18 Jan
2020
18 Jan
'20
12:32 a.m.
Rich was kind enough to look through the Joyce papers to see if it contained "CSRG
Tech Report 4: Proposals for Unix on the VAX”. It did.
As list regulars will know I’ve been looking for that paper for years as it documents the
early ideas for networking and IPC in what was to become 4.2BSD.
It is an intriguing paper that discusses a network API that is imo fairly different from
what ended up being in 4.1a and 4.2BSD. It confirms Kirk McKusick’s recollection that the
select statement was modelled after the ADA select statement. It also confirms Clem Cole’s
recollection that the initial ideas for 4.2BSB were significantly influenced by the ideas
of Richard Rashid (Aleph/Accent/Mach).
Besides IPC and networking, it also discusses file systems and a wide array of potential
improvements in various other areas.