Origin of the word cron?

Question

How can i trace memory consumed by an object in its life time when i am testing my application on device? [e.g.: without any instruments if possible]

Solution 1

cron derives from Chronos which is a word for time in Greek .

And tab stands for table. You can know that it means a time table.

Solution 2

According to Brian Kernighan, Ken Thompson says he originally wrote it, and that it's an accidental misspelling of the prefix "chrono-" (from Greek χρόνος, chrónos, e.g. as in "chronological"). See this Quora answer for more research and context.

This may be the best we can do, sourcing-wise, as old V7 man pages (as well as 32V and PWB) simply refer to it as "cron - clock daemon", with no further etymology given.

Solution 3

I would agree with taffer on likely origins of the command but I think that the only person right now that could definitively answer the question would be Brian Kernighan himself

Comments

[Admin]

χρόνος [chronos] (greek) = time, tabula (latin) = board, Iyyobh [job] (hebrew) = the penitent/hated one

[Admin]

A quick look into my V7 Unix manual (doesn't everyone have one handy?) shows no such reference, nor have the various papers from the time. Prior to that, you'd have to dig into Multics which referred to batch queues as "absentee computation".

[rpetrich]

The archived form of an object may be larger or smaller than the unarchived form. It is at best, an estimate.

[logancautrell]

Agreed, using instruments is the best way to track objects life cycles.

[bsd]

I think Ritchie or even Pike might know, Pike's on G+ if anyone's interested enough to bother asking him.

[Karlson]

@bdowning Dennis Ritchie passed away late last year

[bsd]

Yeah, I knew that. I meant Kernighan, though again, Pike is the one with a G+ acct.