123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116 |
- <html>
- <title>
- preface
- </title>
- <body BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#330088" ALINK="#FF0044">
- <H1>Preface to the Second (1995) Edition
- </H1>
- <P>
- Plan 9 was born in the same lab where Unix began.
- Old Unix hands will recognize the cultural heritage in this manual,
- where venerable Unix commands live on,
- described in the classic Unix style. Underneath, though, lies
- a new kind of system, organized around communication and
- naming rather than files and processes.
- </P>
- <P>
- In Plan 9, distributed computing is a central premise,
- not an evolutionary add-on. The system relies on a
- uniform protocol to refer to and communicate
- with objects, whether they be data or processes, and whether or
- not they live on the same machine or even similar machines.
- A single paradigm (writing to named places) unifies
- all kinds of control and interprocess signaling.
- </P>
- <P>
- Name spaces can be built arbitrarily. In particular all
- programs available to a given user are customarily united
- in a single logical directory.
- Temporary files and
- untrusted activities can be confined in isolated spaces.
- When a portable machine connects to the
- central, archival file system, the machine's local
- name space is joined smoothly to that of the archival file system.
- The architecture affords other unusual abilities, including:
- </P>
- <DL>
- <DT><DT> <DD>
- Objects in name spaces imported from other machines (even from
- foreign systems such as MS-DOS) are transparently accessible.
- <DT><DT> <DD>
- Windows appear in name spaces on a par with files and processes.
- <DT><DT> <DD>
- A historical file system allows one to navigate
- the archival file system in time as well as in space;
- backup files are always at hand.
- <DT><DT> <DD>
- A debugger can handle simultaneously active processes
- on disparate kinds of hardware.
- </dl>
- <P>
- The character set of Plan 9 is Unicode, which
- covers most of the world's major scripts.
- The system has its own programming languages:
- a dialect of C with simple inheritance, a simplified shell,
- and a CSP-like concurrent language, Alef.
- An ANSI-POSIX emulator (APE) admits unreconstructed Unix code.
- </P>
- <P>
- Plan 9 is the work of many people.
- The protocol was begun by Ken Thompson; naming
- was integrated by Rob Pike and networking by Dave Presotto.
- Phil Winterbottom simplified the management of name spaces
- and re-engineered the system.
- They were joined by Tom Killian, Jim McKie, and Howard Trickey in
- bringing the system up on various machines and making
- device drivers.
- Thompson made the C compiler;
- Pike, window systems;
- Tom Duff, the shell and raster graphics;
- Winterbottom, Alef;
- Trickey, Duff, and Andrew Hume, APE.
- Bob Flandrena ported a myriad of
- programs to Plan 9.
- Other contributors include
- Alan Berenbaum,
- Lorinda Cherry,
- Bill Cheswick,
- Sean Dorward,
- David Gay,
- Paul Glick,
- Eric Grosse,
- John Hobby,
- Gerard Holzmann,
- Brian Kernighan,
- Bart Locanthi,
- Doug McIlroy,
- Judy Paone,
- Sean Quinlan,
- Bob Restrick,
- Dennis Ritchie,
- Bjarne Stroustrup,
- and
- Cliff Young.
- </P>
- <P>
- Plan 9 is made available as is, without formal support, but
- substantial comments or contributions may be communicated to
- the authors.
- <br> <br>
- <DL><DT><DD>
- <DL><DT><DD>
- <DL><DT><DD>
- <DL><DT><DD>
- <DL><DT><DD>
- <DL><DT><DD>
- <DL><DT><DD>
- <DL><DT><DD>
- Doug McIlroy
- <br>
- March, 1995
- </P>
- <br> <br>
- <A href=http://www.lucent.com/copyright.html>
- Copyright</A> © 2000 Lucent Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.
- </body></html>
|