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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.Hawaii.Edu!news.uoregon.edu!news.texoma.com!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!mindspring!uunet!in3.uu.net!nntp.inet.fi!news.funet.fi!news.cc.tut.fi!news From: Matti Saarinen <mjs@vompatti.cc.tut.fi> Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: On the Naming of UNIX Things Date: 09 Nov 1996 14:51:57 +0200 Organization: TUT Lines: 32 Message-ID: <qzulocb4ej6.fsf@vompatti.cc.tut.fi> References: <55vhpf$q3o@mail1.wg.waii.com> <328386bc.112278367@news.ov.com> <5603r1$b80@news.ox.ac.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: vompatti.cc.tut.fi X-Newsreader: Red Gnus v0.57/Emacs 19.34 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.misc:26213 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1446 alt.folklore.computers:124277 worc0223@sable.ox.ac.uk (Benjamin Hutchings) writes: > >biff - dunno > > I heard that Biff was the name of Ken Thompson's dog, which would bark > loudly whenever the mailman came to deliver, but this could be another UL. Quote from A Quarter Century of UNIX ,an excellent book by Peter H. Salus: (pp 169 - 170) John Foderero, a graduate student at Berkeley in the summer of 1980, wrote a progaram that checked whether new mail had arrived. It would tell a user You have new mail. At the time, Heidi Stettner woked in Evans Hall, prior to beginning graduate study. Heidi would bring her dog with her to class and to her office. He was a very friendly dog, and a lot of students enjoyed throwing a ball down the corridor for him to fetch. He even had his picture on the bulletin board with the graduate students: the legend read that he was working on his Ph.Dog. John decided to name the program after the dog: Biff. According to Heidi, John and Billy Joy then spent a lot of time trying to compose an explanation to biff - they came up with "Be notified if mail arrives." Biff, who died in August 1993, at 15, once got a B in compiler class. According to Heidi, the story of Biff barking at the mailman is a scurrilous canard. -- - Matti -