Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!portal!atari!daisy!klee
From: klee@daisy.UUCP (Ken Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Origin of 'awk'
Message-ID: <911@daisy.UUCP>
Date: 9 Mar 88 00:41:24 GMT
References: <2111@ukecc.engr.uky.edu>
Reply-To: klee@daisy.UUCP (Ken Lee)
Organization: Daisy Systems Corp., Mountain View, Ca.
Lines: 14

In article <2111@ukecc.engr.uky.edu> wes@engr.uky.edu (Wes Morgan) writes:
>@AWK!!!@
>
>Is *this* the true origin of one of my favorite UNIX commands?
>Could it have really come from a campy 60's action/adventure show?

The authors of AWK were Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian
Kernighan.  Like all good Bell Labs hackers, they were Batman fans and
stole the expression from the show.  The Batman people sued for
copyright infringement, though, so our heros had to invent a logical
reason for the name AWK.  Thus, the disinformation you commonly hear
about AWK being the initials of Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan.

Ken