[TUHS] head/sed/tail (was The Unix shell: a 50-year view)

[John Floren]

On Friday, July 16th, 2021 at 1:27 AM, Lars Brinkhoff <lars at nocrew.org> wrote:
> John Floren wrote:
>
> > Speaking of SAIL (and I suppose further derailing an already derailed
> >
> > discussion), I've occasionally looked for more information about the
> >
> > environment (typically whenever a book or article briefly mentions
> >
> > SAIL as a place with lots of custom hardware and software) but come up
> >
> > with little. Anyone know of good description of SAIL computer systems?
>
> I'm risking the Wrath of the Moderator here, but I really want to supply
>
> some information. Sorry, this is very far from Unix. But hey, SUDS was
>
> used to design the Stanford SUN Unix workstation.
>
> What do you mean with "SAIL computer systems"? I think upthread SAIL
>
> was referencing the Algol compiler written at the Stanford AI lab. But
>
> SAIL was also an acronym for the entire lab, AND also used as a name for
>
> the main timesharing computer hardware. The hardware was first a PDP-6,
>
> then adding a PDP-10 (KA10), then a KL10. The operating system was
>
> eventually named WAITS, but was also sometimes called SAIL or just
>
> SYSTEM. WAITS was also run on two Foonlies at other sites, and those
>
> could also be called SAIL computer systems in some sense.
>
> I gather you probably mean the AI lab and its computers. The best place
>
> for information is saildart.org, and Bruce Baumgart is working on a tome
>
> called "SAILDART_Prolegomenon". This work in progress is 116 pages.
>
> https://github.com/PDP-10/waits/blob/master/doc/SAILDART_Prolegomenon_2016.pdf

Yes, WAITS is what I was thinking of. As I mentioned in my previous mail,
it feels like the SAIL timesharing systems get mentioned briefly in
a lot of accounts of historical computing, sometimes with mention that
they had some sort of (relatively) advanced video terminals, but no
in-depth descriptions of the actual hardware/software environment.

I will take a look at saildart.org and the Prolegomenon, thanks!


John