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From: lambert@boring.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Why the vax, but not the Unix??
Message-ID: <6449@boring.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 8-Jun-85 14:49:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: boring.6449
Posted: Sat Jun  8 14:49:03 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Jun-85 08:36:21 EDT
References: <27400001@gypsy.UUCP> <546@hou2b.UUCP>
Reply-To: lambert@boring.UUCP (Lambert Meertens)
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 37
Apparently-To: rnews@mcvax.LOCAL

> Why "the VAX" and not "the UNIX"?
> Because using UNIX as a noun is incorrect.  The trademark UNIX
> is an adjective which must modify something:
>  the UNIX operating system
>  the UNIX kernal
> etc.
> So try using it properly if you want the article included.

I don't buy this explanation. I have seen "UNIX" used as a noun hundreds of
times. For example, in "man learn" we find:

     "learn - computer aided instruction about UNIX"

     "*Learn* gives Computer Aided Instruction courses and practice
     in the use of UNIX, the C Shell, and the Berkeley text editors."

     "The main strength of *learn*, that it asks the student to use
     the real UNIX, also makes possible baffling mistakes."

If "UNIX" is replaced by an adjective, these sentences become
ungrammatical.  Many more examples can be found on other man pages.

Just like we cannot say "the UNIX", we cannot (normally) say "a UNIX",
whereas "a Vax" is quite normal.  Although there are different types of
Vaxen, in saying "a Vax" we do not indicate a type (like 11/780), but an
instance (like "the Vax in the basement").  So, even though there are many
UN*Xes now, in normal speech "UNIX" stands for the abstraction "the
friendly operating system designed by hackers that changed the world" or
something like that--never mind all the versions.  *All* software names are
used in the same way as names of cities, like "New York": one cannot say
"the New York" (but one *can* say: "the real New York").  Even though this
may not be an *explanation*, it seems at least to be the rule.
-- 

     Lambert Meertens
     ...!{seismo,okstate,garfield,decvax,philabs}!lambert@mcvax.UUCP
     CWI (Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science), Amsterdam