Re:The UCSD p-System, Apple Pascal, and a dream of cross-pla...
by kragen on Thursday May 01, 2025 @10:01PM
(#43865415)
Do you have any clues about which DEC system it might be drawing these other elements from? I mean specifically:
- FCBs.
- A command interpreter prompt ending in ">" rather than "*" or ".".
- 8-character filenames (rather than 6).
- ASCII filenames (rather than RADIX-50).
- Drive letters.
- PIP switches in square brackets rather than introduced by slashes. (Some TENEX programs evidently enclosed their switches in parentheses, but the ones I've seen so far don't use square brackets.)
- Launching programs from the command interpreter with command-line arguments, like Unix.
Maybe Kildall thought all these things up himself, but I suspect some previous DEC OS was their origin. But it isn't RT-11, TENEX, the DEC 10/50 monitor, TOPS-20, or VMS.
I want to emphasize I'm not claiming that these are advances or innovations. I'm just saying that they suggest some other influence.
- FCBs.
- A command interpreter prompt ending in ">" rather than "*" or ".".
- 8-character filenames (rather than 6).
- ASCII filenames (rather than RADIX-50).
- Drive letters.
- PIP switches in square brackets rather than introduced by slashes. (Some TENEX programs evidently enclosed their switches in parentheses, but the ones I've seen so far don't use square brackets.)
- Launching programs from the command interpreter with command-line arguments, like Unix.
Maybe Kildall thought all these things up himself, but I suspect some previous DEC OS was their origin. But it isn't RT-11, TENEX, the DEC 10/50 monitor, TOPS-20, or VMS.
I want to emphasize I'm not claiming that these are advances or innovations. I'm just saying that they suggest some other influence.