[TUHS] pseudo tty history

[Aron Insinga]

The https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc89 mentions a PDP-6 and 
PDP-10s which are 36-bit twos complement machines, and a DEC PDP-1 which 
was an 18-bit one's complement  machine.  The "graphics-oriented" PDP-1 
probably had the well-known Type 30 display which used a large round 
radar-type CRT thanks to the Project SAGE tradition, but there were a 
couple of other graphics display options for the PDP-1.
https://www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/graphics/

- Aron


On 8/15/25 23:35, Clem Cole wrote:
> Watch the dates - that's not UNIX.  In 1973, Version 4 Unix is first 
> released outside of BTL, so the Harvard system being talked about in 
> RFC 89 is probably an 18 bit ??PDP6 maybe??.
>
> On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 8:24 PM Bakul Shah via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:
>
>     From RFC 89 (dated 19 January 1971) titled "Some historic moments
>     in networking":
>
>        Second, the Harvard system has temporarily implemented this remote
>        network console interface feature using a DEC style pseudo-teletype
>        (PTY).
>
>     From RFC 46 (dated April 1970) titled "'ARPA Network Protocol Notes":
>
>        3. A standard way for a newly created process to initiate pseudo-
>           typewriter communication with the foreign process which
>     requested
>           its creation.
>
>
>>     On Aug 15, 2025, at 6:49 PM, ron minnich <rminnich at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>     was there ever a telnet or other remote access program that
>>     predated ptys on Unix? Was telnet the driving force for ptys? Did
>>     the folks implementing Unix networking bring in ptys before, or
>>     as part of, or after networking, i.e. did folks building
>>     networking for Unix realize they needed ptys once they started
>>     working on telnet, or did they plan for ptys from the get go? I
>>     was an observer for some of this stuff, but as a 20-year-old at
>>     UDEL I was also quite out of the loop.
>>
>>      I also realize there were multiple Unix networking efforts, so
>>     this question is somewhat simplistic.
>>
>>     I'm assuming rsh came a bit later.
>>
>>     On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 4:19 PM Tom Lyon <pugs78 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>         Yeah, I was thinking that 4.1c BSD must've had them for
>>         rlogin and telnet.
>>
>>         Which got me looking for Fabry and Bill Joy's design/planning
>>         documents for 4.2, which are not in the TUHS archives.
>>         Anyone got them??
>>
>>         On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 4:15 PM Warner Losh <imp at bsdimp.com>
>>         wrote:
>>
>>             At the very least, 4.2BSD had them for telnet and rlogin.
>>             They were static, though. You had to MAKEDEV enough units.
>>
>>             Warner
>>
>>             On Fri, Aug 15, 2025, 5:00 PM ron minnich
>>             <rminnich at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>                 That was my guess. I figured the people who did the
>>                 work are on this list, and primary sources rule.
>>
>>                 On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 3:56 PM Ron Natalie
>>                 <ron at ronnatalie.com> wrote:
>>
>>                     I think that wikipedia history is somewhat
>>                     garbled when it comes to the UNIX implementations.
>>
>>
>
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