[TUHS] The UNIX Command Language (1976)

jason-tuhs at shalott.net jason-tuhs at shalott.net
Tue Dec 1 13:59:18 AEST 2020


> "The UNIX Command LanguageĀ is the first-ever paper published on the Unix 
> shell. It was written by Ken Thompson in 1976."
> 
> https://github.com/susam/tucl

Thanks for that.

This reminded me that the Thompson shell used goto for flow control, which 
I had forgotten.

Bourne commented on the omission of goto from the Bourne shell, "I 
eliminated goto in favour of flow control primitives like if and for. 
This was also considered rather radical departure from the existing 
practice."

Was this decision contentious at all?  Was there a specific reason for 
goto's exclusion in the Bourne shell?


Thanks.


  -Jason


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