Re: The Design of Design

Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> schrieb:

On Tue, 7 May 2024 06:54:17 -0000 (UTC)
Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> wrote:
>

Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> schrieb:
 

Like I said, I'm not a fan of JCL, not at all, I just
think it wasn't as bad as the commentary in The Design of Design
makes it out to be. 

 
I think the point he made is subtly different.
 
The UNIX shells have demonstrated that a command interface is,
and should be, a programming language in its own right. 

>
I wouldn't give that credit to UNIX.

I think I whould have qualitied that statement somewhat.  What I
think the full set of features of the Bourne C shells finally made
it clear to everybody that shells could and should be a complete
programming language.

I was not around, but my impression is that by time of creation of UNIX
it was a common understanding. For example, DEC supplied RSX-11 with
DCL at about the same time [as UNIX got Thompson shell) and I never
heard that anybody considered it novel.

The Thompson shell was still restricted to GOTO (as was the RSX-11
shell).