Authentication-Results: minnie.tuhs.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key; unprotected) header.d=dartmouth.edu header.i=@dartmouth.edu header.b="YpT2zuJ4"; dkim-atps=neutral From: Douglas McIlroy Date: Wed, 11 May 2022 19:47:19 -0400 To: TUHS main list Subject: Re: [TUHS] Capitalization question: UNIX/Unix and MULTICS/Multics? Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" The main FJCC 1964 papar, by Vyssotsky, Corbato, and Graham, spelled Multics with an initial cap. By contrast, Ken transcribed the aural pun as UNIX. The lawyers did their best to keep it that way after most of us had decided it looks better as a proper noun. As I recall, there was an acronymic reading of Multics, but it wasn't taken seriously enough to drag the word into all caps. Nobody proposed an acronymic reading of UNIX. So both words defy the convention of rendering acronyms in upper-case. Doug