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Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ogicse!milton!Tomobiki-Cho!mrc
From: mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU (Mark Crispin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.misc
Subject: Re: MULTICS and the Jargon File
Message-ID: <12248@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 4 Dec 90 00:43:27 GMT
References: <1YfTW4#8MK9Xf8YJtZH970VXl0fFB3R=eric@snark.thyrsus.com> <1990Dec3.193049.8771@sctc.com>
Sender: news@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: Mendou Zaibatsu, Tomobiki-Cho, Butsumetsu-Shi
Lines: 29

The other major objectionable thing about the new jargon file (I have
marked up hundreds of minor things in a hardcopy of a version of a few
months ago) is the banishment of all the PDP-10 entries to a separate
appendix.  That stuff belongs back in the main body.

The PDP-10 may be dead, but there are still a lot of corpses twitching
out there, and will be for a long long time.  There are many more
PDP-10 systems running *today* than there ever were Multics systems.
I don't know if there are even any Multics systems running today.

Unbelievably, the extreme efforts to flush the PDP-10 extend to TECO,
dialects of which continue to run on far more computers today than
have ever run EMACS!!

I agree with toning down the extreme anti-Unix bias in the old Jargon
file, especially as most of those of us who made the remarks are now
themselves in the Unix camp.  However, the example of the usage
"deserves to lose" should restore the published version's use of
"Unix" instead of "Multics" ["Boy, anybody who tries to use Unix
deserves to lose!" -- a statement which remains true to this day].
That particular line has special historical and sentimental value.

 _____   | ____ ___|___   /__ Mark ("Gaijin") Crispin "Gaijin! Gaijin!"
 _|_|_  -|- ||   __|__   /  / R90/6 pilot, DoD #0105  "Gaijin ha doko?"
|_|_|_|  |\-++-  |===|  /  /  Atheist & Proud         "Niichan ha gaijin."
 --|--  /| ||||  |___|    /\  (206) 842-2385/543-5762 "Chigau. Omae ha gaijin."
  /|\    | |/\| _______  /  \ FAX: (206) 543-3909     "Iie, boku ha nihonjin."
 / | \   | |__|  /   \  /    \MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU  "Souka. Yappari gaijin!"
Hee, dakedo UNIX nanka wo tsukatte, umaku ikanaku temo shiranai yo.