The Programmer's Workbench (PWB/UNIX) was an early, now discontinued, version of the Unixoperating system that had been created in the Bell Labs Computer Science Research Group of AT&T. Its stated goal was to provide a time-sharing working environment for large groups of programmers, writing software for larger batch processing computers.[1]
Prior to 1973 Unix development at AT&T was a project of a small group of researchers in Department 1127 of Bell Labs. As the usefulness of Unix in other departments of Bell Labs was evident, the company decided to develop a version of Unix tailored to support programmers in production work, not just research. The Programmer's Workbench was started in 1973,[2] by Evan Ivie and Rudd Canaday to support a computer center for a 1000-employee Bell Labs division, which would be the largest Unix site for several years. PWB/UNIX was to provide tools for teams of programmers to manage their source code and collaborate on projects with other team members. It also introduced several stability improvements beyond Research Unix,[3] and broadened usage of the Research nroff and troff text formatters,[4] via efforts with Bell Labs typing pools that led to the -mm macros.
While PWB users managed their source code on PDP-11 Unix systems, programs were often written to run on other operating systems. For this reason, PWB included software for submitting jobs to IBMSystem/370, UNIVAC 1100 series, and SDSSigma 5 computers. In 1977 PWB supported a user community of about 1100 users in the Business Information Systems Programs (BISP) group of Bell Labs.[3][4]
Two major releases of Programmer's Workbench were produced. PWB/UNIX 1.0, released July 1, 1977 was based on Version 6 Unix; PWB 2.0 was based on Version 7 Unix. The operating system was advertised by Bell System Software as late as 1981[5] and edition 1.0 was still on an AT&T price list for educational institutions in 1984.[6] Most of PWB/UNIX was later incorporated in the commercial UNIX System III and UNIX System V releases.
The restricted shell (rsh), an option of the PWB shell, used to create widely-available logins for status-checking, trouble-reporting, but made safe by restricting commands
The troff-mm (memorandum) macro package, written by John R. Mashey and Dale W. Smith
Utilities like find, cpio, expr, all three written by Dick Haight, xargs, egrep and fgrep
yacc and lex, which, though not written specifically for PWB, were available outside of Bell Labs for the first time in the PWB distribution
^T.A. Dolotta; J.R. Mashey (1976). An introduction to the Programmer's Workbench. Proc. 2nd Int'l Conf. on Software Engineering. pp. 164–168.
^John R. Mashey (2004). Languages, Levels, Libraries, and Longevity. ACM Queue 2 (9).
^ abT.A. Dolotta; R.C. Haight; J.R. Mashey (1978), "Unix Time-Sharing System: The Programmer's Workbench" (PDF), Bell System Tech. J., 57 (6): 2177–2200, doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1978.tb02148.x, S2CID 21869088, archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-10-09, retrieved 2012-12-14
^ abFiedler, Ryan (October 1983). "The Unix Tutorial / Part 3: Unix in the Microcomputer Marketplace". BYTE. p. 132. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
^Dennis M. Ritchie. "Unix Advertising". former Bell Labs Computing and Mathematical Sciences Research. Archived from the original on 2 January 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
^"Software List for UNIX System V" (PDF). 1 September 1983. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
External linksedit
Ivie, Evan L. (October 1977), "The Programmer's Workbench — A Machine for Software Development", Communications of the ACM, 20 (10), CACM: 746–753, doi:10.1145/359842.359856, S2CID 17647129
unix, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, november, 2012, learn. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources PWB UNIX news newspapers books scholar JSTOR November 2012 Learn how and when to remove this template message The Programmer s Workbench PWB UNIX was an early now discontinued version of the Unix operating system that had been created in the Bell Labs Computer Science Research Group of AT amp T Its stated goal was to provide a time sharing working environment for large groups of programmers writing software for larger batch processing computers 1 Programmer s Workbench PWB UNIX DeveloperAT amp T Bell LaboratoriesWritten inCOS familyUnixWorking stateDiscontinuedInitial releaseJuly 1 1977 46 years ago 1977 07 01 Latest release2 0Available inEnglishPlatformsDEC PDP 11Defaultuser interfaceCommand line interface PWB shell Prior to 1973 Unix development at AT amp T was a project of a small group of researchers in Department 1127 of Bell Labs As the usefulness of Unix in other departments of Bell Labs was evident the company decided to develop a version of Unix tailored to support programmers in production work not just research The Programmer s Workbench was started in 1973 2 by Evan Ivie and Rudd Canaday to support a computer center for a 1000 employee Bell Labs division which would be the largest Unix site for several years PWB UNIX was to provide tools for teams of programmers to manage their source code and collaborate on projects with other team members It also introduced several stability improvements beyond Research Unix 3 and broadened usage of the Research nroff and troff text formatters 4 via efforts with Bell Labs typing pools that led to the mm macros While PWB users managed their source code on PDP 11 Unix systems programs were often written to run on other operating systems For this reason PWB included software for submitting jobs to IBM System 370 UNIVAC 1100 series and SDS Sigma 5 computers In 1977 PWB supported a user community of about 1100 users in the Business Information Systems Programs BISP group of Bell Labs 3 4 Two major releases of Programmer s Workbench were produced PWB UNIX 1 0 released July 1 1977 was based on Version 6 Unix PWB 2 0 was based on Version 7 Unix The operating system was advertised by Bell System Software as late as 1981 5 and edition 1 0 was still on an AT amp T price list for educational institutions in 1984 6 Most of PWB UNIX was later incorporated in the commercial UNIX System III and UNIX System V releases Contents 1 Features 2 See also 3 References 4 External linksFeatures editNotable firsts in PWB include The Source Code Control System the first UNIX revision control system written by Marc J Rochkind The remote job entry batch submission system The PWB shell written by John R Mashey which preceded Steve Bourne s Bourne shell The restricted shell rsh an option of the PWB shell used to create widely available logins for status checking trouble reporting but made safe by restricting commands The troff mm memorandum macro package written by John R Mashey and Dale W Smith Utilities like find cpio expr all three written by Dick Haight xargs egrep and fgrep yacc and lex which though not written specifically for PWB were available outside of Bell Labs for the first time in the PWB distributionSee also editResearch Unix Writer s Workbench WWB References edit T A Dolotta J R Mashey 1976 An introduction to the Programmer s Workbench Proc 2nd Int l Conf on Software Engineering pp 164 168 John R Mashey 2004 Languages Levels Libraries and Longevity ACM Queue 2 9 a b T A Dolotta R C Haight J R Mashey 1978 Unix Time Sharing System The Programmer s Workbench PDF Bell System Tech J 57 6 2177 2200 doi 10 1002 j 1538 7305 1978 tb02148 x S2CID 21869088 archived from the original PDF on 2022 10 09 retrieved 2012 12 14 a b Fiedler Ryan October 1983 The Unix Tutorial Part 3 Unix in the Microcomputer Marketplace BYTE p 132 Retrieved 30 January 2015 Dennis M Ritchie Unix Advertising former Bell Labs Computing and Mathematical Sciences Research Archived from the original on 2 January 2013 Retrieved 17 February 2014 Software List for UNIX System V PDF 1 September 1983 Retrieved 27 April 2014 External links editIvie Evan L October 1977 The Programmer s Workbench A Machine for Software Development Communications of the ACM 20 10 CACM 746 753 doi 10 1145 359842 359856 S2CID 17647129 Unix ad mentioning PWB from a 1981 issue of Datamation on Dennis Ritchie s homepage PWB distributions from the Ancient UNIX Archive Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title PWB UNIX amp oldid 1198673001, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
