From: Douglas McIlroy <douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu>
To: TUHS main list <tuhs@tuhs.org>
Subject: [TUHS] Re: Honor declined
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2024 14:53:50 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAKH6PiW_sakBxgwP2kHRDBQMucapp59v9szVn+8U+B-4cZUQ3Q@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <5C658CA4-7949-4A6F-9FFC-335E207BBB27@coraid.com>
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Very kind words from Brantley and Clem. It's an interesting notion to
regard Unix as gestational until it came out in public talks (1973) and was
exported to universities.
Maybe I could claim to have laid the groundwork for Unix by causing Multics
to be written in PL/I, a language big and sprawling, like the project
itself. That unintentionally provided plenty of stimulus for thinking
small. Ken was absolutely on his own when he began to fiddle with building
a tiny operating system on the GE 645. I heard about it only after the
fact.
After Multics, I ran interference to keep our once-burned higher management
from frowning too much on further operating-system research. I was aware
that Ken, Dennis and Rudd were discussing the subject down the hall from my
office, but I did not participate in the discussions. At the same time, I
was noodling over what would later be called shell pipelines; but I did not
come up with the vivid term "pipe" or a halfway workable syntax for
another three years. While these actions may have contributed to a
welcoming environment for Unix, they in no way "started" it.
Doug
On Wed, Mar 6, 2024 at 10:03 AM Brantley Coile <brantley@coraid.com> wrote:
> It all depends on how you define "started."
>
> Your contributions to it was done while it was still in the maternity ward
> of the hospital in which it was birthed. I would argue, at length if need
> be, but I suspect it's not needed, that you indeed "started to develop it."
> Did only Ken started it. Who was in the room when Ken outlined the file
> system? You're finger prints are all over everything from very, very early.
>
> From a quarter the way into the 21st century, you certainly appear to have
> started to develop it.
>
> Just my humble opinion. my disclaimer is that I've always held your
> contributions in very high regard.
>
> Brantley
>
> > On Mar 6, 2024, at 9:55 AM, Douglas McIlroy <
> douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > When Rudd, Doug, Ken, Dennis, et al start to develop UNIX
> >
> > Although I jumped into Unix as soon as it was born, I was not one of
> those who "start[ed] to develop it".
> >
> > Doug
>
>
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~2024-03-06 19:54 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 8+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2024-03-06 14:55 [TUHS] " Douglas McIlroy
2024-03-06 15:03 ` [TUHS] " Brantley Coile
2024-03-06 19:53 ` Douglas McIlroy [this message]
2024-03-06 20:06 ` Will Senn
2024-03-06 21:45 ` segaloco via TUHS
[not found] ` <CAMP=X_mSvku8KCweaeeDQMNR0hXaegdjt_gH1Cu6GfRNStfz2Q@mail.gmail.com>
2024-03-07 1:33 ` segaloco via TUHS
2024-03-06 16:53 Noel Chiappa
2024-03-06 18:33 ` Brantley Coile
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