The suitability of the UNIX* operating system as a basis for constructing and using CAD software is assessed in the light of several years experience of using it for this purpose at EdCAAD. computer~ided design, operating systems, UNIX *UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. flmplementations exist, or are underway, for many other machines, including the Univac 1100, the Harris/6 e, the Three Rivers Perq, and the IBM Series/17. EdCAAD Studies, Department of Architecture, Edinburgh University, UK will be a non-trivial task. An operating system available on a wide range of hardware providing the facilities required to construct CAD systems would greatly improve the portability and saleability of CAD systems. Developers and users could choose the most cost-effective hardware available at the time of purchase; systems would no longer become unduly expensive through being tied to a particular manufacturer's hardware.
This paper is not intended as an introduction to the concepts and facilities of UNIX. For this, the reader is referred to the original description in Communications of the ACM I , to the ] uly-August 1978 special issue of the Bell System Technical Journal, and to the paper by Kernighan and Mashey Iยฐ.