[TUHS] Bootstrapping UNIX - how was it done

[Warren Toomey via TUHS]

Have a read of this to start:
https://www.nokia.com/bell-labs/about/dennis-m-ritchie/hist.pdf

Cheers, Warren 

On 17 March 2026 2:03:59 pm GMT+01:00, Adam Koszek via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>How was UNIX bootstrapped in the early days?
>
>Trying to piecemeal the story with regards to what hardware was available. This video:
>
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jefHB8IzoY
>
>Is showing what seems to be the later stage - UNIX up and running, practical things working. But the thumbnail is a famous Thomson + Richie, both in front of the teletype terminal and PDP machine in front of its light control panel.
>
>What editors were used for early B, B+, C and early kernel?
>
>For bootstrapping, some aspects must have been easier: lights connected to registers and displayed on the dashboard. But some aspects must have been hard - after hitting some level of complexity with sizable programs, debugging things from the long log of teletype printout must have been interesting.
>
>Adam

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