How the Mac was born... supposedly...

[Mark Davidson]

Hi Jim--

On Jan 13, 2005, at 12:12 PM, Jim Leonard wrote:

> Mark Davidson wrote:
>> Also, and I know this sounds picky, but it's not "Coherent Unix"... 
>> it's "Coherent".  It has NO AT&T code in it.  The Mark Williams 
>> Company wrote most of the code themselves, and eventually added 
>> support for X Windows before the company folded.  Even the C compiler 
>> was theirs (and if I remember correctly, they had a great C compiler 
>> for Intel chips).
>
> You are absolutely right; it was indeed called just "Coherent".  I 
> added the Unix as a reminder as to what Coherent was.  As for no AT&T 
> code, you are also 100% right, and in fact I believe either K or 
> Ritchie himself (can't remember which one) came to MWC offices to 
> verify it.
>

Yes, I remember hearing that... it was certified by AT&T to be 
completely free of their code.

>> I had many happy months working with Coherent in those days (back 
>> when a "real" port of Unix would cost thousands of dollars), and was 
>> sorry to see it go.
>
> Yes, our founder made the fatal mistake of investing in X when he 
> probably should have spent the money on a working TCP/IP 
> implementation.
>
Ack... yep, I remember that.  I had fond memories as well of learning 
"elle", the editor that shipped with the system.

> The manual, if you can grab a copy, remains one of the very best Unix 
> manuals in existence.  It is extremely well-written by Fred Butzen, 
> and is extremely comprehensive in not only the options to various 
> commands but (more importantly) Unix design concepts.  It was great 
> for total beginners; in fact, I remember toward the end that Linux 
> users were ordering Coherent just to get the manual, because Linux 
> documentation in 1994 was nearly non-existent.
>
Yes indeed... the manual was quite impressive.  In fact, I just found a 
copy on EBay and put in a bid for it.

Mark