> Vitali Malicky wrote: > > OK, Hendrik! On monday I'll take "A Student's Guide To UNIX(C)" by Harley > > Hann which I began with 5 years ago, and I'll quote for you and for all dear > > All the whole paragraph where it's explained. > > > > Deal? > Why not? :) But I was more interested what the single letters in dragon > mean, because you already explained a dragon itself. I don't think this > is a right place to share bookchapters.
It's not a chapter :) > > Hendrik ------------------------------------- WHAT'S IN A NAME? Daemons and Dragons Although the name is pronounced "dee-mon", it is correctly spelled "daemon". Nobody knows if the name used to be an acronym or why we use a British variation of the spelling. (In Celtic mythology, a daemon is usually good or neutral, merely a spirit or inspiration. A demon, however, is always an evil spirit entity.) You may occasionally read that the name stands for "Disk and Executing Monitor", a term from old DEC 10 and 20 computers. However, this explanation was made up after the fact. The name "daemon" was first used by MIT programmers who worked in CTSS (the Compatible Time-Sharing System), developed in 1963. They coined the name to refer to what were called DRAGONS by other programmers who worked on ITS (the Incompatible Time-Sharing System). (CTSS and ITS were both ancestors of UNIX. ITS was an important, but strange, operationg system that developed a cult following at MIT. To this day, ITS is still revered among aging east-coast hackers.) Strictly speaking, a dragon is a daemon that is not invoked explicitly but is always there, waiting in the background to perfofrm some task. The cron daemon, for example, might be called a dragon. Although many Unix users have heard of daemons, very few people know about dragons. (But now you do.) Harley Hahn "A Student's Guide To UNIX" ISBN 0-07-025511-3 (page 286) ------------------------------------- Vitali Malicky Zone3000 TechSupport http://www.geocities.com/vitali_malicky > http://search.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Search - Looking for more? Try the new Yahoo! Search _______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
