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Aucbvax.6519 fa.works utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!works Mon Mar 15 19:34:27 1982 TOPS-20 EXEC >From Joe.Newcomer@Cmu-10a Thu Mar 11 12:25:58 1982 The last I looked, DEC was nut fussy at all about releasing the source code to the EXEC; for a modest number of dollars you can get a source license but I don't know if that is a site license or a processor license. Modest is under $10K, which on a typical $750,000 KL20 just ain't all that much additional.

One major difference between Unix and TOPS-20 is that on Unix I felt a compulsion to rewrite the shell because it was so bad, but never had the time to engage in the compulsion. I would like to do a few tweaks on the TOPS-20 EXEC, which has it s own problems, but they are not a major departure from the basic philosophy of the TOPS-20 EXEC. In the case of Unix, I would never have considered using the shell code at all, except possibly to see how some bizarre interface to the kernel was done. It is such a poor piece ofinterface that I found it a constant aggravation every time I typed a command. joe

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