Aucbvax.6560

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

----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

------------------------------

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.

------------------------------

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

------------------------------

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

------------------------------

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

------------------------------

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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