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The Jargon File is still a great resource for this kind of search and if you like these background stories like me you might also enjoy reading all of it. > [U
by fooblat 6y ago
The Jargon File is still a great resource for this kind of search and if you like these background stories like me you might also enjoy reading all of it.
> [Unix: from `runcom files' on the CTSS system 1962-63, via the startup script /etc/rc] Script file containing startup instructions for an application program (or an entire operating system), usually a text file containing commands of the sort that might have been invoked manually once the system was running but are to be executed automatically each time the system starts up. See also dot file, profile (sense 1).
0. https://www.eps.mcgill.ca/jargon/jargon.html#rc%20file https://www.eps.mcgill.ca/jargon/jargon.html#rc%20file
- teddyh 6y agoThe canonical location of that link is: http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/R/rc-file.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/R/rc-file.html
- fao_ 6y agoThe canonical location of the jargon file is at jargon-file.org, which contains not just ESR's jargon-file, but also pre-ESR versions. Apparently he ripped a lot out that represented LISP and ITS culture, and spun some of the political aspects of it to conform more to his taste. "rc-file" does not seem to be present pre-ESR, however: https://jargon-file.org/archive/jargon-1.0.3.dos.txt https://jargon-file.org/archive/jargon-1.0.3.dos.txt
- gumby 6y agoBecause we didn’t have any Unix systems at MIT while that collection of terms was assembled. I think the first unix system I saw at the LCS was around 80 or 81. The gnu project was developed on a vax running Unix that somehow had been installed at the AI lab. Nobody used it so RMS decided to use it as a development machine. We had our own OSes, languages, and hardware and at that point in time Unix offered significantly less power for a large investment of effort.
- GeorgeTirebiter 6y agoLCS ran a pdp-11/45 in 1974 that was used to teach lisp. I don't believe it ran unix, but it definitely was multi-user.
- gumby 6y agoI think it was probably RSTS/E. There were other pdp-11s like the KTV or XGP machines. There might have been Unix machines someplace (MIT is a big place) I just meant that never saw any, and in particular around where quux was assembling the jargon file.
- jis 6y agoNope. It ran an in-house OS named "Delphi". There was a PDP 11/45 at LCS and a PDP 11/40 in building 38 used to teach 6.031 (the predecessor of 6.001).