From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 78fc079f for ; Sun, 15 Sep 2019 04:16:01 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id F095E9B934; Sun, 15 Sep 2019 14:15:59 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F27A194792; Sun, 15 Sep 2019 14:15:31 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 8BB1294792; Sun, 15 Sep 2019 14:15:29 +1000 (AEST) X-Greylist: delayed 2688 seconds by postgrey-1.36 at minnie.tuhs.org; Sun, 15 Sep 2019 14:15:29 AEST Received: from knecht.neophilic.com (knecht.neophilic.com [70.36.157.234]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 133FD9478E for ; Sun, 15 Sep 2019 14:15:29 +1000 (AEST) Received: from rieux.neophilic.com (rieux.neophilic.com [10.0.2.35]) (authenticated bits=0) by knecht.neophilic.com (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTPSA id x8F3Uc5t013492 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 bits=128 verify=NO); Sat, 14 Sep 2019 20:30:39 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tuhs@eric.allman.name) To: Adam Thornton , The Eunuchs Hysterical Society References: From: Eric Allman Openpgp: preference=signencrypt Autocrypt: addr=tuhs@eric.allman.name; prefer-encrypt=mutual; keydata= mQGiBDu8yuARBADuTa8bzS4Er9urm7XPu5vtrRRJMoY2/mvuQeRHpvHF6ncUF2ZC9nAkIYb6 Upl9UOCZxG6uwxzzzSnxeHg7aAVY/TEN4FukuN1X1aGvol/V8PM1nV5vyLFk/Tf/Q/yoN/w8 tK9dp/O2EflChD/i/J9vWIppg3rVKK6FPW4CuqqaiwCg/ytVY7yJHZCCrhRioLBtKaCGUB0D /20dzSKBUdOxSvfg3NKt7gojiqulxmNbRkkjuhbKMRiQ0jjt16L9h+zlS1mXNT91/Ds08WtF 99Z3YffTflcbU9uBea6AJhzIaYVHwCJsNyP+rGE+9CM1YZpwm5k/ZBr7iOr0tkI1o39JRg75 Ih18gnPVXovH+VhsXRGtxTqn7+dmBADmmsHL8u/qbBWKIC3TYpXH8rJBIJXHwvOrI4HbEvAh xzD/Zy6yGMgiTZ8quGHzmdm1kD53s/TVcgEo/XWlgy9Cr05tU16UGEx/Q38K4IetCTGjhOvY a0+I012p5ZK1KqnIjUuCAy7VgGy75sBPKzYeUjJ1yAO7+EMXaZP6Olejn7QiRXJpYyBQLiBB bGxtYW4gPGVyaWNAU2VuZG1haWwuQ09NPohOBBARAgAOBAsDAQICGQEFAju8yuEACgkQMRmA Uc8aTSwR/gCfcq/84OdF6e6hkUQQbVFPqsxS6N0An13gLkFVkPJrMs+5PK5ogl0k7yW8uQIN BDu8yuAQCAD2Qle3CH8IF3KiutapQvMF6PlTETlPtvFuuUs4INoBp1ajFOmPQFXz0AfGy0Op lK33TGSGSfgMg71l6RfUodNQ+PVZX9x2Uk89PY3bzpnhV5JZzf24rnRPxfx2vIPFRzBhznzJ Zv8V+bv9kV7HAarTW56NoKVyOtQa8L9GAFgr5fSI/VhOSdvNILSd5JEHNmszbDgNRR0PfIiz HHxbLY7288kjwEPwpVsYjY67VYy4XTjTNP18F1dDox0YbN4zISy1Kv884bEpQBgRjXyEpwpy 1obEAxnIByl6ypUM2Zafq9AKUJsCRtMIPWakXUGfnHy9iUsiGSa6q6Jew1XpMgs7AAICB/0d vsPKvMXcKls8RHeYcleBEQEgXovGaTNo8R3ZVjPcDUKcQbfWMP8w5qJKf36hvBsjEgfVJW7r lKUtA82H66ivnAgAqWZMgfROKSHwaTFScFWLR8lG5e7sd2OZ4xqDe6+BpYlmJocR2riughz8 B7p1RhINqpfslZ0QEdB/fscntjoBvohtjG80BwB/tB6gnWHsjd9Cv6QfiNYOzAWaQo+BmcFq kmTYwrXFFNWHjOWfCUyjg2kqztl0DHjmZ7AzgHgTEnPku2TlMXwaGbHZKDOwLP/dteywinK6 SEOW2HrQBMxkMQGEZWtOH6hjszJtkqn+V4O0c92d4FjaQhvleSL7iD8DBRg7vMrgMRmAUc8a TSwRAklEAJ44uotW5aUoI1uMu94xIkLeCI6iWACg1IbChgU5suH4a+T68hfH8Jwa140= Message-ID: Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2019 20:30:38 -0700 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/60.9.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [TUHS] a book (was Re: PWB vs Unix/TS) X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" On 2019-09-14 17:58, Adam Thornton wrote: > I...have never been all that impressed with Salus's work. It's not _bad_ but it's also not terribly insightful. I think Peter's work was an amazing effort to collect and disseminate facts, and despite a few gaps (inevitable) he did a great job. But Peter's works were more collections of facts than attempts to interpret, contextualize, or otherwise put the facts into a larger narrative. Honest historians can disagree on the role of written histories. A pure "just the facts ma'am" history avoids context and interpretation but tends to be fairly dry. This was Peter's approach. But it's impossible to completely avoid bias because you have to pick and choose the facts you include. Contextualizing history inevitably leads to interpretation which leads to some amount of bias, but interesting or even gripping histories read like a novel that unfolds before you. I've believed for a long time that when the definitive history of Unix is written, Peter's books will be a major (albeit not "primary", in the technical sense) source material. I salute him for all his hard (and early) work. I hope that someone will step up to do this larger history (much of which happened after Peter's publication dates) before we all die off. And I have to say, It looks like Warner's research (with all the abundant help from this group) the last week or two is amazing. I've learned tons of stuff I didn't know, some of which didn't match my memory, e.g., about generations of *roff. As the author of the -me macro package, I'm probably one of the handful of people in the world who have ever used every feature in [nt]roff, many of which looked crazy until I needed them, when they suddenly seemed to be genius. I deeply regret that I never had an opportunity to meet Joe Ossanna. eric