Unix System Laboratories: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:25, 13 October 2022

Revision as of 06:48, 30 January 2023

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AT&T announced the creation of the '''UNIX Software Operation''' (USO) – a separate and distinct AT&T business unit responsible for the development, marketing, and licensing of UNIX System V software – in January 1989.<ref name="signals-91">{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UY0-AQAAIAAJ | magazine=Signals | date=1991 | pages=61–66| title=Signals }}</ref> This was done, as a subsequent press release stated, "in order to separate AT&T's UNIX System source code business from its computer systems business,"<ref name="pr-rosetta"/> the latter a reference to [[AT&T Computer Systems]]. USO included the AT&T Data Systems Group organizations responsible for UNIX product planning and management, licensing, and marketing.<ref name="pr-uso"/> [[Peter J. Weinberger]] was named chief scientist of USO while also retaining his job in the computing science research center at [[Bell Labs]]; no other Bell Labs assets were transferred to USO.<ref name="pr-uso">{{cite press release | url=http://tech-insider.org/unix/research/1989/0104.html | title=AT&T Names President Of Unix Software Operation | publisher=PR Newswire | date=January 4, 1989 | access-date=March 28, 2021 | archive-date=January 19, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119060705/http://tech-insider.org/unix/research/1989/0104.html | url-status=live }}</ref> The head of USO was Larry Dooling, who had been a vice-president in sales and marketing in the AT&T Data Systems Group.<ref name="pr-uso"/>

Unlike the original Unix work, which had been done in the Bell Labs facility in [[Murray Hill, New Jersey|Murray Hill]], USO and the commercialization work was done a few miles away in [[Summit, New Jersey]].<ref name="negus"/><ref name="lat-novell"/> This AT&T Bell Labs ___location was known as SF for Summit Facility.<ref>{{cite journal | author2-first=Paul S. | author2-last=Putter | author1-first= Neal R. | author1-last=Wagner | title= Error Detecting Decimal Digits | journal=Communications of the ACM | volume=32 | number= 1 | date=January 1989 | pages= 106–110 | doi=10.1145/63238.63246 | s2cid=805863 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

UNIX System Laboratories, Inc., came into being as a separate subsidiary of AT&T in November 1989 and was assigned all U.S.-based AT&T Unix and USO assets.<ref name="pr-rosetta"/>

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{{see also|C++#History}}

There was also a languages department at Unix System Laboratories,<!-- https://books.google.com/books?id=9yMQAQAAMAAJ Dr. Dobb's Journal of Software Tools ... is member of the languages department at Unix System Laboratories and is the editor of the Standard for the C++ Standardization committee. --> which was responsible for the [[C language]] compiler and development tools used to build Unix.<ref name="pr-uso"/> Moreover, it was responsible for commercial sales related to the C++ language, including development tools such as the [[Cfront]] compiler that had come from AT&T.<ref name="d-and-e"/>

Indeed, the paper describing one of the first implementations of automatic instantiation of [[Template (C++)|C++ templates]] in a C++ compiler had as lead author an engineer associated with Unix System Laboratories.<ref>{{cite journal | first1=Glen | last1=McCluskey | first2=Robert B. | last2=Murray | title=Template Instantiation For C++ | journal=SIGPLAN Notices | volume=27 | issue=12 | date=December 1992 | pages=47–56| doi=10.1145/142181.142195 | s2cid=27330199 | doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="m-and-c"/> And [[Margaret A. Ellis]], co-author with C++ creator [[Bjarne Stroustrup]] of ''The Annotated C++ Reference Manual'', an important publication in the history of the language, was a USL software engineer.<ref name="d-and-e"/>

[[Image:Office within the Unix System Laboratories building in Summit, New Jersey--March 1994.jpg|thumb|left|A software developer working in the Summit building]]