Information on Multics is stored in segments.  The various kinds of text
that comprise information on Multics are placed in segments in several ways.
By far the most common way is to enter text by way of a text editor.  Multics
has a number of editors; the three most commonly used are listed in the menu
above.

     An editor is a special environment in which you can write new text and
edit existing text.  An editor is invoked simply by typing its name as a
"command."  Some editor commands, of which emacs is one, accept "pathname"
"arguments" that enable you to select a segment for editing at the time you
invoke the editor.  For example, the command line:

emacs my_segment

will set up the emacs editor and display the segment named my_segment for
you to work on.  With the Qedx and Ted editors, you have to wait until the
editor is invoked to select a segment.  When you intend to create a new
segment, you just start typing once the editor is in place; you name the
segment when it is time to store it.


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Historical Background

This edition of the Multics software materials and documentation is provided and donated
to Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Group BULL including BULL HN Information Systems Inc. 
as a contribution to computer science knowledge.  
This donation is made also to give evidence of the common contributions of Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Bell Laboratories, General Electric, Honeywell Information Systems Inc., Honeywell BULL Inc., Groupe BULL
and BULL HN Information Systems Inc. to the development of this operating system. 
Multics development was initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Project MAC (1963-1970),
renamed the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in the mid 1970s, under the leadership
of Professor Fernando Jose Corbato. Users consider that Multics provided the best software architecture 
for managing computer hardware properly and for executing programs. Many subsequent operating systems 
incorporated Multics principles.
Multics was distributed in 1975 to 2000 by Group Bull in Europe , and in the U.S. by Bull HN Information Systems Inc., 
as successor in interest by change in name only to Honeywell Bull Inc. and Honeywell Information Systems Inc. .

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Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute these programs and their documentation for any purpose and without
fee is hereby granted,provided that the below copyright notice and historical background appear in all copies
and that both the copyright notice and historical background and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation, and that the names of MIT, HIS, BULL or BULL HN not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining
to distribution of the programs without specific prior written permission.
    Copyright 1972 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Honeywell Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by BULL HN Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by Bull SAS
    All Rights Reserved