[TUHS] Happy birthday, Ken Thompson!

[Steve Nickolas]

On Sat, 4 Feb 2017, Michael Kjörling wrote:

> On 4 Feb 2017 07:00 +1100, from dave at horsfall.org (Dave Horsfall):
>> Just think: without those two, we'd all be running M$ Windoze and
>> thinking that it's wonderful.
>
> I wouldn't be so sure that claim should stand uncontested, given that
> PC-DOS 2.0 (long before Windows) largely copied the concept of
> directories from UNIX. Just think how wonderful Windows would be if it
> was running on top of a file system that lacked the concept of
> directories.

MS-DOS 2 took an OS that was largely inspired by CP/M and replaced the 
file API *with that of Xenix* just to add directory support.  Best change 
they ever made.  Now if only IBM hadn't forced them to use \ as the 
path separator instead of /, it would've been slightly better.

Still, MS-DOS was probably the most C-friendly system out there that 
wasn't a Unix or Unix clone.

Bit hackish how they emulated piping, though didn't "Mini Unix" do the 
same thing?

> Then again IIRC the original Macintosh file system had no concept of
> directories, but they somehow faked them in software. Makes you wonder
> why they went through all that trouble instead of implementing
> _proper_ support for directories/folders/filing cabinets/drawers/etc.

I believe this is correct.

-uso.