[COFF] [simh] [TUHS] Regex archaeology

[segaloco via COFF]

On Thursday, September 24th, 2026 at 20:20, Eve Quinn via COFF <coff at tuhs.org> wrote:

> The patent version is interesting too. It describes the 7094
> implementation using FAP routines, then introduces the ALGOL 60
> compiler as "one such automatic test generating facility" being
> illustrated. That makes me wary of assuming that the CACM listing
> necessarily points to a particular historically-used ALGOL compiler.

Drawing a few things together, was Ken doing this work while at Bell
Labs?  That may offer some breadcrumbs, as the standard 709x OS inside
AT&T at the time was BE-SYS.  I actually managed to source a BE-SYS-3
manual sans the introduction section.  Unfortunately no ALGOL mentions
I can find, just FAP and FORTRAN itself.  Granted, this manual is from
1960, so BTL may have adopted a particular ALGOL-60 compiler in later
issues of BE-SYS.

Granted this is all speculation predicated on whether Ken would have
been using a 709x running BE-SYS specifically or some other system
(e.g. SHARE, IBSYS) at an institution.  

- Matt G.