[TUHS] Lions' Commentary Revisions?

[TUHS] Lions' Commentary Revisions?

[segaloco via TUHS]

I hope everyone's having a lovely tail end of whichever season is gracing your
hemisphere.  Had some surprise snow this morning up in the NW corner of the US,
hoping it bodes well for a mild summer.

I'm curious, is anyone aware of any attempts to revise John Lions's UNIX
Commentary for versions beyond the Sixth Edition?  Having finished my
disassembly of the classic video game Dragon Quest this past year, I'm now doing
some planning for a similar work and have considered practicing the art a little
by doing some diffing of V6 and V7 and feeling out the process by putting down
some revisions, that way I've got some of the flow and kinks worked out before I
start on my own "Commentary on Dragon Quest" manuscript.  I'd hate to double up
on something someone else has already done though, so if V7 for instance has
gotten this treatment, then perhaps focusing on PWB or the CB-UNIX kernel would
minimize the potential rehashing.

Also if anyone has any thoughts, suggestions, etc. from their own experiences
working up very detailed source-level documentation of a large software product,
I'd certainly be interested, as I know this is going to turn into quite the
sprawling undertaking once I really get going, especially if I try and work in
the differences between the Japanese and U.S. releases (of which there are many.)

- Matt G.

[TUHS] Re: Lions' Commentary Revisions?

[Dan Cross]

On Mon, Mar 4, 2024 at 1:41 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
> I hope everyone's having a lovely tail end of whichever season is gracing your
> hemisphere.  Had some surprise snow this morning up in the NW corner of the US,
> hoping it bodes well for a mild summer.
>
> I'm curious, is anyone aware of any attempts to revise John Lions's UNIX
> Commentary for versions beyond the Sixth Edition?

As I understand it, this was prohibited for 7th Edition and later by
restrictions inserted into licenses for those versions. I don't know
exactly how, as I'm not a lawyer.

In terms of modern adaptations, there are commentaries for the Plan 9
(3rd Edition) source code that are similar to Lions, and the xv6
pedagogical system is accompanied by a similar commentary.

        - Dan C.

[TUHS] Re: Lions' Commentary Revisions?

[Douglas McIlroy]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1224 bytes --]

>> I'm curious, is anyone aware of any attempts to revise John Lions's UNIX
>> Commentary for versions beyond the Sixth Edition?

> As I understand it, this was prohibited for 7th Edition

It would be OK now, for the 7th edition source has been released, free of
the trade-secret constraint.

On Mon, Mar 4, 2024 at 1:46 PM Dan Cross <crossd@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 4, 2024 at 1:41 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
> > I hope everyone's having a lovely tail end of whichever season is
> gracing your
> > hemisphere.  Had some surprise snow this morning up in the NW corner of
> the US,
> > hoping it bodes well for a mild summer.
> >
> > I'm curious, is anyone aware of any attempts to revise John Lions's UNIX
> > Commentary for versions beyond the Sixth Edition?
>
> As I understand it, this was prohibited for 7th Edition and later by
> restrictions inserted into licenses for those versions. I don't know
> exactly how, as I'm not a lawyer.
>
> In terms of modern adaptations, there are commentaries for the Plan 9
> (3rd Edition) source code that are similar to Lions, and the xv6
> pedagogical system is accompanied by a similar commentary.
>
>         - Dan C.
>

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1739 bytes --]