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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.mel.aone.net.au!news-out.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!dciteleport.com!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!news.mathworks.com!uunet!in2.uu.net!news-in.tiac.net!posterchild!news@tiac.net From: sailboat@tiac.net (Robert Schuldenfrei) Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: On the Naming of UNIX Things Date: Sat, 09 Nov 1996 00:02:09 GMT Organization: The Internet Access Company, Inc. Lines: 29 Message-ID: <560hkh$m34@news-central.tiac.net> References: <55vhpf$q3o@mail1.wg.waii.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: sailboat.tiac.net X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.misc:26195 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1440 alt.folklore.computers:124231 Mark Whetzel <markw@zeus.wg.waii.com> wrote: >I was having a discussion with some of my co-workers on WHY things >are named as they are in UNIX. Anybody have some of the >tales behind the odd things that bound in unix history? >One question we had of some students we are training: > Why are system processes called 'daemons'? >Some of the others I have heard about: the naming of 'biff', grep, yacc. Yet Another Compiler Compiler (yacc) According to folklore (that is the name of this NG is it not) Ken Thompson had only a model 33 tty on his original system. Kept everything short! Do you know what instuments are on Ken's car's dashboard? One light that illuminates "?" :) Bob Robert Schuldenfrei S. I. Inc. 32 Ridley Road Dedham, MA 02026 Voice: (617) 329-4828 FAX: (617) 329-1696 E-Mail: bob@s-i-inc.com WWW: http://www.tiac.net/users/tangaroa/index.html