[TUHS] Re: origin of null-terminated strings

[steve jenkin <sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au>]

> On 17 Dec 2022, at 09:26, Douglas McIlroy <douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> was any thought given to trying to get a 360 system?
> 
> Very serious thought. However, virtual memory was a non-negotiable
> desideratum, to which Gene Amdahl was implacably opposed because
> demand paging would devastate hardware performance. Soon after GE got
> the nod, IBM revealed Gerrit Blaauw's skunk-works project, the 360/67,
> but by then the die had been cast. Michigan bought one and built a
> nice time-sharing system that was running well before Multics.
> 
> Doug

Doug,

Thanks for the insight.

I've seen “MTS” mentioned, but never properly understood its significance.
Never looked into it, either :(
Brief search results below, w/o Wikipedia etc.

A process step of building new ’things’, skipped on all computing / I.T. projects I worked on,
is a “Post Mortem” a.k.a “Post Implementation Review”.

If MIT / Bell Labs / GE ever did a project review on Multics, I’d love to know if it’s been published,
and what insights they came away with,
and any changes made to their development & project management processes.

The MIT lead, Corbató / Corby, had demonstrated a high-level of competence & ability.
He'd built CTSS in 1961 and won the ACM Turing Award in 1990. Never given to "second best”.

It wasn’t a lack of talent, need, desire (for a product/service to sell) or funding that made Multics take years & years.

With the capability & experience of the people involved, it'd be simplistic and superficial to attribute
the project delays to “Second System Effect”.

Is it more akin to what we’re seeing now in the differences in approach to building Space Launch Systems & Vehicles?

I don’t have words/ concepts for the different approaches, but they seem to parallel how Multics & Unix were developed.

	- NASA & Boeing et al have only just flown the Space Shuttle replacement, Artemis, the SLS pluse Orion capsule.
		In 2005, a program to replace the Shuttle (retired in 2011) was begun.
		This was replaced with the SLS / Artemis program in 2010 - reusing many of the Shuttle components, eg RS-25 engines.
		Next flight, Artemis 2, due in 2024.

	- Space-X is developing it’s second launch system, plus a Crew / Cargo vehicle (StarShip).
		Falcon 9 has become the cheapest per kg/LEO, most reliable and most flown rocket in history.
		They’ve already beaten 1 launch/week this year, lofting 150+ tons per quarter into LEO.
		Which is more than two-times all other programs, public or private, put together.

steve j

========

 David L. Mills, photo gallery & some comments

	Michigan Terminal System (MTS)
		<https://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/gallery/gallery8.html>

		During much of the 1960s I was a staff member at the U Michigan Computing Center.
		I worked with a bunch of other guys on various hardward and software projects, 
			one of which is described on this page.

========

Organization and features of the Michigan terminal system
	Michael T. Alexander
	16 November 1971
	<https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1478873.1478951>

	ABSTRACT

		This paper will explore some aspects of the Michigan Terminal System (MTS) developed at the University of Michigan. 
		MTS is the operating system used on the IBM 360/67 at the University of Michigan Computing Center,
			 as well as at several other installations.

		It supports a large variety of uses ranging from very small student-type jobs to large jobs requiring several million bytes of storage and hours of processor time. 
		Currently at the University of Michigan there are about 13,000 users running as many as 86,000 jobs per month.

========

Time-sharing in the IBM system/360: model 67
	Charles T. Gibson
	IBM
	<https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1464182.1464190>

		Fine detail of 360/67, differences to /50.
		TSS mentioned

========

--
Steve Jenkin, IT Systems and Design 
0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
PO Box 38, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA

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