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History of `awk' and `gawk'
===========================

   The name `awk' comes from the initials of its designers: Alfred V.
Aho, Peter J. Weinberger, and Brian W. Kernighan.  The original version
of `awk' was written in 1977.  In 1985 a new version made the
programming language more powerful, introducing user-defined functions,
multiple input streams, and computed regular expressions.  This new
version became generally available with System V Release 3.1.  The
version in System V Release 4 added some new features and also cleaned
up the behavior in some of the "dark corners" of the language.  The
specification for `awk' in the POSIX Command Language and Utilities
standard further clarified the language based on feedback from both the
`gawk' designers, and the original `awk' designers.

   The GNU implementation, `gawk', was written in 1986 by Paul Rubin
and Jay Fenlason, with advice from Richard Stallman.  John Woods
contributed parts of the code as well.  In 1988 and 1989, David
Trueman, with help from Arnold Robbins, thoroughly reworked `gawk' for
compatibility with the newer `awk'.  Current development (1992) focuses
on bug fixes, performance improvements, and standards compliance.

   We need to thank many people for their assistance in producing this
manual.  Jay Fenlason contributed many ideas and sample programs.
Richard Mlynarik and Robert J. Chassell gave helpful comments on early
drafts of this manual.  The paper `A Supplemental Document for `awk''
by John W.  Pierce of the Chemistry Department at UC San Diego,
pinpointed several issues relevant both to `awk' implementation and to
this manual, that would otherwise have escaped us.  David Trueman, Pat
Rankin, and Michal Jaegermann also contributed sections of the manual.

   The following people provided many helpful comments on this edition
of the manual: Rick Adams, Michael Brennan, Rich Burridge, Diane Close,
Christopher ("Topher") Eliot, Michael Lijewski, Pat Rankin, Miriam
Robbins, and Michal Jaegermann.  Robert J. Chassell provided much
valuable advice on the use of Texinfo.

   Finally, we would like to thank Brian Kernighan of Bell Labs for
invaluable assistance during the testing and debugging of `gawk', and
for help in clarifying numerous points about the language.