<div dir="auto">Right. What I do not know is what early machines Harvard had from DEC. MIT had the 18 and 36 bit series which was what I was implying. The key point though is that if Harvard was the root of the PTY tree it would have been on one of those systems not a Unix system because Unix did not come to Harvard until 1974 and RFC 89 was 1971 and RFC 46 in 1970<br clear="all"><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Sent from a handheld expect more typos than usual</div></div></div><div><br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 8:50 PM Aron Insinga <<a href="mailto:aki@insinga.com">aki@insinga.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
<div>
The <a href="https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc89" target="_blank">https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc89</a> mentions a PDP-6 and
PDP-10s which are 36-bit twos complement machines, and a DEC PDP-1
which was an 18-bit one's complement machine. The
"graphics-oriented" PDP-1 probably had the well-known Type 30
display which used a large round radar-type CRT thanks to the
Project SAGE tradition, but there were a couple of other graphics
display options for the PDP-1.<br>
<a href="https://www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/graphics/" target="_blank">https://www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/graphics/</a></div><div><br>
<br>
- Aron<br>
<br>
<br>
<div>On 8/15/25 23:35, Clem Cole wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Watch the dates
- that's not UNIX. In 1973, Version 4 Unix is first released
outside of BTL, so the Harvard system being talked about in
RFC 89 is probably an 18 bit ??PDP6 maybe??. </div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at
8:24 PM Bakul Shah via TUHS <<a href="mailto:tuhs@tuhs.org" target="_blank">tuhs@tuhs.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>From RFC 89 (dated 19 January 1971) titled "Some historic
moments in networking":
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div><font face="Menlo"> Second, the Harvard system has
temporarily implemented this remote</font></div>
<div><font face="Menlo"> network console interface
feature using a DEC style pseudo-teletype</font></div>
<div><font face="Menlo"> (PTY).</font></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>From RFC 46 (dated April 1970) titled "'ARPA Network
Protocol Notes":</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div><font face="Menlo"> 3. A standard way for a newly
created process to initiate pseudo-</font></div>
<div><font face="Menlo"> typewriter communication
with the foreign process which requested</font></div>
<div><font face="Menlo"> its creation.</font></div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>On Aug 15, 2025, at 6:49 PM, ron minnich <<a href="mailto:rminnich@gmail.com" target="_blank">rminnich@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:</div>
<br>
<div>
<div>
<div dir="ltr">was there ever a telnet or other
remote access program that predated ptys on
Unix? Was telnet the driving force for ptys? Did
the folks implementing Unix networking bring in
ptys before, or as part of, or after networking,
i.e. did folks building networking for Unix
realize they needed ptys once they started
working on telnet, or did they plan for ptys
from the get go? I was an observer for some of
this stuff, but as a 20-year-old at UDEL I was
also quite out of the loop.
<div><br>
</div>
<div> I also realize there were multiple Unix
networking efforts, so this question is
somewhat simplistic.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div>I'm assuming rsh came a bit later.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Aug
15, 2025 at 4:19 PM Tom Lyon <<a href="mailto:pugs78@gmail.com" target="_blank">pugs78@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">Yeah, I was thinking that 4.1c
BSD must've had them for rlogin and telnet.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Which got me looking for Fabry and Bill
Joy's design/planning documents for 4.2,
which are not in the TUHS archives.</div>
<div>Anyone got them??</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri,
Aug 15, 2025 at 4:15 PM Warner Losh <<a href="mailto:imp@bsdimp.com" target="_blank">imp@bsdimp.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="auto">At the very least, 4.2BSD
had them for telnet and rlogin. They
were static, though. You had to MAKEDEV
enough units.
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">Warner</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On
Fri, Aug 15, 2025, 5:00 PM ron minnich
<<a href="mailto:rminnich@gmail.com" target="_blank">rminnich@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">That was my guess. I
figured the people who did the work
are on this list, and primary
sources rule.</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On
Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 3:56 PM Ron
Natalie <<a href="mailto:ron@ronnatalie.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">ron@ronnatalie.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<div>
<div>I think that wikipedia
history is somewhat garbled
when it comes to the UNIX
implementations. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
</div>
</blockquote></div></div>