[TUHS] fmt(1): history, POSIX, -t, -c

[Clem Cole]

The beer is well beyond the 'suck point' and it's time to throw it out.

On Fri, May 29, 2020 at 11:43 AM Warner Losh <imp at bsdimp.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Fri, May 29, 2020 at 7:40 AM Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, May 29, 2020 at 1:11 AM Michael Stiller via TUHS <
>> tuhs at minnie.tuhs.org> wrote:
>>
>>> It is also included in 2.9BSD, or was it backported:
>>>
>> Just recompiled. I don't think this was one he had to make any changes
>> too. As Mary Ann and I said, Kurt wrote as part of the UCB Mail package
>> [which includes delivermail(8) - which was the moral parent to
>> sendmail(8)].
>>
>> The whole key is that Keith did not have a Vax at the Math department
>> (they had an 11/70 with max memory) and wanted all of the cool programs
>> that were being created on the Vax.   Remember, VM is automatic overlays.
>>  So first with the kernel, and then later with user code, larger and larger
>> programs were enabled and many of the programs for the Vax migrated to the
>> PDP-11, as people ran out of address space (IIRC: one the first user
>> programs that needed to use overlays was ex/vi.  Again, as I recall the
>> original wnj version by then was such a mess, getting a new/cleaner code
>> base was a large impetus for Keith to start writing nvi).
>>
>> Anyway, many smaller programs 'just worked' and the original fmt(1)
>> command was pretty simple.   As Doug so wisely observed:  "It's hard to
>> imagine how this command could stray from classic Unix simplicity and intelligibility,
>> but Gnu pulled it off."
>>
>
>
> While Berkeley arguably bloated things somewhat in improving its
> functionality, gnu said 'here, hold my beer' in the 90s and we're still
> holding the beer.
>
> Warner
>
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