Splinter Unix?

[George W. Leach]

In article <21621 at labrea.STANFORD.EDU> karish at denali.stanford.edu (Chuck Karish) writes:

>Is it any less valid for IBM to maintain a distinct internal version
>of UNIX than it is for AT&T to use Version 9 while they distribute
>System V?


      Not if their reason for doing so is the same ------>  Research!  While
I was at Bell Communications Research I had the opportunity to work with v8
(the predecessor of v9).  We had it due to grandfather clauses in the Judge
Green matter.  Anyway, it is not release outside of the few organizations
within AT&T who use it and a few universities.  It is the test bed for new
ideas, like Dennis Ritchie's streams i/o back in the early 80's, which may
or may not wind up in the product ---> System V.


      I working on an application where we started development under v8.
However, we quickly ported to BSD-flavored commercial systems.  We never
intended to release our product under v8 mostly because it is not a
supported product and our customers could not have access to it.  We liked
v8 for the software development environment that it coupled with the DMD 5620
terminal (Blit) afforded us.  The vast majority of AT&T employees who develop 
under UNIX (there are many who work in the IBM mainframe environments) use 
the product ---> System V.



-- 
George W. Leach					Paradyne Corporation
..!uunet!pdn!reggie				Mail stop LF-207
Phone: (813) 530-2376				P.O. Box 2826
						Largo, FL  34649-2826