[TUHS] Re: Clever code [ really PB 250 ]

[Douglas McIlroy <douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu>]

That would be Claude Kagan. A bunch of kids called the
R.E.S.I.S.T.O.R.S met there regularly to play with the computers.
Claude, who worked for Western Electric, implemented a version of
Calvin Mooers's TRAC macroprocessor. Mooers sued for infringing the
copyright on a journal article. AT&T settled, out of fear of the
consequences of an (unlikely) win for Mooers. The issue remained in
the air until a Supreme Court case (Google v Oracle) about a year ago,
which fortunately came down against copyrights on  software
interfaces.

Doug

On Tue, Dec 13, 2022 at 12:14 PM Jon Steinhart <jon@fourwinds.com> wrote:
>
> Wow, this brings back memories.  When I was a kid I remember visiting
> a guy who had a barn full of computers in or around Princeton, N.J.
> There was a Burroughs 500, a PB 250, and a PDP-8.  The 500 was a vacuum
> tube and nixie display machine.  That sucker used a lot of neon, and I
> seem to remember that it used about $100 worth of electricity in 1960s
> dollars just to warm it up.  I think that the PB 250 was one of the
> first machines built using transistors.  I assume that all of you know
> what a PDP-8 is.  I remember using the PDP-8 using SNAP (simple numeric
> arithmetic processor) to crank out my math homework.  Note that the PB
> 250 also had SNAP, but in that case it was their assembler.
>
> Some of the first serious programming that I did was later at BTL on
> 516-TSS using FSNAP (floating-point SNAP) written by Heinz.  Maybe he
> can fill us in on whether it was derived from SNAP.
>
> Anyway, I could only visit the place occasionally because it was far
> from home.  Does anyone else out there know anything about it?  It's a
> vague memory brought back by the mention of the 250.
>
> Jon