9 Nov
2019
9 Nov
'19
5:20 p.m.
I was reading the comments on Hackaday on UNIX at 50
(https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/).
As expected, a lot of manure but some interesting comments from
seemingly knowledgeable people.
One comment
(https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment…),
from a DDS, stated that (s)he worked at The Bell and they wrote it
"unix" (lower-case) to distinguish it from MULTICS. Anyone care to
comment on this?
N.
9 Nov
9 Nov
7:43 p.m.
An excerpt from The Jargon File:
Some people are confused over whether this word is appropriately ‘UNIX’ or
‘Unix’; both forms are common, and used interchangeably. Dennis Ritchie
says that the ‘UNIX’ spelling originally happened in CACM's 1974 paper The
UNIX Time-Sharing System because “we had a new typesetter and troff had
just been invented and we were intoxicated by being able to produce small
caps.” Later, dmr tried to get the spelling changed to ‘Unix’ in a couple
of Bell Labs papers, on the grounds that the word is not acronymic. He
failed, and eventually (his words) “wimped out” on the issue. So, while the
trademark today is ‘UNIX’, both capitalizations are grounded in ancient
usage; the Jargon File uses ‘Unix’ in deference to dmr's wishes.
at: http://catb.org/jargon/html/U/Unix.html
El sáb., 9 nov. 2019 a las 17:28, Nemo Nusquam (<cym224(a)gmail.com>)
escribió:
I was reading the comments on Hackaday on UNIX at 50
(https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/).
As expected, a lot of manure but some interesting comments from
seemingly knowledgeable people.
One comment
(
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment…),
from a DDS, stated that (s)he worked at The Bell and they wrote it
"unix" (lower-case) to distinguish it from MULTICS. Anyone care to
comment on this?
N.
8:36 p.m.
On 11/9/19 12:20 PM, Nemo Nusquam wrote:
I was reading the comments on Hackaday on UNIX at 50
(https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/).
As expected, a lot of manure but some interesting comments from
seemingly knowledgeable people.
One comment
(https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment…),
from a DDS, stated that (s)he worked at The Bell and they wrote it
"unix" (lower-case) to distinguish it from MULTICS. Anyone care to
comment on this?
N.
It was always my understanding, based totally on hearsay from engineers
from both Sun and SGI back in my early days with it, UNIX is the OS,
while unix, or vmunix is the kernel. Unix was deprecated by the time it
became a real commercial product.
So, right or wrong, I've always used UNIX for the OS, and unix, or
vmunix as appropriate, to refer to the kernel.
- Derrik
--
Derrik Walker v2.0
dwalker(a)doomd.net
https://www.doomd.net
"Those UNIX guys, they think weird!" -- John C. Dvorak
9:05 p.m.
I just finished Brian Kernighan's book (excellent!) and he addresses
this in section 7.6. (Yes, he wrote the book in troff.)
He prefers "Unix" and wrote it that way except for this section. He says
"Bell Labs' legal guardians decided that the name Unix was a valuable
trademark that had to be protected..." Legal mostly required it to be
used as an adjective "The UNIX TM operating system", and how the ms
macros produced a small caps "UNIX" (and a footnote on the first
reference). He's clear that the 1127 folks hated the requirements from
legal.
It is true that the file which contains the kernel was /unix, or /vmunix
for Berkeley Unix, but that's the name of the file, not the proper name
of the operating system for English prose. By convention, virtually all
Unix files were in lower case.
Mary Ann
On 11/9/19 12:36 PM, Derrik Walker v2.0 wrote:
On 11/9/19 12:20 PM, Nemo Nusquam wrote:
I was reading the comments on Hackaday on UNIX at
50
(https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/).
As expected, a lot of manure but some interesting comments from
seemingly knowledgeable people.
One comment
(https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment…),
from a DDS, stated that (s)he worked at The Bell and they wrote it
"unix" (lower-case) to distinguish it from MULTICS. Anyone care to
comment on this?
N.
It was always my understanding, based totally on hearsay from
engineers from both Sun and SGI back in my early days with it, UNIX is
the OS, while unix, or vmunix is the kernel. Unix was deprecated by
the time it became a real commercial product.
So, right or wrong, I've always used UNIX for the OS, and unix, or
vmunix as appropriate, to refer to the kernel.
- Derrik
9:23 p.m.
In fact ATT legal had a document they sent to all commercial licensees
around 1980 on proper use of the name. I wonder if I still have/can find a
copy. But the lawyers were pretty clear. It was UNIX with ™ and later the
R with a circle around beside the all caps letters after they registered
it.
It was that letter that started all the names like Xenix, Ultrix, HP-UX,
SunOS, RTU etc.
On Sat, Nov 9, 2019 at 4:06 PM Mary Ann Horton <mah(a)mhorton.net> wrote:
I just finished Brian Kernighan's book
(excellent!) and he addresses
this in section 7.6. (Yes, he wrote the book in troff.)
He prefers "Unix" and wrote it that way except for this section. He says
"Bell Labs' legal guardians decided that the name Unix was a valuable
trademark that had to be protected..." Legal mostly required it to be
used as an adjective "The UNIX TM operating system", and how the ms
macros produced a small caps "UNIX" (and a footnote on the first
reference). He's clear that the 1127 folks hated the requirements from
legal.
It is true that the file which contains the kernel was /unix, or /vmunix
for Berkeley Unix, but that's the name of the file, not the proper name
of the operating system for English prose. By convention, virtually all
Unix files were in lower case.
Mary Ann
On 11/9/19 12:36 PM, Derrik Walker v2.0 wrote:
--
Sent from a handheld expect more typos than usual
On 11/9/19 12:20 PM, Nemo Nusquam wrote:
> I was reading the comments on Hackaday on UNIX at 50
> (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/).
> As expected, a lot of manure but some interesting comments from
> seemingly knowledgeable people.
>
> One comment
> (
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment…),
from a
DDS, stated that (s)he worked at The Bell and they wrote it
"unix" (lower-case) to distinguish it from MULTICS. Anyone care to
comment on this?
N.
It was always my understanding, based totally on hearsay from
engineers from both Sun and SGI back in my early days with it, UNIX is
the OS, while unix, or vmunix is the kernel. Unix was deprecated by
the time it became a real commercial product.
So, right or wrong, I've always used UNIX for the OS, and unix, or
vmunix as appropriate, to refer to the kernel.
- Derrik
10 Nov
10 Nov
12:07 a.m.
I remember a story I heard second hand. The Bell System had so
many acronyms that they published yearly a small book with all the
acronyms in the Bell System. Somebody (Ken?, Doug?) got a call one
year that they wanted to include UNIX in the book, so would we please
tell them what UNIX stood for. The reply was that UNIX was not an
acronym. So the caller said: "OK. We won't put it in the book..."
Steve
----- Original Message -----
From: "Clem Cole" <clemc(a)ccc.com>
To:"Mary Ann Horton" <mah(a)mhorton.net>
Cc:<tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org>
Sent:Sat, 9 Nov 2019 16:23:04 -0500
Subject:Re: [TUHS] UNIX or unix
In fact ATT legal had a document they sent to all commercial licensees
around 1980 on proper use of the name. I wonder if I still have/can
find a copy. But the lawyers were pretty clear. It was UNIX with ™
and later the R with a circle around beside the all caps letters after
they registered it.
It was that letter that started all the names like Xenix, Ultrix,
HP-UX, SunOS, RTU etc.
On Sat, Nov 9, 2019 at 4:06 PM Mary Ann Horton <mah(a)mhorton.net [1]>
wrote:
I just finished Brian Kernighan's book (excellent!) and he addresses
this in section 7.6. (Yes, he wrote the book in troff.)
He prefers "Unix" and wrote it that way except for this section. He
says
"Bell Labs' legal guardians decided that the name Unix was a valuable
trademark that had to be protected..." Legal mostly required it to be
used as an adjective "The UNIX TM operating system", and how the ms
macros produced a small caps "UNIX" (and a footnote on the first
reference). He's clear that the 1127 folks hated the requirements
from
legal.
It is true that the file which contains the kernel was /unix, or
/vmunix
for Berkeley Unix, but that's the name of the file, not the proper
name
of the operating system for English prose. By convention, virtually
all
Unix files were in lower case.
Mary Ann
On 11/9/19 12:36 PM, Derrik Walker v2.0 wrote:
is
On 11/9/19 12:20 PM, Nemo Nusquam wrote:
> I was reading the comments on Hackaday on UNIX at 50
>
(https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/
[2]).
> As expected, a lot of manure but some interesting
comments from
> seemingly knowledgeable people.
>
> One comment
>
(https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment…
[3]),
> from a DDS, stated that (s)he worked at The Bell
and they wrote it
> "unix" (lower-case) to distinguish it
from MULTICS. Anyone care
to
comment on
this?
N.
It was always my understanding, based totally on hearsay from
engineers from both Sun and SGI back in my early days with it, UNIX the OS, while unix, or vmunix is the kernel. Unix was
deprecated by
the time it became a real commercial product.
So, right or wrong, I've always used UNIX for the OS, and unix, or
vmunix as appropriate, to refer to the kernel.
- Derrik
--
Sent from a handheld expect more typos than usual
Links:
------
[1] mailto:mah@mhorton.net
[2]
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/
[3]
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment…
11 Nov
11 Nov
8:07 a.m.
On 10 Nov 2019, at 00:07, Steve Johnson
<scj(a)yaccman.com> wrote:
I remember a story I heard second hand. The Bell System had so many acronyms that they
published yearly a small book with all the acronyms in the Bell System. Somebody (Ken?,
Doug?) got a call one year that they wanted to include UNIX in the book, so would we
please tell them what UNIX stood for. The reply was that UNIX was not an acronym. So
the caller said: "OK. We won't put it in the book..."
Steve
----- Original Message -----
From: "Clem Cole" <clemc(a)ccc.com>
To:"Mary Ann Horton" <mah(a)mhorton.net>
Cc:<tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org>
Sent:Sat, 9 Nov 2019 16:23:04 -0500
Subject:Re: [TUHS] UNIX or unix
In fact ATT legal had a document they sent to all commercial licensees around 1980 on
proper use of the name. I wonder if I still have/can find a copy. But the lawyers were
pretty clear. It was UNIX with ™ and later the R with a circle around beside the all caps
letters after they registered it.
I was not just commercial licensees. I remember
seeing a copy of that letter. We were a Scottish University who had a legit tape sent
from AT&T/Bell Labs for academic use.
7:58 p.m.
On Mon, 11 Nov 2019, Dr Iain Maoileoin wrote:
[ UNIX (tm) (R) ]
I was not just commercial licensees. I remember
seeing a copy of that
letter. We were a Scottish University who had a legit tape sent from
AT&T/Bell Labs for academic use.
I saw the same thing at the University of New South Wales back when
[Uu][Nn][Ii][Xx] <random symbols> was first released.
-- Dave
1638
days inactive
1640
days old
7 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
Clem Cole -
Dave Horsfall -
Derrik Walker v2.0 -
Dr Iain Maoileoin -
Mary Ann Horton -
Nemo Nusquam -
Paco López -
Steve Johnson