[TUHS] Program Generic Issue 3 Findings

[segaloco via TUHS]

And here you have it:

https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Documentation/Manuals/Program_Generic_Issue_3/UNIX_Programmers_Manual_Program_Generic_Issue_3.pdf

After the link is the UNIX Programmer's Manual for Program Generic
PG-1C300 Issue 3, the last release of USG Generic UNIX prior to the
establishment of the UNIX/TS and UNIX/RT projects and eventual
absorption into the PWB/commercial line.  USG first adopted the Program
Generic nomenclature with a maintenance revision of USG UNIX Release 2.
At the time, this system was still quite comparable to research[1], but
with Issue 2[2] and then Issue 3 here, things start to diverge.

Based on the issue numbers, I believe now having Issue 2 and Issue 3
manuals completes the preservation of available Program Generic manuals,
as the issue numbering for the manuals (as opposed to the versions)
begins with Issue 1 in January, 1976, and Issue 2 in March, 1977,
trailing the underlying generic issue by one.  I get the feeling print
literature prior to Issue 2 was limited to copies of the research
literature if any distribution was done en masse, but can't confirm
this.  Either way, I suspect it is unlikely any "produced" paper manuals
of USG Release 1, Release 2, or Program Generic Issue 1 will surface.
If anything is out there, it is likely (n)roff printouts from a user's
terminal.

Minute changes in the Program Generic line after Issue 3 may be
represented in the MERT Release 0 manual, which is based on it[3].  An
older MERT manual was present in the USG library items[4] which could
then prove useful for determining MERT vs USG contributions to Release 0
and later versions.

In any case, plenty of holes now filled in the USG situation in the mid
70s leading up to UNIX/TS and UNIX/RT (and PWB expansion).

As far as manuals, cross-referencing Pirzada's thesis as well as
references available in the USG library and other UNIX manuals, at the
very least I suspect these manuals may have been formally published (in
other words, are likely to survive somewhere in a "standard" form) by
USG:

CB-UNIX Edition 1.0
UNIX/TS Edition 1.1
UNIX/RT Release 1
CB-UNIX Edition 2.1
PWB/UNIX Release 2.0

Of these, there's really only a lead on the latter right now.  I can't
confirm the others ever existed as a distributed (as opposed to one-off)
printed BTL package, but they're the most likely candidates to have had
print distribution by USG otherwise.

Anywho, enjoy!  I plan on doing an in-depth analysis of Program Generic
literature sometime this year, resulting in both a navigable git
repository with commits/tags representing research->PG II->PG III manual
revisions as well as updates to the wiki describing the various
differences.  This will all eventually be worked back into my mandiff
project as well, which I'm probably going to start over since so much
new literature is available since last I touched that.

- Matt G.

[1] - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Documentation/TechReports/USG_Library/1017_Setting_Up_UNIX_Issue_Three.pdf
[2] - https://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/att/unix/6th_Edition/UNIX_Programmers_Manual_197601.pdf
[3] - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Documentation/Manuals/MERT_Release_0/
[4] - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Documentation/TechReports/USG_Library/1070_MERT_Programmers_Manual_First_Edition.pdf