* [TUHS] Article on the history of cat(1)
@ 2018-11-13 21:55 Warren Toomey
2018-11-13 22:44 ` Dave Horsfall
0 siblings, 1 reply; 8+ messages in thread
From: Warren Toomey @ 2018-11-13 21:55 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: tuhs
All, I just saw this link to an article on the history of cat(1):
https://twobithistory.org/2018/11/12/cat.html
Cheers, Warren
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: [TUHS] Article on the history of cat(1)
2018-11-13 21:55 [TUHS] Article on the history of cat(1) Warren Toomey
@ 2018-11-13 22:44 ` Dave Horsfall
2018-11-13 22:49 ` Warren Toomey
0 siblings, 1 reply; 8+ messages in thread
From: Dave Horsfall @ 2018-11-13 22:44 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society
On Wed, 14 Nov 2018, Warren Toomey wrote:
> All, I just saw this link to an article on the history of cat(1):
>
> https://twobithistory.org/2018/11/12/cat.html
Didn't know that cat(1) was still written in assemblee on Edition 6...
My memory must be getting hazy (but yes, I did mount a mag tape as a file
system, just to see if it would work).
-- Dave
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: [TUHS] Article on the history of cat(1)
2018-11-13 22:44 ` Dave Horsfall
@ 2018-11-13 22:49 ` Warren Toomey
2018-11-13 23:10 ` Arthur Krewat
2018-11-13 23:14 ` Dave Horsfall
0 siblings, 2 replies; 8+ messages in thread
From: Warren Toomey @ 2018-11-13 22:49 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Dave Horsfall; +Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society
On Wed, Nov 14, 2018 at 09:44:50AM +1100, Dave Horsfall wrote:
> Didn't know that cat(1) was still written in assembly on Edition 6...
https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V6/usr/source/s1/cat.s
Cheers, Warren
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: [TUHS] Article on the history of cat(1)
2018-11-13 22:49 ` Warren Toomey
@ 2018-11-13 23:10 ` Arthur Krewat
2018-11-13 23:14 ` Dave Horsfall
1 sibling, 0 replies; 8+ messages in thread
From: Arthur Krewat @ 2018-11-13 23:10 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: tuhs
On 11/13/2018 5:49 PM, Warren Toomey wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 14, 2018 at 09:44:50AM +1100, Dave Horsfall wrote:
>> Didn't know that cat(1) was still written in assembly on Edition 6...
> https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V6/usr/source/s1/cat.s
>
>
The very definition of simplicity and elegance.
I pine for those days. Or at least, what I used to do in MACRO-10 in
high school ;)
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: [TUHS] Article on the history of cat(1)
2018-11-13 22:49 ` Warren Toomey
2018-11-13 23:10 ` Arthur Krewat
@ 2018-11-13 23:14 ` Dave Horsfall
2018-11-13 23:21 ` Rob Pike
[not found] ` <20181114004018.GA23816@minnie.tuhs.org>
1 sibling, 2 replies; 8+ messages in thread
From: Dave Horsfall @ 2018-11-13 23:14 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society
On Wed, 14 Nov 2018, Warren Toomey wrote:
>> Didn't know that cat(1) was still written in assembly on Edition 6...
>
> https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V6/usr/source/s1/cat.s
Thanks; then again, I never had a reason to poke around cat(1) (but I do
remember adding a "-h" flag to pr(1) for a sub-header or something).
In fact, the only assembler stuff I remember modifying was deep in the
kernel, to take advantage of Unibus timing (on the /40 at least), where
the "obvious" code was sub-optimal; can't remember the details, but it
saved a bus cycle or two.
Hell, I wish I still had that "CSU Tape"; it was Edition 6 with as much of
Edition 7 (and AUSAM) that I could shoe-horn in, such as XON/XOFF for the
TTY driver. I was known as "Mr Unix 6-1/2" at the time...
Completely rewrote the 200-UT driver so that it actually worked (IanJ's
driver was a horrible mess) and worked around an egregious bug on the
Kronos side which they said was baked-in so deep that it couldn't be
fixed.
Rewrote the plotter driver and Versatec LV-11 driver to use the buffer
pool instead of the character queues, so they went like a bat out of hell.
Etc.
-- Dave
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: [TUHS] Article on the history of cat(1)
2018-11-13 23:14 ` Dave Horsfall
@ 2018-11-13 23:21 ` Rob Pike
[not found] ` <20181114004018.GA23816@minnie.tuhs.org>
1 sibling, 0 replies; 8+ messages in thread
From: Rob Pike @ 2018-11-13 23:21 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: dave; +Cc: tuhs
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2381 bytes --]
I was offended by the -u flag in v7 cat, which was a necessary but
unfortunate consequence of preserving the original's semantics while
converting it to use the new standard I/O library. Dennis felt it was
important as a proof of the value of stdio; to me it was an indication that
stdio couldn't do everything. I rewrote cat to use just read and write, as
nature intended. I don't recall if my version is in any of v8 v9 v10 but
it, or something very like it, is in Plan 9:
% cat cat.c
#include <u.h>
#include <libc.h>
void
cat(int f, char *s)
{
char buf[8192];
long n;
while((n=read(f, buf, (long)sizeof buf))>0)
if(write(1, buf, n)!=n)
sysfatal("write error copying %s: %r", s);
if(n < 0)
sysfatal("error reading %s: %r", s);
}
void
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int f, i;
argv0 = "cat";
if(argc == 1)
cat(0, "<stdin>");
else for(i=1; i<argc; i++){
f = open(argv[i], OREAD);
if(f < 0)
sysfatal("can't open %s: %r", argv[i]);
else{
cat(f, argv[i]);
close(f);
}
}
exits(0);
}
%
-rob
P.S. I learned today that cat.c has a spurious trailing newline.
On Wed, Nov 14, 2018 at 10:15 AM Dave Horsfall <dave@horsfall.org> wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Nov 2018, Warren Toomey wrote:
>
> >> Didn't know that cat(1) was still written in assembly on Edition 6...
> >
> > https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V6/usr/source/s1/cat.s
>
> Thanks; then again, I never had a reason to poke around cat(1) (but I do
> remember adding a "-h" flag to pr(1) for a sub-header or something).
>
> In fact, the only assembler stuff I remember modifying was deep in the
> kernel, to take advantage of Unibus timing (on the /40 at least), where
> the "obvious" code was sub-optimal; can't remember the details, but it
> saved a bus cycle or two.
>
> Hell, I wish I still had that "CSU Tape"; it was Edition 6 with as much of
> Edition 7 (and AUSAM) that I could shoe-horn in, such as XON/XOFF for the
> TTY driver. I was known as "Mr Unix 6-1/2" at the time...
>
> Completely rewrote the 200-UT driver so that it actually worked (IanJ's
> driver was a horrible mess) and worked around an egregious bug on the
> Kronos side which they said was baked-in so deep that it couldn't be
> fixed.
>
> Rewrote the plotter driver and Versatec LV-11 driver to use the buffer
> pool instead of the character queues, so they went like a bat out of hell.
>
> Etc.
>
> -- Dave
>
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^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: [TUHS] Article on the history of cat(1)
[not found] ` <20181114004018.GA23816@minnie.tuhs.org>
@ 2018-11-14 2:51 ` Dave Horsfall
0 siblings, 0 replies; 8+ messages in thread
From: Dave Horsfall @ 2018-11-14 2:51 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society
On Wed, 14 Nov 2018, Warren Toomey wrote:
>> Hell, I wish I still had that "CSU Tape"; it was Edition 6 with as much
>> of Edition 7 (and AUSAM) that I could shoe-horn in, such as XON/XOFF
>> for the TTY driver. I was known as "Mr Unix 6-1/2" at the time...
>
> Definitely look at the UNSW tapes I have:
> https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=AUSAM
> and https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/UNSW/
> in case any of these are what you are looking for.
I think I did before, but I confess I didn't spend much time on it. My
pride and joy was certainly the rewritten ei.c driver (implementing the
200-UT batch protocol), and the clever workaround to an egregious KRONOS
bug where it would get stuck in a POLL/REJECT loop (I merely sent a dummy
command viz "Q,I" -- discarding the response -- because KRONOS was
expecting a command instead of the correct REJECT being nothing to send
from the batch emulator).
At the time, Unix got blamed because the smaller non-Unix /40s (running a
standalone program) worked fine for some reason; my guess is that it
implemented the broken protocol somehow.
-- Dave
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: [TUHS] Article on the history of cat(1)
@ 2018-11-13 23:27 Norman Wilson
0 siblings, 0 replies; 8+ messages in thread
From: Norman Wilson @ 2018-11-13 23:27 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: tuhs
Rob:
I rewrote cat to use just read and write, as
nature intended. I don't recall if my version is in any of v8 v9 v10 ...
====
It is. It was /bin/cat when I arrived at Murray Hill in 1984.
I remember being delighted with the elegant way to get rid of
a flag I had never really liked either.
I never knew Dennis had dragged his heels at it. It was (to me)
so obviously the right answer that I never asked!
Norman Wilson
Toronto ON
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
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2018-11-13 21:55 [TUHS] Article on the history of cat(1) Warren Toomey
2018-11-13 22:44 ` Dave Horsfall
2018-11-13 22:49 ` Warren Toomey
2018-11-13 23:10 ` Arthur Krewat
2018-11-13 23:14 ` Dave Horsfall
2018-11-13 23:21 ` Rob Pike
[not found] ` <20181114004018.GA23816@minnie.tuhs.org>
2018-11-14 2:51 ` Dave Horsfall
2018-11-13 23:27 Norman Wilson
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