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=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_ADSP_CUSTOM_MED, DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED,FREEMAIL_FROM,HTML_MESSAGE,MAILING_LIST_MULTI, T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 19177 invoked from network); 8 May 2023 16:12:10 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 8 May 2023 16:12:10 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A806341208; Tue, 9 May 2023 02:12:04 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail-qv1-xf2d.google.com (mail-qv1-xf2d.google.com [IPv6:2607:f8b0:4864:20::f2d]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 33A8441201 for ; Tue, 9 May 2023 02:11:55 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mail-qv1-xf2d.google.com with SMTP id 6a1803df08f44-619ca08c166so22839806d6.1 for ; Mon, 08 May 2023 09:11:55 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20221208; t=1683562314; x=1686154314; h=cc:to:subject:message-id:date:from:in-reply-to:references :mime-version:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id:reply-to; bh=kILmmnb2vcuA71uqMaj49T/fJHhVpWHRyXp4unYnDp4=; b=cOP61yI09Q3QGyHlhauNB8cpESQ+9oAJhb7w8BmqkkJpCooIfgIsuRVdXcmaAcdtdE we+EmP2apceWq2f6VRiTSlt/YNJD80kqYVftTKhE7c5mzKBgEKDuxCDtt2JavKenR9pX ZvFl/RMZtixr/r1PZ22teNlnyfqK0JFhY149UOzpYzDqSQBh9Sdgk0Q7uZE46fsQphAw NApMi05xoInkB9+tC2jgXM7mpYI34+7f9e7tn3Vr+l2El6mgoWLI3lRdVEe9mZwGZNbr zIvVEytd/Sgb3ZhaYaAXRkVDdT+vxrx8DVXFNh8mVXKqehKx4XhSRdYteAV8TwdvpY/L Zf/Q== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20221208; t=1683562314; x=1686154314; h=cc:to:subject:message-id:date:from:in-reply-to:references :mime-version:x-gm-message-state:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id :reply-to; bh=kILmmnb2vcuA71uqMaj49T/fJHhVpWHRyXp4unYnDp4=; b=NAVsDxWbKZH93DI9C6U/KlR0E4Z5n3e7+T5CcdW25CAHLho1BUOo8e2+OkdE2t5Fl0 /GKjMZmU/jsyAexqGxRIC6JHA93Yd11vFH7OR8QAnAi9mioXYKvuyvQWA9tGdv9vsP5o QTTMP/bf9SvzEawNBdzrSN+fX0dFH5PtOCl9bxCxW7Ca1weYfu4TsE0aIIqL5YKR7Gq/ QcQ2k1q467yZbjW6pxJwSwf1pIqF/+ZVcETqfHGthGUMsgre7LV9lXt5Fm+yigWI+C1X TD7KFhrzrZYDy+7qps1mzqjXwTdqmsDKhA7PfmbWF1dpMvMcAmgJJyx+DnrypsQMqb+i Igug== X-Gm-Message-State: AC+VfDyKeIczKLmw7Mcgm6fCwKyl4NXhMYaE5BiVhyqCZ07+UDb1Jq4+ mAtx8vrBNx1rLqrCzd1pVPzo38B2SONEsJ0HdBZ1okYTaABzVg== X-Google-Smtp-Source: ACHHUZ5t2IkxKkT0zDBbx30BNkvO+5ZKxlX190oKZQCyr+Gvry2lGB3EVOKISGJOGq2ykLiv4yj+8oHi3qVZKwZmOpI= X-Received: by 2002:a05:6214:27c9:b0:616:5c8b:59d with SMTP id ge9-20020a05621427c900b006165c8b059dmr14033143qvb.20.1683562313812; Mon, 08 May 2023 09:11:53 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: In-Reply-To: From: ron minnich Date: Mon, 8 May 2023 09:11:42 -0700 Message-ID: To: Douglas McIlroy Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000ac179905fb30e5da" Message-ID-Hash: YDGWFV2EBCWTKK3GJZQAVARBVHDBPS57 X-Message-ID-Hash: YDGWFV2EBCWTKK3GJZQAVARBVHDBPS57 X-MailFrom: rminnich@gmail.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: TUHS main list X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Corbato dead List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: --000000000000ac179905fb30e5da Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable ah, the flexowriter, for those who never saw it, was literally a typewriter with solenoids at the bottom. I owned one, it was a miracle to behold. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friden_Flexowriter#/media/File:Flexowriter_22= 01_Programatic.jpg On Mon, May 8, 2023 at 7:19=E2=80=AFAM Douglas McIlroy < douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote: > Although it dates from four years ago, MIT's obituary for Corbat=C3=B3 wa= s > still interesting to reread. It couldn't bring itself to mention > Unix--only the latecomer Linux. It also peddled some mythology about > Whirlwind from the decade before timesharing. > > "Whirlwind was ... a rather clunky machine. Researchers often had > trouble getting much work done on it, since they had to take turns > using it for half-hour chunks of time. (Corbat=C3=B3 said that it had a > habit of crashing every 20 minutes or so.)" > > "Clunky" perhaps refers to Whirlwind's physical size. It occupied two > stories of the Barta Building, not counting the rotating AC/DC > motor-generators in the basement. But it was not ponderous; its clean > architecture prefigured "RISC" by two decades. > > Only a few favored people got "chunks" of (night) time on Whirlwind > for interactive use. In normal business hours it was run by dedicated > operators, who fed it user-submitted code on punched paper tape. > Turnaround time was often as short as an hour--including the > development of microfilm, the main output medium. Hardware crashes > were rare--much rarer than experience with vacuum-tube radios would > lead one to expect--thanks to "marginal testing", in which voltages > were ramped up and down once a day to smoke out failing tubes before > they could affect real computing. My recollection is that crashes > happened on a time scale of days, not minutes. > > "Clunky" would better describe the interface of the IBM 704, which > displaced Whirlwind in about 1956. How backward the 60-year-old > uppercase-only Hollerith card technology seemed, after the humane full > Flexowriter font we had enjoyed on Whirlwind. But the 704 had the > enormous advantages of native floating-point (almost all computing was > floating-point in those days) and FORTRAN. (Damn those capital > letters!) > > Doug > --000000000000ac179905fb30e5da Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
ah, the flexowriter, for those who never saw it, was liter= ally a typewriter=C2=A0with solenoids at the bottom. I owned one, it was a = miracle to behold.


On Mon, May 8, 2023 at 7:19=E2=80=AFAM Douglas Mc= Ilroy <douglas.mcilroy@= dartmouth.edu> wrote:
Although it dates from four years ago, MIT's obituary for = Corbat=C3=B3 was
still interesting to reread. It couldn't bring itself to mention
Unix--only the latecomer Linux. It also peddled some mythology about
Whirlwind from the decade before timesharing.

"Whirlwind was ... a rather clunky machine. Researchers often had
trouble getting much work done on it, since they had to take turns
using it for half-hour chunks of time. (Corbat=C3=B3 said that it had a
habit of crashing every 20 minutes or so.)"

"Clunky" perhaps refers to Whirlwind's physical size. It occu= pied two
stories of the Barta Building, not counting the rotating AC/DC
motor-generators in the basement. But it was not ponderous; its clean
architecture prefigured "RISC" by two decades.

Only a few favored people got "chunks" of (night) time on Whirlwi= nd
for interactive use. In normal business hours it was run by dedicated
operators, who fed it user-submitted code on punched paper tape.
Turnaround time was often as short as an hour--including the
development of microfilm, the main output medium. Hardware crashes
were rare--much rarer than experience with vacuum-tube radios would
lead one to expect--thanks to "marginal testing", in which voltag= es
were ramped up and down once a day to smoke out failing tubes before
they could affect real computing. My recollection is that crashes
happened on a time scale of days, not minutes.

"Clunky" would better describe the interface of the IBM 704, whic= h
displaced Whirlwind in about 1956. How backward the 60-year-old
uppercase-only Hollerith card technology seemed, after the humane full
Flexowriter font we had enjoyed on Whirlwind. But the 704 had the
enormous advantages of native floating-point (almost all computing was
floating-point in those days) and FORTRAN. (Damn those capital
letters!)

Doug
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