17 Jul
2025
17 Jul
'25
5:08 p.m.
Learn's great and it's "easy" to get working in SimH. I included it in
my tutorial:
https://decuser.github.io/unix/research-unix/v7/2024/05/23/research-unix-v7…
Will
On 7/16/25 16:59, Noel Hunt wrote:
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.
>>
>