From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, NICE_REPLY_A,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 8965 invoked from network); 11 Mar 2021 17:52:03 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 11 Mar 2021 17:52:03 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id CF07A9B9B9; Fri, 12 Mar 2021 03:52:00 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AD7289507E; Fri, 12 Mar 2021 03:51:46 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 2D6D39507E; Fri, 12 Mar 2021 03:51:44 +1000 (AEST) X-Greylist: delayed 346 seconds by postgrey-1.36 at minnie.tuhs.org; Fri, 12 Mar 2021 03:51:43 AEST Received: from smtp80.ord1c.emailsrvr.com (smtp80.ord1c.emailsrvr.com [108.166.43.80]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 8A64295074 for ; Fri, 12 Mar 2021 03:51:43 +1000 (AEST) X-Auth-ID: halbert@halwitz.org Received: by smtp19.relay.ord1c.emailsrvr.com (Authenticated sender: halbert-AT-halwitz.org) with ESMTPSA id 33725A01BD for ; Thu, 11 Mar 2021 12:45:56 -0500 (EST) To: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org References: <29c33f36-96f5-b1b8-7c24-7198ca309052@halwitz.org> <32AC3AC9-1C57-49A0-8F94-742E9D06FAD9@blat.at> From: Dan Halbert Message-ID: <24f208ce-0050-884d-0799-d23b7f34704a@halwitz.org> Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2021 12:45:55 -0500 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/78.7.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <32AC3AC9-1C57-49A0-8F94-742E9D06FAD9@blat.at> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Language: en-US X-Classification-ID: a7289bf6-75ce-4146-8afa-66d281be70f8-1-1 Subject: Re: [TUHS] non-UNIX timesharing at Bell Labs ca 1972? X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" On 3/11/21 12:00 PM, Mike Knell wrote: >> On 11.03.2021, at 16:26, Dan Halbert wrote: >> >> In 1972, while in high school, I went to an Intel seminar on the 8008. There I met a Bell Labs scientist who gave me a sample 8008 and invited me for a visit at some NJ Bell Labs facility. That group had a timesharing system of some kind, but it was not Unix. I was also given a Bell Labs speech synthesis kit after meeting one of the speech scientists who happened to be in on the same Saturday. I have searched my attic but can't find further details. Would any of you alumni recall what this other timesharing system might have been? > Not an alumnus of anything (alas, I am far too young and not clever enough), but maybe this was GECOS? (Origin of the name of the pw_gecos field in UNIX..) > > Mike I do not think it was GECOS. I have a memory of him demonstrating a FOCAL- or BASIC-esque language running on some commercial minicomputer, but it was not one of those and I don't think it was a DEC machine. Perhaps it was not timesharing, but he showed it to me from his office terminal, I think, not in a lab.