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ed was a lifesaver if your Unix system didn't fully boot because unlike ex/vi, it was statically compiled and had no dependencies on other filesystems. Plus it

ed was a lifesaver if your Unix system didn't fully boot because unlike ex/vi, it was statically compiled and had no dependencies on other filesystems. Plus it was cool to learn just as a bit of history and in a very small way follow in the footsteps of some amazing people.

user3939382 5y ago
I wasn’t alive then but I’m very nostalgic about computing and the people pushing it forward in the 70s, Bell Labs, AT&T, Xerox. It’s probably less amazing to the people who were there but I look on those times with a sense of great wonder.
- kretaceous 5y ago
  Same here. I'm listening to & reading a lot of computer history lately. From Knuth, Kernighan, Thompson, Ritchie, Hopper to more 'modern' pioneers like James Gosling, Chris Lattner, David Patterson, Rich Hickey and Rob Pike. I'm just amazed by how much of the foundation of the software world was laid by these brilliant minds. npm install imposter-syndrome
- ngc248 5y ago
  We need a series of books which would chart out all of the software, innovations and the people involved during that era. I would definitely buy and read it. The history of that era is really interesting.
  - user3939382 5y ago
    Two I can recommend are: Where the Wizards Stay Up Late, and The Idea Factory, which cover the history of the Internet and Bell Labs respectively. There’s also Dealers of Lightning which is about Xerox but I haven’t read it yet.
johnny22 5y ago
that's the ONE AND ONLY time i've ever used ed. I live upgraded a remote server from a much older redhat release to gentoo. This was a system that didn't have a nice console interface, so no fake local terminal. I messed up the mount paths, so nothing that required shared libraries worked. I was able to fix it with ed!
KSPAtlas 5y ago
ed is also the only command line terminal on plan9, which allows you to edit files in case Rio didnt start

user3939382 5y ago

I wasn’t alive then but I’m very nostalgic about computing and the people pushing it forward in the 70s, Bell Labs, AT&T, Xerox. It’s probably less amazing to the people who were there but I look on those times with a sense of great wonder.

kretaceous 5y ago
Same here. I'm listening to & reading a lot of computer history lately. From Knuth, Kernighan, Thompson, Ritchie, Hopper to more 'modern' pioneers like James Gosling, Chris Lattner, David Patterson, Rich Hickey and Rob Pike. I'm just amazed by how much of the foundation of the software world was laid by these brilliant minds. npm install imposter-syndrome
ngc248 5y ago
We need a series of books which would chart out all of the software, innovations and the people involved during that era. I would definitely buy and read it. The history of that era is really interesting.
- user3939382 5y ago
  Two I can recommend are: Where the Wizards Stay Up Late, and The Idea Factory, which cover the history of the Internet and Bell Labs respectively. There’s also Dealers of Lightning which is about Xerox but I haven’t read it yet.

johnny22 5y ago

that's the ONE AND ONLY time i've ever used ed. I live upgraded a remote server from a much older redhat release to gentoo. This was a system that didn't have a nice console interface, so no fake local terminal. I messed up the mount paths, so nothing that required shared libraries worked. I was able to fix it with ed!

KSPAtlas 5y ago

ed is also the only command line terminal on plan9, which allows you to edit files in case Rio didnt start