woodri@sanfan.dec.com (06/21/86)
In a recent note, Don Steiny flamed DEC ("ULTRIX is not UNIX")
with what he considered a heinous crime against portability.
The item he railed against in particular was a change in the format of
the acct structure in sys/h/acct.h. He complained that DEC had
changed the contents of the structure without reason and logic, and
even worse, without documenting the change.
Well, Don, I've got news for you.
As a "software developer that develops software for Unix," that has
"considerable experience" with "various ports," you certainly don't
seem to pay too much attention to the environment you're working in.
Do you think it is DEC's fault when you attempt to use a system
running one version of the OS while relying on documentation for a
previous version of the system? Or perhaps you feel that the Release
Notes are not worth reading when you port to a new version of Unix?
BSD4.2 and 4.3, as well as Ultrix V1.1 all used "comp_t" for the
ac_{e,u,s}time fields in the acct structure. Ultrix V1.2 changed
this type to a float, as Mr. Steiny says. However, if he had taken
the time to read the Release Notes, he would have seen section "1.3.8":
1.3.8 Accounting Accuracy Increased (acct)
The accounting facility records more reliable
accounting data. See acct(5) in the Programmer's
Manual for more information.
If he had bothered to chech the OS rev level on his manuals, he might
have noticed it says "Version 1.1", while every time he logs into his
system, it tells him "Version 1.2". I have both the old and new
manuals sets, and both reflect the contents of the systems acct.h file.
Perhaps it is this lack of attention to his resources that kept Mr.
Steiny "fighting with Ultrix for two days." If he ever discovers any
real problems, DEC would be glad to hear about it.
As for his statement that Ultrix "is note even close to Unix", this
would come as a great surprise to the people at UCB. DEC probably has
a closer working relationship with Berkeley than any other Unix vendor
(only Mt. Xinu could compete for this position). It was this
familiarity which allowed us to incorporate BSD4.3's performance
improvements into Ultrix's kernel even before the BSD was completely
released.
As for Mr. Steiny's claim that all DEC people hate unix, he apparently
doesn't travel in the right circles. It's true that a lot of people
at DEC are very proud of, and quite biased towards DEC's proprietary
operating system; but the unix community within the company is strong.
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Ultrix is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation
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Richard Wood uucp: ...decwrl!rhea!sanfan!woodri
Unix/Ultrix Software Specialist arpa: decwrl!rhea!sanfan!woodri@Berkeley
San Francisco District Enet: sanfan::woodri (DEC internal)
Digital Equipment Corporation voice: 415/769-3236