Howdy all, just passing along this auction I spotted on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/256216372208
This is a subset of papers from the Documents for UNIX 4.0 set compiled as a handy volume (and likely a forerunner to the packaged volumes released with System V.) Missing is the Typing Documents with MM pamphlet which is listed in the TOC of these issues. I've already got one of these or I'd scoop it up myself. Enjoy!
- Matt G.
P.S. I have seen this and its companion document (Programming Starter Package) with the AT&T deathstar in the upper right rather than Bell Labs and the Bell logo. What I don't know is if it's an exact repackaging just with a change in logo or if those versions have revisions to any of the papers. Most notably as far as version association, the Programming Starter Package includes the Documentation Roadmap, which in my Bell Labs-branded copy, indicates it is for use with UNIX 4.0. I'd be curious if the AT&T variant retains the UNIX 4.0 reference. I'll continue to keep my eye out for an AT&T-branded set, it might reveal some differences.
>> Any suggestions as to why the on-the-fly algorithm did not catch on more in the 1980’s? Maybe it was simply less well known than I think?
>
> Could it have been the per-cpu-second billing that was (fairly?) common at the time. I was only getting in to Unix in the early 90s but saw the tail end of that.
Good point, but wasn’t per-cpu-second billing mostly used for big iron? For machines without memory constraint the table method makes the most sense, also if billing was not a factor.
>> Any suggestions as to why the on-the-fly algorithm did not catch on more in the 1980’s? Maybe it was simply less well known than I think?
>
> The CRC algorithm I'm familiar with shows up in Dragon Quest for the Famicom in 1986[1], written in 6502 assembly. Admittedly though I only recognized it due to the EOR with 0x1021 on lines 318-323. That I then only know from a quick and dirty CRC I threw in an XMODEM-CRC client [2] I did to accommodate for a bug in the JH7100 RISC-V board's recovery ROM implementation. Not sure if this is along the lines of the approach you're talking about ...
>
> [1] - https://gitlab.com/segaloco/dq1disasm/-/blob/master/src/chr3/start_pw.s
> [2] - https://gitlab.com/segaloco/riscv-bits/-/blob/master/util/sxj.c
Both of these are what I call the bit-wise method: a loop iterating over bytes, with an inner loop iterating over bits. An example of the table method is here:
https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/blob/master/lib/crc16-ccitt.c
and an example of the on-the-fly method is here:
https://github.com/tio/tio/blob/master/src/xymodem.c#L44-L54
Note how the latter also only has one loop iterating over the bytes, but effectively calculates the table entry ‘on the fly’ for each byte. That is only a handful of instructions more than doing the table lookup. Maybe it is a “stuck in the middle” solution that was quickly forgotten.
Last december Matt brought up xmodem and recently I needed it for an almost identical use case. Studied it a bit and in the context of Unix, it is an interesting piece of software history.
Although xmodem originated on CP/M in 1977, it seems to have arrived on Unix soon thereafter. The first Unix implementation seems to have gone by the name of “rbsb” and must have originated when V7 was prevalent: it uses alarm() to simulate non-blocking I/O. Over the course of the 80’s ymodem and zmodem were added and the package became lrzsz; the source continued to have a very V7-ish feel to it at least to the early 90’s. In the mid-90’s it was converted to ansi-C and had some other modernization, but it looks like it would still have run on SysIII (apart from the ansi).The last update to the upstream source package appears to be from 1998, i.e. 25 years ago.
It is still packaged today for FreeBSD and major Linux distros. On Unix it must be one the oldest code bases still in regular use, with the 1980 source still recognizable in its current incarnation. Any other contenders come to mind?
I had always associated x/y/zmodem with CP/M and MSDOS, not so much with Unix. Last December Clem already pointed out that it was popular for file exchange in the Unix scene as well, along with several other similar tools. Also, the ymodem approach to file metadata is very unix oriented, suggesting it originated on Unix or at least that Unix users were an important user demographic. Yet, I could find little trace of x/y/zmodem in the TUHS Unix Tree. The search tool finds it in 2.11BSD, in Minix 1.5 and 2.0 and in V10. Kermit is in those as well, and in 4.3BSD and 4.4BSD on top.
Maybe these programs were commonly pulled from a bulletin board and hence not on distribution media. Not sure how that would be bootstrapped, although the 2.11BSD files for x/y/zmodem include “minirb.c”, a 175 line implementation to receive files using the ymodem protocol. It is possible that this was transferred as plain text as a first step, or even retyped.
Any recollections?
Joe Ossanna worked diligently to see that WECo's ASCII teletype really
would come to market and would meet the needs of Unix. He famously
estimated that Bell Labs alone was a sizable market: 777 machines. He
also leaned on WECo to make the return key issue a single newline. And
he specified what non-ascii characters would fill out the 128
positions on the Bell Labs type boxes. This requires encoding 7-bit
ASCII in 8 bits. I don't know whether WECo had been planning to do so
anyway.
Doug
Good morning folks, something I've been pondering on this morning is the potential close connection between UNIX development and Teletype interfacing designs as the 70s and 80s marched on. Seeing as Teletype was a part of the Bell System (albeit a little less obviously in marketing than it's kin), was there any sort of official rapport between folks working on UNIX and those designing subsequent Teletypes, Dataspeed terminals, etc?
For instance, would there have been any influence an up-and-coming Teletype design would've had on developments in the UNIX tty drivers, or would particulars of UNIX tty drivers "rub off" on specifics of terminals being developed? Or were those units so distant from one another that there would've been little cross-talk between teams? Granted, an argument could be made for specifically avoiding any significant knowledge of internals, that way UNIX tty driver folks don't potentially paint into a Teletype corner and vice versa. Still, with the tightly integrated nature of Bell System R&D, manufacturing, supply, etc. it would be very "Bell System" for there to be some sort of interplay between Teletype and UNIX.
Anyone got the scoop on whether Teletype hardware enjoyed a special place in UNIX tty-interfacing considerations or vice versa, or if they were just two relatively insular developments from one another in the same general field from the same big umbrella organization?
- Matt G.
All,
My apologies to you for sending a note to the entire list that was meant
to be sent only to Warren. I definitely had not intended to send it to
the entire list (reply list... ugh.). If I were to get a mulligan, I
would make it clear that I do not take issue with anyone's signature,
including Mary Ann's. Signatures, in my view, are a matter of free
speech. I would simply state my preference that we keep the discussion
to a more technical level and consider moving cultural topics to another
list altogether.
Thanks,
Will
Hello All.
For whoever's interested, the csv code has been merged into the master
branch of the Git repo. Have fun!
Arnold
> From: arnold at skeeve.com (arnold at skeeve.com)
> Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2023 13:41:34 -0600
> Subject: [TUHS] The AWK Programming Language, 2nd Ed.: What's new?
>
> Hi.
>
> markus schnalke <meillo at marmaro.de> wrote:
>
> > Hoi,
> >
> > I just discovered that one of my favorite computer books about my
> > best liked programming language (besides C) releases in a second
> > edition. Does anyone know what the differences of 1st and 2nd
> > edition are?
> >
> > As the original book is almost perfect, the only rework and
> > extension direction I can think of is towards different
> > implementations like gawk, mawk, portability and such things.
> >
> > Does anyone know more about it? Maybe some inside information? ;-)
> >
> > meillo
>
> Inside information? As it happens, yes, I do have some. :-)
> (I was a reviewer.)
>
> [In the below, "awk" means Brian Kernighan's awk.]
>
> In the 36 (!) years since the first edition was published, awk
> has undergone, shall we say, a large number of small changes. These
> are listed in the FIXES file currently in the master branch of
> https://github.com/onetrueawk/awk.
>
> In addition, Brian Kernighan decided to add support for UTF-8 input,
> which is what awk now expects, and support for CSV input files when
> invoked with the --csv option. Furthermore, there is a new \u escape
> sequence which must be followed by 1-8 hexadecimal digits for specifying
> Unicode code points.
>
> The book itself has been carefully revised. The large second chapter
> which was a reference to the full language was moved to an appendix.
> Many of the example programs from the first edition were retained
> and updated, but there is also quite of lot of pleasing new material.
>
> There is mention of, and occasional comparison with, gawk, mawk and
> Ben Hoyt's GoAwk, but by and large the focus is on the authors' version.
>
> The new code is currently in the "csv" branch of the above Github
> repo. The maintainer is in the process of tidying up the repo (dealing
> with issues and pull requests) and will merge the csv branch into
> master sometime in the very near future.
>
> I'm told that the printed books with get to the publisher's warehouse
> towards the end of September. The book is available now on O'Reilly's
> Safari learning site (safari.oreilly.com) for anyone who has a
> subscription.
>
> Matching code (--csv and \u) are in gawk's master branch now. I will
> make a release this fall, after the new code has moved into master
> in BWK's awk.
>
> I heartily recommend the book; it is totally up to Brian Kernighan's
> usual very high standard.
>
> Enjoy,
>
> Arnold
>
To the Attention of Warren Toomey (and all who stay in his
hotel):
I don't care enough to weigh in on any issues that don't
interest me, but I am the most important person in the
world, and whatever I say goes, so you better listen or
you'll be sorry.
It is my very important opinion that only things I want
to hear about should be discussed on this mailing list.
I want to hear about Unix and awk, but not about perl.
No one must talk about any shell except Ken's original.
The sun scares me, forcing me to hack all night and sleep
all day (never mind the malicious stories that I press
wild flowers); therefore there must never be any mention
of Sun Microsystems or Solaris. I am also worried that
a comet will fall on my house and damage my Twinkie
stockpile, so no discussion of the VAX-11/750 is allowed,
nor of work done by the Bell Labs Computing Science
Research Center during the 1980s when much of their
work was done on systems of that model, which were even
named (ewwwww!!!) after comets.
Any mention of non-nerd-approved(TM) subjects is also
forbidden, including Agricola, ferrets, mimes (which are
even scarier than comets!), Lions (and Tigers and Bears),
lurgi, csv files, and gannets (they wet their nests).
Not to mention Bazonka.
I hereby direct the moderators of this list, who must
obey my every command, to terminate with extreme prejudice
anyone who dares even to think of violating these rules.
Viva la revolution!
Yeliz Gardinovich Bimmler (Mrs)
Port Morton, Alabama, CUS
Hi Warren,
I don't care to weigh in on the transgender flag issue, but I also don't
want to hear about it. Please remove me from the list. All due respect
to you and Mary Ann. Monica Helms is not a Unix hero.
Thanks,
Will
Hello, today I've received a 3B/1A "Attached Processor Interface" or "API" (as I will refer to it in this email, note API will not mean Application Programming Interface in my contributions to this discussion) pamphlet, published by WECo in November 1981, concerning installation and maintenance of the API. From the introductory page:
> This lesson is a self-paced package that can be administered individually or in a classroom environment. There is a helpful glossary in the back of this booklet that you may use while going through the material.
>
> At the conclusion of this lesson, the installer will be able to:
>
> - State the purpose of the API as it applies to the 3B Processor.
>
> - Identify the different types of circuit packs used in the API.
>
> - List the number of API diagnostic phases.
>
> - Name the API circuit pack that interfaces the Dual Serial Channel in the 3B Processor.
Among the many pages (which I'll be doing a formal scan on in the future) are some references to BSPs and schematic drawings relevant to this information, I wanted to get that information out in the email archive now so the bibliographic references are preserved somewhere:
3B Processor:
254-001-031 - Test Equipment List
254-301-000 - System Documentation
254-301-005 - General Description
254-301-115 - TTY System
254-301-010 - Central Control
254-301-020 - Power Systems
254-301-100 - Input Output Interfaces
254-301-105 - Input Output Processor
254-301-110 - Input Output Processor Peripheral Controller
254-301-200 - Main Store
254-301-210 - Moving Head Disk Drive
254-301-215 - Disk File Controller
254-301-220 - Magnetic Tape System
254-301-800 - Emergency Action Procedures
254-301-809 - Acceptance Test Plan
254-301-811 - Task Oriented Practice-Routine
254-301-812 - Task Oriented Practice-Trouble Clearing
254-341-000 - DMERT
254-341-220 - MTCE Management and Diagnostics
API:
234-100-020 - APS Description and Theory
254-201-003 - API Frame Theory
254-280-114 - APS Software Description
254-281-030 - API Growth
Misc:
234-153-055 - File Store Relocation
3B Schematics:
SD-4C050-01 - 3B Control Frame, DMA Unit, CC Unit, MASM 0, MASM 1, Power Unit, Cooling Unit, Filter Unit
SD-4C059-02 - 3B Peripheral Control Frame
SD-4C052-01 - IOP Basic
SD-4C049-01 - IOP Growth
SD-4C051-01 - DFC Unit
SD-4C056-01 - Disk Inverter Frame
SD-4C058-01 - Tape Transport Frame
SD-4C057-01 - Inverter Unit
SD-4C070-02 - Inverter Control Unit
SD-4C054-01 - Duct & Cabling
SD-4C053-01 - Power Distributing, AC Requirements
SD-4C069-01 - Micro Level Test Set
SD-4C065-01 - Port Switch
API Schematics:
SD-5A056-01 - API Frame
SD-5A055-01 - API Unit
There are then references to a few "Handbooks":
HB 309 - 3B Proc
HB 263(A) - API ITS (Mainly mentions tests and diagnostic stuff)
HB 264(A) - API Generic (Not sure what ITS and Generic distinguish here)
Finally, a bit of fun. Towards the back of the pamphlet is a small crossword puzzle concerning the API: https://i.imgur.com/0pLcK9p.jpg
Answers to come when I do a scan of this. If anyone has any particular information they want me to try and find in it sooner rather than later just let me know, it's 88 pages but small form.
- Matt G.
