10-14-2002
The history of UNIX and the ideas behind it
Hi. I am new here, and this is my first post at the UNIX.com forums. I have read the book Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer, and I noticed that neither UNIX nor Linux was mentioned once in the book. Why is this? What was UNIX's place in the early days of personal computers?
I realize that mainframes probably had proprietary operating systems specific to the manufacturer, or even the model of the computer. And it is also true that personal computers either had homebrewed operating systems or basic operating systems like Q-DOS or CP/M.
But what about UNIX? Where does that fit in? I've given it some thought, and it seems sensible that minicomputers (note that I refer to minicomputers as computers such as the PDP-8) might have used UNIX. It sounds like that would fit. Mainframe computers have their own proprietary operating system, minicomputers have a good operating system, such as UNIX, and UNIX probably won't fit on personal computers, so developers made homebrewed operating systems. Am I right?
Also, I have another question about the structure and basic ideas of UNIX. A small portion of the book Just for Fun, of which my copy is signed by Linus Torvalds, states that UNIX was a small-is-beautiful operating system. So I thought about how that would work. I would have the operating system take care of tasks such as the filesystem and the management of processes. But if thats roughly what UNIX does, what is Unix then? Is it just a central control station of the computer that manages processes, and manages the file system?
I also gave some thought about the notion of processes. Say I was making an operating system. I would either make a process for or integrate into the shell something like saving files and opening them. This process would take care of all of the stuff having to do with files. Maybe the file system itself would be embedded into the operating system, but this would not. Since it would be a modern operating system, it would seem sensible and convenient to not only add support for the hard drive, but for the floppy disk and the CD-ROM drive and CD-RW. I would want to have the desired effect of something like this:
> write E: doc1.txt, doc2.txt, doc3.tga, doc5.pdf
Even if this was a CD-RW, it would write the files to the E: drive. Would this be what a file i/o process would do, or would it have a special process for the floppy disk, the hard drive, and the CD-RW?
One last thing: in the shell sample I wrote above, write would be a command of the shell, and the word write would signal to start the process FILEio.exe with the parameters of E:, doc1.txt..., right?
I am sorry if I have bored you with my endless post. Thanks!
10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting
1. News, Links, Events and Announcements
Link describe the Step by step formation of Unix
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/levenez/unix/
Also:
- History
- Author of First Unix C Language
- Unix Family research Tree
- BSD and Sun History chart
- Technical Comparison between Unix Diffrences (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: killerserv
4 Replies
2. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers
I tried looking for the answer online and came up with only a few semi-answers as to why file and directory names are case sensitive in Unix. Right off the bat, I'll say this doesn't bother me. But I run into tons of Windows and OpenVMS admins in my day job who go batty when they have to deal... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: deckard
3 Replies
3. UNIX and Linux Applications
Hi everybody Im Megadrink!!!
This is my first thred.
Ive recently been introduced to Unix and i was interested in Unix's History. Can anyone give me a breif History On Unix. Just when it was invented/released. Maybe someother cool things about it.
Thx for the information in advance!! :D (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: Megadrink
2 Replies
4. Hardware
Dear all,
i am in last year of electronics department in engineering faculty
i need suggestions for a graduation project based on unix or free bsd or linux and electronics "embedded linux "
i think about embedded unix for example or device drivers
please i need helps (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: MOHA-1
1 Replies
5. UNIX and Linux Applications
Dear all,
i am in last year of electronics department in engineering faculty
i need suggestions for a graduation project based on unix or free bsd or linux and electronics "embedded linux "
i think about embedded unix for example or device drivers
please i need helps (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: MOHA-1
1 Replies
6. UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users
Dear all,
i am in last year of electronics department in engineering faculty
i need suggestions for a graduation project based on unix or free bsd or linux and electronics "embedded linux "
i think about embedded unix for example or device drivers
please i need helps (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: MOHA-1
1 Replies
7. Homework & Coursework Questions
Dear all,
i am in last year of electronics department in engineering faculty
i need suggestions for a graduation project based on unix or free bsd or linux and electronics "embedded linux "
i think about embedded unix for example or device drivers
please i need helps (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: MOHA-1
1 Replies
8. Shell Programming and Scripting
Hi guys,
I am currently working as a system administration engineer, administering telecom applications on linux/unix platforms.
I want to learn new things and improve the ones that i have and for this i though to really work on some project or something but i lack of ideas.
I want to be... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: capitanui
2 Replies
9. Shell Programming and Scripting
commands to view the history file in unix.
I am not sure whether it is bash_history.sh (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: ramkumar15
1 Replies
10. What is on Your Mind?
I am pleased to announce this new video in 1080 HD for UNIX lovers honoring thirty years of UNIX history spanning from 1969 to 1999 presented in 150 seconds (two and a half minutes) in 1080 HD, celebrating the 50th anniversary of UNIX.
The Great History of UNIX (1969-1999) | 30 Years of UNIX... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: Neo
8 Replies
LEARN ABOUT HPUX
standards
standards(5) File Formats Manual standards(5)
NAME
standards - UNIX standards behavior on HP-UX
DESCRIPTION
HP-UX conforms to various UNIX standards. In some cases, these standards conflict. This manpage describes the methods that programmers
and users must follow to have an application conform and execute according to a particular UNIX standard.
UNIX Standard Conformant Programmer Environment
The following table lists feature test macros and environment variables that must be defined while compiling an application. Both a fea-
ture test macro and an environment variable must be defined while compiling the application so that the application conforms and executes
according to a particular UNIX standard. Otherwise, the behavior is undefined.
Standard Feature Test Macros to be Environment variable
defined during compilation to be set
UNIX 95 _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED=1 UNIX95 or
UNIX_STD=95 or
UNIX_STD=1995
UNIX 2003 _XOPEN_SOURCE=600 UNIX_STD=2003
The compiler uses the feature test macros to obtain the appropriate namespace from the header files. The compiler uses the environment
variable to link in an appropriate object file to the executable. Using the environment variable customizes libc to match UNIX standards
for various functions.
If an application has already been compiled for default HP-UX behavior or for one particular standard, and needs to change to a particular
UNIX standard behavior, recompile the application as specified in the above table.
For an HP-UX command to conform to a particular UNIX standard behavior, the application has to set the corresponding environment variable
as specified in the above table before executing that command.
UNIX Standard Conformant User Environment
To enable a particular UNIX standard conformant user environment, set the corresponding environment variable as defined in the above table.
EXAMPLES
The following examples shows an application example. To have the system be conformant to UNIX2003 behavior, set the environment variable
to and define the feature test macro before compilation.
The following example changes the command to have UNIX95 behavior by setting one of the environment variables to or to before executing
that command. There are three ways of setting the environment variable for UNIX95:
or
or
SEE ALSO
cc(1), stdsyms(5).
standards(5)