13 Jan
2005
13 Jan
'05
6:12 a.m.
Mark Davidson wrote:
Also, and I know this sounds picky, but it's not
"Coherent Unix"... it's
"Coherent". It has NO AT&T code in it. The Mark Williams Company wrote
most of the code themselves, and eventually added support for X Windows
before the company folded. Even the C compiler was theirs (and if I
remember correctly, they had a great C compiler for Intel chips).
You are absolutely right; it was indeed called just "Coherent". I added the
Unix as a reminder as to what Coherent was. As for no AT&T code, you are also
100% right, and in fact I believe either K or Ritchie himself (can't remember
which one) came to MWC offices to verify it.
I had many happy months working with Coherent in those
days (back when a
"real" port of Unix would cost thousands of dollars), and was sorry to
see it go.
Yes, our founder made the fatal mistake of investing in X when he probably
should have spent the money on a working TCP/IP implementation.
The manual, if you can grab a copy, remains one of the very best Unix manuals
in existence. It is extremely well-written by Fred Butzen, and is extremely
comprehensive in not only the options to various commands but (more
importantly) Unix design concepts. It was great for total beginners; in fact,
I remember toward the end that Linux users were ordering Coherent just to get
the manual, because Linux documentation in 1994 was nearly non-existent.
--
Jim Leonard (trixter(a)oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
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