TUHS

tuhs@tuhs.org

29 participants
6557 discussions

by Warren Toomey

All, I've made a few DKIM config changes on COFF and TUHS, just testing that the mailman3 system still works. Please ignore! Thanks, Warren

2 days, 13 hours

pseudo tty history

by ron minnich

so the question of pseudo tty came up today. My memory is that it started with TOPS-10, though I doubt I know enough. Vague memory says there was a PTY: device. Further, I believe pty came in from UCB ca 1977 or so? I'm wondering if people who were Present at the Creation can fill in the gaps. Thanks

6 days, 9 hours

C history question: why is signed integer overflow UB?

by Dan Cross

[Note: A few folks Cc'ed directly] This is not exactly a Unix history question, but given the close relationship between C's development and that of Unix, perhaps it is both topical and someone may chime in with a definitive answer. Starting with the 1990 ANSI/ISO C standard, and continuing on to the present day, C has specified that signed integer overflow is "undefined behavior"; unsigned integer arithmetic is defined to be modular, and unsigned integer operations thus cannot meaningfully overflow, since they're always taken mod 2^b, where b is the number of bits in the datum (assuming unsigned int or larger, since type promotion of smaller things gets weird). But why is signed overflow UB? My belief has always been that signed integer overflow across various machines has non-deterministic behavior, in part because some machines would trap on overflow (e.g., Unisys 1100 series mainframes) while others used non-2's-complement representations for signed integers (again, the Unisys 1100 series, which used 1's complement), and so the results could not be precisely defined: even if it did not trap, overflowing a 1's complement machine yielded a different _value_ than on 2's complement. And around the time of initial standardization, targeting those machines was still an important use case. So while 2's complement with silent wrap-around was common, it could not be assumed, and once machines that generated traps on overflow were brought into the mix, it was safer to simply declare behavior on overflow undefined. But is that actually the case? Thanks in advance. - Dan C.

1 week

NFS 40th anniversary event

by Tom Lyon

Part of https://www.msstconference.org/ Love it or hate it, should be something for everyone

1 week, 3 days

RFS

by Steve Simon

my memory is the major differences between the research RFS and USG’s RFS was the support of ioctls (as mentioned) and, Research RFS supported exporting file trees with an abstract name rather than the path on the source machine - a small but very useful change. research RFS could (i feel) be seen as the direct ancestor of plan9’s 9p protocol. -Steve

1 week, 3 days

EUUG Spring 1990 Proceedings?

by Tom Lyon

Anyone holding onto this? Online anywhere? Can I borrow it for scanning? Thx.

1 week, 4 days

CSIRO Unix

by Jonathan Gray

CSIRO is an Australian government research agency with a long history. Siromath, a commercial spinoff, had a binary redistribution license for Unix. The Siromath Unix was called SIRONIX. The Australian Unison computer was sold with SIRONIX. Siromath was also going to provide a version of Unix for the DCR/CSIRONET workstation. At some point they switched to a port of System V/68 from Neology/Softway. Does anyone know why? Or if the CSIRONET workstation got beyond the prototype stage? Did it get cancelled when CSIRONET was privatised? For more background notes see https://github.com/jonathangray/csiro-unix

2 weeks, 3 days

curator of 2.11BSD patches?

by John Bruner

Who is the curator of the 2.11BSD patches? I have a couple of candidate fixes for a future patch. Thanks. --John

3 weeks, 2 days

Teletypes used for early Unix

by Thalia Archibald

Hello all, What teleprinter models were used at Bell Labs, particularly by the Unix groups? Judging by troff escape sequences, it expected a Teletype Model 37, and early all-caps support implies Model 33 usage. But I don’t have a sense of what users and the core developers used. I am working on building a Teletype Model 37 ASR emulator for my PiDP-11 with the goal of replicating the early Unix experience as accurately as possible without physical hardware. As I get deeper into research, I’ve learned of a variety of configuration options beyond what the operator could configure with buttons, e.g., sub-models which come with different components, optional components which can be installed later, and features that can be configured by a craftsman. Here are some examples: - Two-color was optional - The shift-out character set was configurable - An ASR could come without a tape reader/puncher - Half-line forward and reverse was optional - Character sizes varied, e.g., 72 chars per line at 10 chars per inch, adjustable up to 80 per line; or 86 per line at 12 per inch - The paper could be roll paper (friction feed)or flat-folded, form-feed paper with marginal perforations (sprocket feed) - Paper sizes varied, e.g., 3 to 8-1/2 wide or, for sprocket feed, up to 11 inches long and 9-1/2 wide - Some printed control characters; most didn’t - Holding a key could be configured to repeat the character - They could operate half-duplex (transmitted data is copied by the sender) or full-duplex (only received data is copied) - They could receive and transmit at various speeds That’s a lot of options and it’s not exhaustive. The Model 37 product catalog[0] has tables of many configurations and their catalog numbers. Is there a list of the teleprinters purchased by Bell Labs? With that, I could possibly narrow it down like how Warner Losh identified the PDP-7 model used for Unix V0. Thanks! Thalia Archibald [0]: https://ia800702.us.archive.org/32/items/TNM_Model_37_terminal_product_cata… [1]: https://bsdimp.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-pdp-7-where-unix-began.html

3 weeks, 3 days

off topic: StarTech.com parallel port printer server to give away

by arnold＠skeeve.com

Hi All. Cleaning up the basement, I found a parallel port printer ethernet server. It lets you put a parallel port printer onto your local network. It speaks the BSD lpr protocol. I used to use it on an HP LaserJet 6 printer. If anyone wants it for an old printer you might have laying around, please let me know, *privately*. It's yours for the cost of postage from Israel. Note, I no longer remember how I got it working with Linux, but I did... This was a llllooonnnngggg time agao. :-) Thanks, Arnold

3 weeks, 4 days

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