Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 02:20:25 -0700 From: Tim Gerchmez <fewtch@serv.net> To: David Wolfskill <dhw@whistle.com> Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: re: vi Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19980625022025.0080ed80@mx.serv.net> In-Reply-To: <199806171614.JAA05162@pau-amma.whistle.com>
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At 09:14 AM 6/17/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Uhhmmm.... :-)
>
>No. vi isn't "original". It was written (essentially) by Bill Joy,
>while he was at UC Berkeley, as a "glass TTY" front-end for ex.
You didn't state the year, but if it was pre-1980, I think the term
"original" is descriptive enough. It certainly has become widely used and
is considered a "default" or a "standard" editor, if you don't like the
term "original."
>I suspect that you don't really want to think too hard about what Ken,
>Dennis, Brian, Joe, Rob, & the rest of the Bell Labs gang used to
>actually write the original code....
Actually, you're right on the money there. The fact is (and this may
disturb you a little), I don't give a rat's hang in hell about Unix's
history. I honestly don't care. I have ZERO interest. I wasn't involved
in any of it, and it has nothing to do with me. Perhaps knowing more about
it would help me learn Unix faster (and so I may look into it a little for
that reason only), but from an personal interest standpoint I have
absolutely none. I'd rather sit and watch cobwebs up in the attic.
>As for UNIX being "stuck in the 1960s"... well, please note that the
>UNIX "epoch" -- time zero, so to speak -- is midnight (0000 hrs.) 01
>January, 1970 GMT ("UTC" for folks less old-fashioned than I).
I was close enough. Anyway, I was 6 years old in 1970 and cared more about
the cookie jar than I did about computing. I didn't enter the scene (never
touched a computer keyboard) at all until 1983, when the "home computer
wars" were just starting. Remember those? Now, THAT period of time
interests me, because I had some personal involvement in it.
I'm just not much of a history buff, sorry. I've always gotten poor grades
in history classes in school due to lack of interest.
--
My web site starts at http://www.serv.net/~fewtch/index.html -
lots of goodies for everyone, have a look if you have the time.
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