[TUHS] Whence 1st Edition Unix Kernel Assembly?

Al Kossow aek at bitsavers.org
Fri Apr 25 03:16:00 AEST 2008


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.







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