*BSD News Article 82529


Return to BSD News archive

Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.mel.aone.net.au!news-out.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!dciteleport.com!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!news.mathworks.com!uunet!in2.uu.net!news-in.tiac.net!posterchild!news@tiac.net
From: sailboat@tiac.net (Robert Schuldenfrei)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: On the Naming of UNIX Things
Date: Sat, 09 Nov 1996 00:02:09 GMT
Organization: The Internet Access Company, Inc.
Lines: 29
Message-ID: <560hkh$m34@news-central.tiac.net>
References: <55vhpf$q3o@mail1.wg.waii.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: sailboat.tiac.net
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.misc:26195 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1440 alt.folklore.computers:124231

Mark Whetzel <markw@zeus.wg.waii.com> wrote:

>I was having a discussion with some of my co-workers on WHY things
>are named as they are in UNIX.  Anybody have some of the
>tales behind the odd things that bound in unix history?

>One question we had of some students we are training:

>   Why are system processes called 'daemons'?

>Some of the others I have heard about: the naming of 'biff', grep, yacc.

Yet Another Compiler Compiler (yacc)
According to folklore (that is the name of this NG is it not) Ken Thompson had
only a model 33 tty on his original system.  Kept everything short!  Do you know
what instuments are on Ken's car's dashboard?  One light that illuminates "?" :)

Bob


Robert Schuldenfrei
S. I. Inc.
32 Ridley Road
Dedham, MA  02026
Voice: (617) 329-4828
FAX:   (617) 329-1696
E-Mail: bob@s-i-inc.com
WWW:    http://www.tiac.net/users/tangaroa/index.html