9fans archive / 1998 / 10 / 63 /    prev next

From: James A. Robinson Jim.Robinson@Sta...
Subject: [9fans] Is there any place ...
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 02:39:33 -0700

> .... that I can get a `feel' for what Plan9 looks like? I have
> tried to wander around various Lucent sites and find them rather
> bizzare---at least from the standpoint of someone who has no prior
> knowledge of Plan9---in how little they communicate about the
> `look and feel' of Plan9 and what might be its advantages v-a-v other
> operating systems.

Well, the Plan 9 papers were what first got my interest. Specifically,
the 8½, Acme, and Alef papers.  Alef seems like the perfect solution
to those of us who like some features of C++, but dislike the, hmm...
'bloat?' of it. Acme is a really cool editor. I'm undecided about
8½ right now, but one thing I know I like is the speed! Overall, I think
that, once I get my file server/cpu server going, this will be a nice
system to explore OS architecture, and perhaps do some real programming
on.

You can get a feel for a *bit* of the user interface by using Unix:
looking at the 'Wily' editor, 9wm and 9term -- acme clone, unix window
manager, and input/output window (like an xterm, but cooler).  If you do
check out 9wm and 9term, make sure you get ahold of a shell that doesn't
think it is a line editor -- rc works well.

Now, if you want to actually RUN plan9, you could go to the web
site and get the 4-disk set for the mini-pc distribution. It is
available at:

	ftp://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/pcdist/
	with docs at
	http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/doc/install.html
	http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/errata.html

	
Jim