[TUHS] Re: 'Huge' file support removed from PWB1

[Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com>]

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I talked with John Mashey this PM and asked him about the huge file stuff
and PWB1.

First, he did not remember that they had done that, but ...

He then emphasized that the PWB team was running the first (and for a long
time the largest) "computer center" using UNIX in the Bell System in
Piscataway - supporting over 1000 programmers as a front end to the
mainframes. His memory is that they mostly used 88 Mbyte RP04s [remember,
at the time, RK05s were only 2.5M].  Needing to support a megabyte or
larger file would have been relatively rare for them.  He also pointed out
they needed to run their system on systems as small as 48K byte 11/40s to
as large as 1M 11/70s.

As he said, his team tried to track Dennis and Ken's Research
system closely since the PWB team was not primarily in the system
development/enhancement business -* i.e.* they tied to keep what would
become PWB1 and whatever was running at Research as similar as they could
[he told some stories about running to MH to get Dennis' latest compiler
binary because the incremental development scheme dmr used would make
someone like PWB that took snapshots at different times, end up with a
compiler that could not compile itself --#1#]. But the PWB group >> was <<
interested in making the system they were running as reliable as possible
and, more importantly, being as graceful as possible when different
resources were exhausted.

He said it would have made sense for them to remove the "huge file" support
to help to defend against running out of space and the system having issues
[V6 was extremely ungrateful about that condition]. So limiting
file size became a simple quota, if you will. A runaway program was less
likely to take the system out. So the process would die because the file
got too large (or, to use the IBM shop term in those days -- ABEND).


#1# He also regaled a bit about Ken's infamous Turning Award hack and
discovering symbols in the compiler binary they could not understand ;-)

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