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Questions tagged [multics]

For questions about the Multics operating system.

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2 votes
0 answers
206 views

First operating system with system calls [closed]

Which first operating system implemented system calls? It should answer to the following characteristic I guess: resident program which exposes low level services (doesn't matter what be it read the ...
Boris's user avatar
  • 129
36 votes
4 answers
2k views

How did Multics make library calls available as shell commands?

I was reading Pouzin's comments on the early Multics shell, and I'm a bit confused about this passage: In the same vein, I also felt that commands should be usable as library subroutines, or vice ...
Maury Markowitz's user avatar
33 votes
7 answers
10k views

What are the major technical difference between Multics and Unix?

From the naming of operating system only i.e Unix = Uniplexed Information and Computing Service vs Multics = Multiplexed Information and Computing Service, I was first having a misconception that the ...
Pandya's user avatar
  • 683
12 votes
1 answer
410 views

When was the term Multics (operating system) coined and by whom?

From the history of Multics, I found that Project MAC was established on July 1, 1963 by MIT for the development of the Multics operating system and later GE (General Electric) and AT&T's Bell ...
Pandya's user avatar
  • 683
7 votes
0 answers
303 views

When did Multics begin using '>' as a pathname separator?

As described in this question, Multics used > as the separator between components in pathnames, and < as a parent directory indicator in relative paths. However, an early paper describing the ...
Jules's user avatar
  • 13k
71 votes
3 answers
10k views

Why did Unix use slash as the directory separator?

The Unix designers came from the GE/MIT Multics project, and Multics inspired some Unix features. In particular, Multics has a hierarchical filesystem, and so does Unix. On Multics, pathnames were of ...
Barmar's user avatar
  • 2,370
28 votes
2 answers
2k views

Are there runnable Multics systems available?

I've always read that Multics was a failed precurser of Unix, and was interested in seeing how it looks (as in, what features did Unix remove that Multics had, and did more modern Unixen bring them ...
multics's user avatar
  • 561