Subject: Re: Reply to Ousterhout's reply (was Re: Ousterhout and Tcl ...)
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Date: 1997/04/11
Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme,comp.lang.scheme.scsh,comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.tcl,comp.lang.functional,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.perl.misc,comp.lang.python,comp.lang.eiffel
Message-ID: <3069759746565482@naggum.no>


* Bert Robbins
| AT&T/Bell Labs, when they still owned Unix, did a good job of giving away
| source code to educational institutions in the late seventies and early
| eighties.

really?  when AT&T/Bell Labs sent out the famous tapes, they had four
requirements imposed on the agreement:

    NO ADVERTISING
    NO SUPPORT
    NO BUG FIXES
    PAYMENT IN ADVANCE

this pretty much built the foundation for Unix user groups, and thus grew
the popularity of Unix -- no thanks to AT&T.  in fact, AT&T's lawyers
didn't want to license Unix out at all at the time, but felt they had to
because of their legal battles and the antitrust suits that were in the
budding.  we can blame the divestiture for the spread of Unix.

| The smart compaines jumped on the C bandwagon, ...

this seems at least as dubious as your first claim.

| Long live Perl!

and this more than any...

#\Erik
-- 
I'm no longer young enough to know everything.