16 Jul
2025
16 Jul
'25
9:59 p.m.
Seventh Edition Unix came with a program 'learn', written by
Brian Kernighan, which was a front-end to a group of tutorials
on 'ed', 'tbl', 'troff' etc.
The 'ed' tutorial was a wonderful introduction to the editor,
and a model of clarity, as indeed they all were, but that was
typical of everything written by researchers who were at 1127.
On Wed, 16 Jul 2025 at 22:53, Brantley Coile <brantley(a)coraid.com> wrote:
Behind the glass wall in the basement of the
University of Georgia
graduate studies building, was the wide floor of the computer center and
behind that was the office of one of my mentors, Bob Stearms. As he typed
PL/1 into his 3278 terminal--channel connected no less--I spied a plain
white book sitting on a shelf in his book case with an orange title
"SOFTWARE TOOLS." I picked it up and flipped through it. It was 1980, the
first year of my marriage.
"What's this?", I asked as I pick up the volume and started flipping
through it.
"It's from the Unix guys. They wrote a pre-processor for FORTRAN and
called it Ratfor. Then they wrote a bunch of the Unix programs in it."
"Can I borrow it?"
"Sure."
I changed my life. I still use what I learned from it forty-five years
later. And still very happily married to the bride of my youth.
After Bob passed away, Frieda gave me that volume. It's one of my prized
possessions.
Forget Unix and C. The biggest research achievement to come out of 1127
was a clear understanding of how to program.
Brantley
On Jul 16, 2025, at 8:09 AM, arnold(a)skeeve.com
wrote:
IMHO, the best tutorials on ed are the chapters in "Software Tools"
and "Software Tools in Pascal" where Kernighan and Plauger write
a basic version of it. I recommend both books highly, despite
their age.
"Software Tools" literally changed my life. :-)
Arnold
Cameron Míċeál Tyre via TUHS <tuhs(a)tuhs.org> wrote:
> Ah, rabbit holes. Dangerous things. I went down the ed rabbit hole
around
> a month ago and no sign of me finding my way
back out any time soon.
>
> I got obsessed with getting ed running on every device I have including
my
> phones and then the big rabbit hole off that
first one was learning how
to
> use it properly and to the fullest of its
abilities. That'll take a
while.
>
> My library of ed related publications is getting so big its likely
> what's blocking the exit to the rabbit hole. On the plus side it has
> sharpened my typing skills, improved my patience and I I've learned to
> work out for myself what I've done to cause ed to say ?, instead of just
> typing h+Enter.
>
> As rabbit holes go, it's been stimulating so far and I could be stuck
> in worse places.
>
> Have a safe one!
>
> Cameron
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> On 16/07/2025 01:01, Luther Johnson <luther.johnson(a)makerlisp.com>
wrote:
>
>> I just noticed that algorithm and logarithm just have a couple of
>> letters transposed from each other. So that's the kind of rabbit hole I
>> get lost in most days.
>>
>