Re: Why C for the Open Source Movement?

["Ludovic Brenta" <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

thvv writes :
> Ludovic Brenta wrote:
>> zeta_no writes :
>>> Isn't the Unix tradition based on well crafted design mecanisms?
>>
>> No, it's not. It started as a hack made by a few long-haired, rebel
>> programmers in their spare time, bazaar-style. In contrast, MULTICS was
>> intended to be a beautiful cathedral of software, and I think it was
>> written in PL/I not C. MULTICS is still not complete, and I think it'll
>> take as long to complete as it took actual cathedrals :)
>
> Dick Gabriel is welcome to his opinion,

Who is Dick Gabriel?

> but as someone who worked on Multics with the creators of UNIX in
> the 60s I have to say that I don't see it that way. Multics was not
> rigorously planned first and then executed; our design and
> implementation evolved over 20 years.  We did have this pattern of
> writing something and discussing it before coding, and often the
> discussion led to an improved design. Multicians felt that we were
> rebels, back in the 60s, fighting against batch processing, writing
> systems in assembler, and using human waves of programmers.  We
> advocated flexibility, virtual memory, interactiveness, and powerful
> tools.  Ken and Dennis did not have the longest hair or wildest
> beards on the Multics development team.

:-) Thanks a lot for correcting me.  I am honoured that you gave us
this first-hand information.  Multics is quite a legend to me, a bit
like dragons; now I feel like I've just met an actual dragon slayer :)

Still, would you agree that Multics used The Right Thing approach, as
opposed to Unix which uses Worse Is Better?

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.