Origin of 'awk'
Wes Morgan
requisite fight scene. The Boy Wonder delivered a hefty blow
to a villain's henchman, and the necessary 'visual sound effect'
came up on the screen. But, lo! This was no *ordinary* Batman
sound effect, for filling my screen was the magic word
@AWK!!!@
Is *this* the true origin of one of my favorite UNIX commands?
Could it have really come from a campy 60's action/adventure show?
Wes
--
w...@engr.uky.edu OR wes%ukecc.uucp@ukma OR ...cbosgd!ukma!ukecc!wes
Ho! Ha ha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Thrust! <*SPROING!*>
Actually, it's a buck-and-a-quarter quarterstaff, but I'm not telling him that!
964[jak]-Robert Halloran
>I was watching an old episode of Batman, and was enjoying the
>requisite fight scene. The Boy Wonder delivered a hefty blow
>to a villain's henchman, and the necessary 'visual sound effect'
>came up on the screen. But, lo! This was no *ordinary* Batman
>sound effect, for filling my screen was the magic word
>
>@AWK!!!@
>
>Is *this* the true origin of one of my favorite UNIX commands?
>Could it have really come from a campy 60's action/adventure show?
From "The UNIX Programming Environment" by Kernighan & Pike:
"'sed' was designed & implemented by Lee McMahon, using 'ed' as a base.
'awk' was designed by Al Aho, Peter Weinberger and Brian Kernighan, by
a much less elegant process. Naming a language after its authors also
shows a certain poverty of imagination."
A, W, K for the authors' last initials, OK?
Bob Halloran
Distributed Programming
Tools Group
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Ken Lee
>
>Is *this* the true origin of one of my favorite UNIX commands?
>Could it have really come from a campy 60's action/adventure show?
The authors of AWK were Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian
Kernighan. Like all good Bell Labs hackers, they were Batman fans and
stole the expression from the show. The Batman people sued for
copyright infringement, though, so our heros had to invent a logical
reason for the name AWK. Thus, the disinformation you commonly hear
about AWK being the initials of Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan.
Ken
Rahul Dhesi
In article <14...@mtune.ATT.COM> r...@mtune.UUCP (Robert Halloran) writes:
>A, W, K for the authors' last initials, OK?
Sure, and I suppose you'll tell us next that Kermit stands for
Kilobaud-rate ERror-free Microcomputer Information Transfer.
Hah. Actually, it all goes back to a little green frog named Awk.
Guvf vf zber sha vs V yrnir bhg gur fzvyrl snpr.
--
Rahul Dhesi UUCP: <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee,uunet}!bsu-cs!dhesi
Christopher Dollin
>
>Is *this* the true origin of one of my favorite UNIX commands?
>Could it have really come from a campy 60's action/adventure show?
Isn't it an abbreviation of "awkward"? I hear there's a command whose name is
a contraction of "vile" .....................................................
Regards,
Kers | "Why Lisp if you can talk Poperly?"
Kim Chr. Madsen
>requisite fight scene. The Boy Wonder delivered a hefty blow
>to a villain's henchman, and the necessary 'visual sound effect'
>came up on the screen. But, lo! This was no *ordinary* Batman
>sound effect, for filling my screen was the magic word
>@AWK!!!@
>Is *this* the true origin of one of my favorite UNIX commands?
>Could it have really come from a campy 60's action/adventure show?
Well not really, the name is derived from the surnames of it's three
fathers:
Alfred V. Aho
Peter J. Weinberger
Brian W. Kernighan
And while on the topic they have just sent out the book:
The AWK Programming Language
The book is organized in much the same manner as the "The C
Programming Language" book, and is filled with good examples of the
usage of AWK. I strongly recommend the book to everybody using AWK or
is getting into database work. (As AWK beat the h*** out of any other
report generator I've seen -- or as someone said the best 4GL he ever
has seen).
An AWK Addict
Kim Chr. Madsen.
haf...@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu
Sorry, the name "AWK" comes from the authors: Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan.
Say, does anyone *really* know where the name "biff" comes from? I've heard
two derivations:
1) "Be InFormed iF" mail arrives
2) That it was named after the Author's dog, Biff.
David Collier-Brown
awk: squawk! THUD...
On my current machine, strings doesn't find it in awk, so
presumably it wasn't in all versions. In those it was, the message
seemed to indicate an interrupted system call...
--
David Collier-Brown. {mnetor yunexus utgpu}!geac!daveb
Geac Computers International Inc., | Computer Science loses its
350 Steelcase Road,Markham, Ontario, | memory (if not its mind)
CANADA, L3R 1B3 (416) 475-0525 x3279 | every 6 months.
Jeff P Szczerbinski
>Say, does anyone *really* know where the name "biff" comes from? I've heard
>two derivations:
I wouldn't doubt it if BIFF comes from Batman too...:-)
Aloha,
Jeff
Jeff Szczerbinski Univ. of Wisc. - Milwaukee -- Computer Services Division
j...@csd4.milw.wisc.edu +1 414 229 5172
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Anarchy -- Its not the law, its just a good idea!"
Hwa Jin Bae
>>@AWK!!!@
>>
>>Is *this* the true origin of one of my favorite UNIX commands?
>>Could it have really come from a campy 60's action/adventure show?
>
>Isn't it an abbreviation of "awkward"? I hear there's a command whose name is
>a contraction of "vile" .....................................................
Close...but, Aho Weinberger Kernigan (AWK) - composed of first
letters of three authors' last names.
Hwa Jin Bae
Control Data Corp. bae@{ati,aftac}.tis.llnl.gov (Internet)
4234 Hacienda Drive {ames,ihnp4,lll-crg}!lll-tis!bae (UUCP)
Pleasanton, CA 94566 hbae@plseca (smail)
Steve DeJarnett
>
>2) That it was named after the Author's dog, Biff.
I heard that it was the dog that hung around the lab where they were
working on it. This discussion occured sometime last year, and I believe
this was accepted by at least a majority as how it happened. Anyone else
remember differently???
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Steve DeJarnett | ...!ihnp4!csun!polyslo!steve |
| Computer Systems Lab | ...!{csustan,csun,sdsu}!polyslo!steve |
| Cal Poly State Univ. | ...!ucbvax!voder!polyslo!steve |
| San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 | |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#include <std_disclaimer.h>
Bert Still
>a contraction of "vile" .....................................................
Nope. It's named after its developers Aho, Weinberger, and Kernigan... And as
far as the veiled references to "vi", let's avoid another round of editor-
bashing, shall we?
Chris Torek
In the background, there is a plane going down.
In the foreground, we see a bird wearing a parachute.
Underneath is the line:
awk: bailing out near line 1
--
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain: ch...@mimsy.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris
BEATTIE
> In the background, there is a plane going down.
> In the foreground, we see a bird wearing a parachute.
> Underneath is the line:
> awk: bailing out near line 1
I have this T-shirt also.
I got it several years ago from a place called:
The Independent UNIX Bookstore
I suspect they no longer exist.
Tombo.
Frederick M. Avolio
>> In the background, there is a plane going down.
>> In the foreground, we see a bird wearing a parachute.
>> Underneath is the line:
>> awk: bailing out near line 1
I believe that Jim Joyce's UNIX(tm) Bookstore might carry it. (If
not, let him know that there may be a demand to have them at next
USENIX.)
47 Potomac St., SF, CA, 94117
415-626-7581
I don't work for them. Just passing on info. Heck, I can't even get
on his mailing list!
Fred
Mark Williams
>
>Sure, and I suppose you'll tell us next that Kermit stands for
>Kilobaud-rate ERror-free Microcomputer Information Transfer.
Quote from: _KERMIT:_Users_Guide_and_Secification_
by Bill Catchings and Frank da Cruz
Columbia University Centre for Computing Activities
17 September 1981
- No Rights Reserved -
"Kermit is a set of programs that implement the "Kl 10 Error-free
Reciprocal Microcomputer Interchange over Tty-lines" protocol.
(However I saw in a later manual somewhere that the name KERMIT
is used with permission of Henson and Associates.)
>Guvf vf zber sha vs V yrnir bhg gur fzvyrl snpr.
:-)
>Rahul Dhesi UUCP: <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee,uunet}!bsu-cs!dhesi
Mark Williams Arpa: ccwilliams%wombat.de...@uunet.uu.net
--
DISCLAIMER: Whenever I tell them my opinions they fall asleep.
Pound for pound, the amoeba is the most vicious creature on earth.
Steven Sargent
> >2) That it was named after the Author's dog, Biff.
>
> working on it. This discussion occured sometime last year, and I believe
> this was accepted by at least a majority as how it happened. Anyone else
> remember differently???
>
>
> | Steve DeJarnett | ...!ihnp4!csun!polyslo!steve
Biff Studworth III was Heidi Stettner's dog. He used to ride the Evans
Hall elevators, and would also come to database seminar. His picture
was in the grad students' "rogues' gallery"; he was listed as a PhDog
candidate.
A very nice fellow, by academic standards (insert stoopid USEnet grimace).
Steven Sargent.
----
ARPA Internet: sa...@scam.berkeley.edu
TPCnet: {anywhere at all, really}!ucbvax!scam!sarge
Tim Steele
as it is the Celtic [sic] word for 'free'.
Tim
Peter J. Holsberg
"Kermit" is the Celtic word for "Beat L.A."! :-)
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Technology Division CompuServe: 70240,334
Mercer College GEnie: PJHOLSBERG
Trenton, NJ 08690 Voice: 1-609-586-4800
Ron Heiby
published by Digital Press, 1987, ISBN 0-932376-88-6, page 3 (un-numbered).
"We invented a new protocol and called it Kermit, after
Kermit the Frog, star of "The Muppet Show." [3]
[3] Why? Mostly because there was a Muppets calendar
on the wall when we were trying to think of a name, and
Kermit is a pleasant, unassuming sort of character. But
since we weren't sure whether it was OK to name our protocol
after this popular television and movie star, we pretended
that KERMIT was an acronym; unfortunately, we could never find
a good set of words to go with the letters, as readers of some
of our early source code can attest. Later, while looking
through a name book for his forthcoming baby, Bill Catchings
noticed that "Kermit" was a Celtic word for "free", which is
what all Kermit programs should be, and words to this effect
replaced the strained acronyms in our source code (Bill's baby
turned out to be a girl, so he had to name her Becky instead).
When BYTE Magazine was preparing our 1984 Kermit article for
publication, they suggested we contact Henson Associates Inc.
for permission to say that we did indeed name the protocol after
Kermit the Frog. Permission was kindly granted, and now the
real story can be told. I resisted the temptation, however, to
call the present work "Kermit the Book."
I hope that clears things up sufficiently.
--
Ron Heiby, he...@mcdchg.UUCP Moderator: comp.newprod & comp.unix
"I believe in the Tooth Fairy." "I believe in Santa Claus."
"I believe in the future of the Space Program."