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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!metro!metro!asstdc.scgt.oz.au!nsw.news.telstra.net!act.news.telstra.net!psgrain!reuter.cse.ogi.edu!netnews1.nwnet.net!netnews.nwnet.net!arclight.uoregon.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!usenet2.news.uk.psi.net!uknet!usenet1.news.uk.psi.net!uknet!uknet!bhamcs!news.ox.ac.uk!sable.ox.ac.uk!worc0223 From: worc0223@sable.ox.ac.uk (Benjamin Hutchings) Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: On the Naming of UNIX Things Date: 8 Nov 1996 20:05:53 GMT Organization: Oxford University, England Lines: 22 Message-ID: <5603r1$b80@news.ox.ac.uk> References: <55vhpf$q3o@mail1.wg.waii.com> <328386bc.112278367@news.ov.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: sable.ox.ac.uk Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.misc:26267 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1462 alt.folklore.computers:124388 In article <328386bc.112278367@news.ov.com>, Pete Barber <pete.barber@openv.co.uk> wrote: [...] >On 8 Nov 1996 14:57:51 GMT, 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? [...] >>Some of the others I have heard about: the naming of 'biff', grep, yacc. >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. -- Ben Hutchings,|finger m95bwh@booth42.ecs.ox.ac.uk|mail benjamin.hutchings@ compsci&mathmo|lynx http://users.ox.ac.uk/~worc0223|worcester.oxford.ac.uk Some mail sent on Saturday may have been lost, please resend if in doubt. Asking whether machines can think is like asking whether submarines can swim.