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"The UNIX composition is only a novelty for those that never saw other OSes that surfaced at the same time. After all UNIX just adopted the idea from MULTICS."
by dllthomas 11y ago
"The UNIX composition is only a novelty for those that never saw other OSes that surfaced at the same time. After all UNIX just adopted the idea from MULTICS."
One could certainly chain programs through intermediate files. My understanding has it that pipelines were new in Unix, and Wikipedia agrees: "The pipeline concept was invented by Douglas McIlroy and first described in the man pages of Version 3 Unix."
- pjmlp 11y agoYes the concept was popularized by UNIX, but anyone that spends time doing computer archeology will find similar patterns in other OSes, like the ones I listed. Don't forget that back then computing was developed in silos, with knowledge only shared at conferences or when researchers switched universities/companies. So it was quite common that researchers across the globe would come up with similar discoveries.