Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!cunixf.cc.columbia.edu!shenkin
From: shenkin@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Peter S. Shenkin)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Compilation listing from Sun F77READ/NEW/FOLLOWUP
Message-ID: <1991Jun15.143436.5574@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Date: 15 Jun 91 14:34:36 GMT
Organization: Columbia University
Lines: 46

Well, this thread has strayed from a discussion of Fortran to comparisons/
complaints between/about operating systems.  So it doesn't belong here.
Nevertheless, I'm going to put in my $.02.  (At least I didn't start it  :-) )

The reason UNIX has become so popular is not because it's efficient and
not because it's user-friendly, but because it is the first hardware-independent
operating system, modulo SysV vs. BSD.  I can go to a Convex, an Alliant,
a Sun, an Iris, etc. nearly ad infinitum, and know just what to do to get a 
directory listing, see a man page, edit a text file, compile and load a 
program.  You can't say that about CMS, VMS, CTSS, etc.  Jim Giles complains 
about several UNIX "features";  for instance, he points out that that in order 
to get a wildcard character into an application you have to disable the shell's
command-line preprocessing by using quotes or escapes.  True, but once
you know a little about UNIX this becomes intuitive;  you do it all the time,
for example, when you use "grep" or "find".  

I don't really have an opinion on this "feature", but even if we assume
UNIX did this and many other things the wrong way, I can still take my knowledge
and move it to another platforms.  I don't have to learn a whole new OS when
I have the budget to buy the new latest and greatest brand workstation.

Similarly with efficiency.  VMS really gets the most out of a VAX, which is
great if you are sure a VAX will always be what you want.  Taking the long
view, hardware has been moving so fast that transportability of my skills
is far more important to me than getting the most out of my machine;  in
two years I can buy another machine which will be faster, even with UNIX's
inefficiency, than my present machine would be with an optimal OS -- and it
will cost me less than my existing machine as well.  People in other sorts
of computing environments than mine may differ.  If you're running huge
codes and need every ounce of performance out of the best hardware available
at any moment, it will be worth your while to learn to interact with a 
new OS every two years.  Perhaps this is Jim's situation.

Prediction:  when these improvements in hardware slow down, the efficiency 
of an OS will become more important than the transportability of skills.
We will see new OSs written that are designed, like VMS for the VAX, to get
the maximum out of the architecture, and since these will be written from 
scratch the user interfaces will correct some of UNIX's mistakes.

Summary:  UNIX is the wave of the present.

	-P.
************************f*u*cn*rd*ths*u*cn*gt*a*gd*jb**************************
Peter S. Shenkin, Department of Chemistry, Barnard College, New York, NY  10027
(212)854-1418  shenkin@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu(Internet)  shenkin@cunixf(Bitnet)
***"In scenic New York... where the third world is only a subway ride away."***