable C Compiler Tours, Assembler Manual, PDP-11/23 and 11/34, or Password Security papers.

These will likely be a slower burn than the 4.0 documents since I purchased them myself and am not in a hurry to get them shipped back to someone.  That said, if there's anything in the above pastebin that particularly piques any interest, I can try to move those to the top of the stack and get scans done sooner rather than later.  I'll also be doing some analysis between these and the 4.0 docs to try and better determine authorship of various documents, my hope is to have a pretty clear picture of whos work went into each manual by the time I'm done with it all.

- Matt G.

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] Re: Documents for UNIX Collections
@ 2022-08-08 23:52 segaloco via TUHS
  2022-08-09  0:37 ` Al Kossow
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 16+ messages in thread
From: segaloco via TUHS @ 2022-08-08 23:52 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society

I didn't expect to have more documents to share this soon, but I've just secured a trove of early System V/5.0 documents, as listed:

System V User's Manual
System V Administrator's Manual
System V Error Message Manual
System V Transition Aids
System V Release Description

User's Guide
Operator's Guide
Administrator's Guide
Programming Guide
Graphics Guide
Support Tools Guide
Document Processing Guide

The System V-prefixed ones are very specifically labeled System V, although I know at least of the User's and Administrator's Manuals with "Release 5.0" branding out in the wild as well.  I've got two of the User's Manuals exhibiting this difference.  I believe I've seen a scan of the Admin's Manual with 5.0 as well, but I would have to go searching for it, it's on bitsavers perhaps?  In any case, this is the documentation series for the initial releases of System V, the ones with "UNIX System" in big letters with grid patterns fading out into the background.  I don't know if the second set is considered part of the Release 5.0 or System V version of the document package, or if they made that distinction, but as of present I can positively identify the first 5 as being specifically for the System V version of this release.  What is particularly curious is there are documents displaying "System V" but with a Western Electric logo on the front.  I've seen a scan of a System V gold User's Manual with the logo removed and a disclaimer on the front page explaining that they can't use the Bell logo anymore due to the divestiture, likewise on bitsavers I'm pretty sure, so this may establish that there were at least three revisions: Release 5.0, System V pre-divestiture, and System V post-divestiture.

Now for a little plug, just because she's been so incredibly helpful, I bought these from Leslie (last name unknown) known as "oldmaddogshop" on eBay.  We got chatting for a little while and her husband was a computing professor at the University of Portland for some time as it sounds, and they're currently starting to go through the decades of literature and hardware he's picked up over the years for sale on eBay and perhaps other avenues.  She very specifically mentioned a PDP-8 that he happens to have that he's hoping they can coordinate to donate to a museum or some other way to get it into a relatively publicly accessible space rather than winding up in the closet of a private collector.  I told her I'd drop a brief mention in letting folks know about the documents in case they'd want the option of perusing some of what they're going to be offloading.  She made mention of a stack of USENIX manuals as well, I have a smattering of 4.2 and 4.3 manuals already, so someone may be lucky enough to snag those soon enough.  Up currently are an early SVID and some OSF/Motif stuff, but she said they've got plenty of boxes of books to go through.

Anywho, once I receive these documents, I plan on starting the scanning process much like with the UNIX/TS 4.0 stuff, and will be in touch with Warren concerning hosting and a release as time goes on.  One bit of input if anyone knows, does the above list represent (aside from Release 5.0 variants) the complete documentation package for System V gold?  I can't say I've come across any other titles, and most certainly haven't seen PDFs of anything that isn't included here, but I see plenty of titles I've never seen scanned.  If nothing else, I'm hoping that "Release Description" document may have a brief flyover of the published materials, akin to the list of books at the beginning of the SVR4 manuals or the documentation roadmaps of earlier UNIX/TS and PWB releases.

- Matt G.

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2022-08-13 19:52 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 16+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2022-08-12 11:01 [TUHS] Re: Documents for UNIX Collections Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS
2022-08-12 11:15 ` arnold
2022-08-12 11:41   ` Jonathan Gray
2022-08-12 16:06     ` Warner Losh
2022-08-12 16:37       ` Warner Losh
2022-08-13 19:51         ` Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2022-08-12  1:33 segaloco via TUHS
2022-08-12  2:06 ` G. Branden Robinson
2022-08-12  6:41 ` arnold
2022-08-08 23:52 segaloco via TUHS
2022-08-09  0:37 ` Al Kossow
2022-08-09  7:00   ` segaloco via TUHS
2022-08-09 12:49     ` Al Kossow
2022-08-09 15:14       ` segaloco via TUHS
2022-08-09 17:16         ` Warner Losh
2022-08-09 17:22           ` Will Senn

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