<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000'>Does it happen to Nicole's, or anyone else's extension or just yours?<br><br><hr id="zwchr"><b>From: </b>"Will Senn" <will.senn@gmail.com><br><b>To: </b>"TUHS" <tuhs@tuhs.org><br><b>Sent: </b>Saturday, June 1, 2024 9:59:42 PM<br><b>Subject: </b>[TUHS] Old documentation - still the best<br><br>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">A small reflection on the
marvels of ancient writing...<br>
<br>
Today, I went to the local Unix user group to see what that was
like. I was pleasantly surprised to find it quite rewarding.
Learned some new stuff... and won the door prize, a copy of a book
entitled "Introducing the UNIX System" by Henry McGilton and
Rachel Morgan. I accepted the prize, but said I'd just read it and
recycle it for some other deserving unix-phile. As it turns out,
I'm not giving it back, I'll contribute another Unix book. I
thought it was just some intro unix text and figured I might learn
a thing or two and let someone else who needs it more have it
after I read it, but it's a V7 book! I haven't seem many of those
around and so, I started digging into it and do I ever wish I'd
had it when I was first trying to figure stuff out! Great book,
never heard of it, or its authors, but hey, I've only read a few
thousand tech books.<br>
<br>
What was really fun, was where I went from there - the authors
mentioned some bit about permuted indexes and the programmer's
manual... So, I went and grabbed my copy off the shelf and lo and
behold, my copy either doesn't have a permuted index or I'm not
finding it, I was crushed. But, while I was digging around the
manual, I came across Section 9 - Quick UNIX Reference! Are you
kidding me?!! How many years has it taken me to gain what
knowledge I have? and here, in 20 pages is the most concise
reference manual I've ever seen.<br>
<br>
Just the SH, TROFF and NROFF sections are worth the effort of
digging up this 40 year old text. <br>
<br>
Anyhow, following on the heels of a recent dive into v7 and
Ritchie's setting up unix v7 documentation, I was yet again
reminded of the golden age of well written technical documents. Oh
and I guess my recent perusal of more modern "heavy weight" texts
(heavy by weight, not content, and many hundreds of pages long)
might have made me more appreciative of concision - I long for the
days of 300 page and shorter technical books :). In case you think
I overstate - just got through a pair of TCL/TK books together
clocking in at 1565 pages.<br>
<br>
Thank you Henry McGilton, Rachel Morgan, and Dennis Ritchie and
Steve Bourne and other folks of the '70s and '80s for keeping it
concise. As a late to the party unix enthusiast, I greatly value
your work and am really thankful you didn't write like they do
now...<br>
<br>
Later,<br>
<br>
Will<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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