13 Jan
2005
13 Jan
'05
6:31 a.m.
Hi Jim--
On Jan 13, 2005, at 12:12 PM, Jim Leonard wrote:
Ack... yep, I remember that. I had fond memories as well of learning
"elle", the editor that shipped with the system.
Mark Davidson wrote:
Yes, I remember hearing that... it was certified by AT&T to be
completely free of their code.
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.
Yes indeed... the manual was quite impressive. In fact, I just found a
copy on EBay and put in a bid for it.
Mark