New: The Earliest UNIX Code - From the Collection of the Software History Center, Computer History Museum
17 Oct
2019
17 Oct
'19
7:21 p.m.
THE EARLIEST UNIX CODE: AN ANNIVERSARY SOURCE CODE RELEASE
http://bit.ly/31pWcvM
Cheers,
Lyle
--
73 NM6Y
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
https://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"
17 Oct
17 Oct
8:44 p.m.
New subject: Space Travel, was New: The Earliest UNIX Code
On Thu, Oct 17, 2019 at 12:21:05PM -0700, Lyle Bickley wrote:
THE EARLIEST UNIX CODE: AN ANNIVERSARY SOURCE CODE
RELEASE
http://bit.ly/31pWcvM
Thanks Lyle. Yay, one of the two artifacts I've been waiting
for has dropped. This is the second half of the PDP-7 source
code "book", of which we've only had the first half from
Norman Wilson.
We now have the source to Space Travel, plus roff and sh, for
the PDP-7!
I've broken the single PDF from CHM into several sections and
put them here:
https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/McIlroy_v0/
09-1-35.pdf user-mode programs: maths functions, ln, ls, moo,nm
10-36-55.pdf user-mode programs: pool game
11-56-91.pdf user-mode programs: pd, psych, rm, rn, roff, salv, sh
12-92-119.pdf user-mode programs: space travel
13-120-147.pdf user-mode programs: stat, tm, t (B interpreter?)
14-148-165.pdf user-mode programs: ttt, un
We may also have the B interpreter, but I'm not sure about that.
Cheers all, Warren
10:39 p.m.
New subject: Space Travel, was New: The Earliest UNIX Code
On Thu, Oct 17, 2019 at 2:45 PM Warren Toomey <wkt(a)tuhs.org> wrote:
On Thu, Oct 17, 2019 at 12:21:05PM -0700, Lyle Bickley
wrote:
Have these been OCR'd yet? Or just the scans?
Warner
THE EARLIEST UNIX CODE: AN ANNIVERSARY SOURCE
CODE RELEASE
http://bit.ly/31pWcvM
Thanks Lyle. Yay, one of the two artifacts I've been waiting
for has dropped. This is the second half of the PDP-7 source
code "book", of which we've only had the first half from
Norman Wilson.
We now have the source to Space Travel, plus roff and sh, for
the PDP-7!
I've broken the single PDF from CHM into several sections and
put them here:
https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/McIlroy_v0/
09-1-35.pdf user-mode programs: maths functions, ln, ls, moo,nm
10-36-55.pdf user-mode programs: pool game
11-56-91.pdf user-mode programs: pd, psych, rm, rn, roff, salv, sh
12-92-119.pdf user-mode programs: space travel
13-120-147.pdf user-mode programs: stat, tm, t (B interpreter?)
14-148-165.pdf user-mode programs: ttt, un
We may also have the B interpreter, but I'm not sure about that.
10:51 p.m.
New subject: Space Travel, was New: The Earliest UNIX Code
No OCRs yet. Warren
On 18 October 2019 8:39:34 am AEST, Warner Losh <imp(a)bsdimp.com> wrote:
On Thu, Oct 17, 2019 at 2:45 PM Warren Toomey
<wkt(a)tuhs.org> wrote:
--
Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
This is the second half of the PDP-7 source
code "book", of which we've only had the first half from
Norman Wilson.
We now have the source to Space Travel, plus roff and sh, for
the PDP-7!
Have these been OCR'd yet? Or just the scans?
Warner 
18 Oct
18 Oct
5:59 a.m.
New subject: Space Travel, was New: The Earliest UNIX Code
Warren Toomey wrote:
Warner Losh wrote:
No OCRs yet.
Warren
What is everyone's experience with source code OCR? I have tried it a
few times, and the resutls haven't been that good. In my experience
it's about as much effort as typing it manually.
I'm working on a GRAPHICS-2 simulation so we can run Space Travel.
Obviously I'd like a machine readable version of the program. However,
I'm not volunteering to do all the typing myself.
We now
have the source to Space Travel, plus roff and sh, for the
PDP-7!
Have these been OCR'd yet? Or just the scans? 
9:30 a.m.
New subject: Space Travel, was New: The Earliest UNIX Code
El vie., 18 oct. 2019 8:00, Lars Brinkhoff <lars(a)nocrew.org> escribió:
What is everyone's experience with source code OCR? I have tried it a
few times, and the resutls haven't been that good. In my experience
it's about as much effort as typing it manually.
I use Office Lens with my móviles. Impressive results (for good) in some
moments.
Cordiales saludos / Best Regards / Salutations / Freundliche Grüße
-----
Sergio Pedraja
5:36 p.m.
New subject: Space Travel, was New: The Earliest UNIX Code
On 18/10/2019, Lars Brinkhoff <lars(a)nocrew.org> wrote:
Warren Toomey wrote:
Doug had an excellent comment on OCR:
https://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/2019-February/017474.html
Warner Losh wrote:
No OCRs yet.
Warren
What is everyone's experience with source code OCR? I have tried it a
few times, and the resutls haven't been that good. In my experience
it's about as much effort as typing it manually. We now
have the source to Space Travel, plus roff and sh, for the
PDP-7!
Have these been OCR'd yet? Or just the scans?
3:01 a.m.
New subject: Space Travel, was New: The Earliest UNIX Code
On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 06:44:38AM +1000, Warren Toomey wrote:
We now have the source to Space Travel, plus roff and
sh, for
the PDP-7!
I've broken the single PDF from CHM into several sections.
A few people have asked me if the scans have been OCR'd yet. The
answer is no. Also, the input is not easily recognisable with
automated OCR technology: I've already tried. We will have to
hand transcribe the files as we did with the first half.
There is already a PDP7 Unix mailing list from the past resurrection
effort. If you'd like to join and help out with the transcribing,
please e-mail me and I'll add you to the list. The list archive is:
https://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/pdp7-unix/
Cheers, Warren
5:07 a.m.
New subject: Space Travel, was New: The Earliest UNIX Code
Warren Toomey wrote:
We now have the source to Space Travel
Is it here, and if so, which pages?
https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2019/09/102785108…
1:37 p.m.
New subject: Space Travel, was New: The Earliest UNIX Code
On Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 11:10 PM Lars Brinkhoff <lars(a)nocrew.org> wrote:
Oh, the PDF is searchable. Very nice. Page 109.
Searchable means at least some ocr uas happened.
I have had at best mediocre results trying to ocr the cb unix file. Maybe
these will be different.
Warner
We now have the source to Space Travel
Is it
here, and if so, which pages?
7:40 a.m.
New subject: File system salvager, "salv"
Warren Toomey wrote:
11-56-91.pdf user-mode programs: pd, psych, rm, rn,
roff, salv, sh
My attention is drawn to "salv".
Clem Cole wrote in 2016:
The original FS tools for UNIX icheck/dcheck/ncheck
were very crude.
TSS and MTS (used a similar/same FS format) and and had a similar
program in the key of fsck that Ted was familiar (as did a number of
DEC systems for that matter). Ted wrote the original version of
premordial fsck for v6 at UMich (maybe v5 - Joy probably would know
what the version of UNIX was there then). Ted took "pre-fsck" to Bell
Lab the summer between Mich and CMU. [...]
https://minnie.tuhs.org/Archive/Documentation/TUHS/Mail_list/2016-April.txt
There are these V2 and V3 man pages.
https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/Dennis_v2/v2man.pdf
https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V3/man/man8/salv.8
I see a V3 man page for dcheck, but nothing for icheck until V6.
So it appears before fsck, and before icheck etc, there was salv, the
file system salvager tool. Some quick searching reveals that CTSS,
Multics, and ITS all also used the term salv and/or salvager for the
corresponding program, so there's ample precedent.
2:28 p.m.
New subject: File system salvager, "salv"
+1
On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 2:41 AM Lars Brinkhoff <lars(a)nocrew.org> wrote:
Warren Toomey wrote:
--
Sent from a handheld expect more typos than usual
11-56-91.pdf user-mode programs: pd, psych, rm,
rn, roff, salv, sh
My attention is drawn to "salv".
Clem Cole wrote in 2016:
The original FS tools for UNIX
icheck/dcheck/ncheck were very crude.
TSS and MTS (used a similar/same FS format) and and had a similar
program in the key of fsck that Ted was familiar (as did a number of
DEC systems for that matter). Ted wrote the original version of
premordial fsck for v6 at UMich (maybe v5 - Joy probably would know
what the version of UNIX was there then). Ted took "pre-fsck" to Bell
Lab the summer between Mich and CMU. [...]
https://minnie.tuhs.org/Archive/Documentation/TUHS/Mail_list/2016-April.txt
There are these V2 and V3 man pages.
https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/Dennis_v2/v2man.pdf
https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V3/man/man8/salv.8
I see a V3 man page for dcheck, but nothing for icheck until V6.
So it appears before fsck, and before icheck etc, there was salv, the
file system salvager tool. Some quick searching reveals that CTSS,
Multics, and ITS all also used the term salv and/or salvager for the
corresponding program, so there's ample precedent.
4:52 a.m.
Thanks for all of your effort Mr. Bickley!
From Your biggest “fan!”
Truly,
Bill Corcoran
On Oct 17, 2019, at 4:38 PM, Lyle Bickley
<lbickley(a)bickleywest.com> wrote:
THE EARLIEST UNIX CODE: AN ANNIVERSARY SOURCE CODE RELEASE
http://bit.ly/31pWcvM
Cheers,
Lyle
--
73 NM6Y
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
https://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"
5:02 a.m.
I didn't do all the work - I'm just a volunteer and "messenger" from
the
Computer History Museum (CHM).
The real work was done by David C. Brock, who is a historian of technology and
director at the CHM Software History Center.
Cheers,
Lyle
--
On Fri, 18 Oct 2019 04:52:17 +0000
William Corcoran <wlc(a)jctaylor.com> wrote:
Thanks for all of your effort Mr. Bickley!
From Your biggest “fan!”
Truly,
Bill Corcoran
> On Oct 17, 2019, at 4:38 PM, Lyle Bickley <lbickley(a)bickleywest.com> wrote:
>
> THE EARLIEST UNIX CODE: AN ANNIVERSARY SOURCE CODE RELEASE
> http://bit.ly/31pWcvM
>
> Cheers,
> Lyle
> --
> 73 NM6Y
> Bickley Consulting West Inc.
> https://bickleywest.com
>
> "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"
--
73 NM6Y
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
https://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"
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days inactive
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14 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
Clem Cole -
Lars Brinkhoff -
Lyle Bickley -
Nemo -
SPC -
Warner Losh -
Warren Toomey -
William Corcoran