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Aucbvax.6560 fa.works utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!works Wed Mar 17 23:46:53 1982 WORKS Digest V2 #25 >From PLEASANT@RUTGERS Wed Mar 17 23:22:28 1982 Works Digest Thursday, 18 Mar 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 25

Today's Topics: Administrivia Opinions & Biases UNIX on workstations The Apple Bill C, Bliss, SAIL

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Date: 18 Mar 1982 0227-EST From: The Moderator <PLEASANT AT RUTGERS> Subject: Administrivia

A system crash and subsequent recovery caused many of you to receive a second copy of the last digest. I am sorry for the inconvenience that this might have caused you and will try to prevent it from happening again in the future.

-Mel

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Date: Sunday, 14 Mar 1982 21:22-PST To: JGOLDBERGER at USC-ISIB Subject: Re: Opinions & Biases In-reply-to: Your message of 11 Mar 1982 1719-PST. <[USC-ISIB]11-MAR-82 17:19:30.JGOLDBERGER> From: gaines at RAND-UNIX

I find the recent discussion of UNIX rather short of content and long on opinion. Would those that think UNIX is not a suitable operating system for workstations be a bit more explicit, please? It would be a help if the comments actually apply to the operating system part of UNIX, and not non-supervisory software such as a particular version of the shell.

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Date: 15 Mar 1982 11:32:41-PST From: cbosg!nscs!rew at Berkeley

The theory you are referring to is known as the Wharfian hypothesis. Actually, I haven't seen it written out in a while, so I may have the spelling wrong (might be Warf). Although it has led to a lot of research and is of perennial interest, there is not much solid support for it. This would suggest, of course, that the theory would not have much application to programming languages, either.

Bob Warren cbosg!nscs!rew

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Date: 15 Mar 1982 12:22:07 EST (Mon) From: decvax!duke!mcnc!unc!smb at Berkeley Full-Name: Steven M. Bellovin Subject: UNIX on workstations

I'm not going to claim that UNIX is the ultimate operating system (I tend to dislike religious arguments), but it does have one very strong point that many "highly interactive" [sic] systems lack: the ability to combine existing commands into personalized tools.

If we accept that *no* system designer can satisfy everyone, even every new user who has never been corrupted by exposure to the old way of doing things -- and I regard that statement as beyond argument (*sigh*, another religious statement) -- then we have to provide some ability to customize the environment in ways not anticipated before-hand. UNIX does this in several ways; the most important, though, is the UNIX philosophy: *any* program should be usable as part of any other.

Now -- I'm not saying I need pipes (though I like them); I'm not even saying I need output redirection (though things are messy without it). But I do need *some* way I can, for example, list the names of a bunch of files, sort them, and then perform some other operation on just those files -- because you, as the system designer, might not have anticipated my application.

--Steve Bellovin

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Date: 16 Mar 1982 17:25 EST From: dvorak.WBST at PARC-MAXC Subject: The Apple Bill Reply-To: dvorak

Permit me to paraphrase from SCIENCE, Volume 215, 19 March 1982:

Last month Steven Jobs, Apple founder and prez, happened to sit next to Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) on a jet from California to Washington.

Shortly thereafter, Feb. 23 to be exact, Stark introduced a bill entitled the Technology Act Education of 1982 that would permit companies to donate scientific equipment to elementary and secondary schools and then deduct the full cost of the equipment from its pretax income--just as companies now do for gifts to colleges. In addition, the bill raises the maximum such contribution from 10 to 30 percent of a corporation's income (which is more important for Apple than IBM or Xerox). Both of these changes from current practice would only last for one year. This "Apple Bill" is apparently receiving the support of members representing the entire political spectrum (unlike the budget).

Oh, I almost forgot . . .

Jobs apparently plans to give EVERY elementary and secondary school in the country an Apple (configuration not stated). If so permitted, Apple would enjoy a tax savings of about $35 million for a deduction of about $75 million that represents manufacturing cost only (total retail value of $200-300 million). Service costs, software and training manuals would not be deductible, but something tells me that Jobs believes there must be some business advantage to having all future generations of computer users weaned on Apples.

--Chuck

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Date: 16 Mar 82 21:31-PDT From: mclure at SRI-UNIX Subject: C, Bliss, SAIL

C is best considered as a high-level assembly language for systems programming, but people are trying to force it into niches where it doesn't belong, just as for years people have been forcing PASCAL to be other than a teaching language. Having programmed a great deal in SAIL, BLISS, and C, I prefer C for systems programming because it just seems inherently better suited. SAIL is too PL1ish and BLISS just doesn't seem to have enough, although I did like its value-return mechanism very much; however I can understand how the other two might be preferable for higher-level tasks.

Stuart

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This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided:

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2. The following notice remains appended to each copy:

The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.