Oh I love it! And I had forgotten about Bored of the Rings :)
--- Tim Gorman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ...from <http://www.gksoft.com/a/fun/unix-c-hoax.html>... > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Creators admit: UNIX and C Hoax! > In an announcement that has stunned the computer industry, Ken > Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Brian Kernighan admitted that the Unix > operating system and C programming language created by them is an > elaborate April Fools prank kept alive for over 20 years. Speaking at > the recent UnixWorld Software Development Forum, Thompson revealed > the following: > > "In 1969, AT&T had just terminated their work with the > GE/Honeywell/AT&T Multics project. Brian and I had just started > working with an early release of Pascal from Professor Niklaus > Wirth's ETH labs in Switzerland and we were impressed with its > elegant simplicity and power. Dennis had just finished reading "Bored > of the Rings", a hilarious National Lampoon parody of the great > Tolkien "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. As a lark, we decided to do > parodies of the Multics environment and Pascal. Dennis and I were > responsible for the operating environment. We looked at Multics and > designed the new system to be as complex and cryptic as possible to > maximize casual users' frustration levels, calling it Unix as a > parody of Multics, as well as other more risque allusions. Then > Dennis and Brian worked on a truly warped version of Pascal, called > "A". When we found others were actually trying to create real > programs with A, we quickly added additional cryptic features and > evolved into B, BCPL and finally C. We stopped when we got a clean > compile on the following syntax: > > for(;P("\n"),R--;P("|")) for(e=C;e--;P("_"+(*u++/8)%2)) > P("|"+(*u/4)%2); > > To think that modern programmers would try to use a language that > allowed such a statement was beyond our comprehension! We actually > thought of selling this to the Soviets to set their computer science > progress back 20 or more years. Imagine our surprise when AT&T and > other US corporations actually began trying to use Unix and C! It has > taken them 20 years to develop enough expertise to generate even > marginally useful applications using this 1960's technological > parody, but we are impressed with the tenacity (if not common sense) > of the general Unix and C programmer. In any event, Brian, Dennis and > I have been working exclusively in Pascal on the Apple Macintosh for > the past few years and feel really guilty about the chaos, confusion > and truly bad programming that have resulted from our silly prank so > long ago." > > Major Unix and C vendors and customers, including AT&T, Microsoft, > Hewlett-Packard, GTE, NCR, and DEC have refused comment at this time. > Borland International, a leading vendor of Pascal and C tools, > including the popular Turbo Pascal, Turbo C and Turbo C++, stated > they had suspected this for a number of years and would continue to > enhance their Pascal products and halt further efforts to develop C. > An IBM spokesman broke into uncontrolled laughter and had to postpone > a hastily convened news conference concerning the fate of the > RS-6000, merely stating "VM will be available Real Soon Now." In a > cryptic statement, Professor Wirth of the ETH institute and father of > the Pascal, Modula 2, and Oberon structured languages, merely stated > that P. T. Barnum was correct. > > In a related late-breaking story, usually reliable sources are > stating that a similar confession may be forthcoming from William > Gates concerning the MS-DOS and Windows operating environments. And > IBM spokesman have begun denying that the Virtual Machine (VM) > product is an internal prank gone awry. > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Rachel Carmichael INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
