24 Apr
2008
24 Apr
'08
7:16 p.m.
Tim Bradshaw wrote:
I think it's fascinating that we may end up with
a working first edition
Unix which has been *typed in by hand in 2008*.
Only the kernel. Sounds like Warren has the rest in machine-readable form.
This is exactly what they had to do to get DTSS running again. The code was
retyped from a listing that a field service engineer had saved in his garage.
I see this a LOT at the Computer History Museum. The oldest code has only survived
on paper (tape, cards, listings). Almost no magnetic media has survived from the
60's. I was recently talking to someone about OS/360, and it appears almost none of
it from the 60's has survived, which is staggering considering how pervasive those
systems were.