[TUHS] Early UNIX Explor Support?

[TUHS] Early UNIX Explor Support?

[segaloco via TUHS]

Good day, something I've come across in my documentation study that I finally got around to researching a bit is a reference to the language Explor in the V2 ld(I) page:

'There are libraries for Fortran (x="f"), C (x="c"), Explor (x="e") and B (x="b").'

The manual has no corresponding mention of any Explor environment, not even a section VI page.  The only other UNIX Explor reference I can easily find is on the mailing list here indicating that there is a version of Explor for UNIX on a 1977 tape here (in the 1/explor+dl directory): https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Applications/Usenix_77/ug091377.tar.gz

Does anyone know if there is continuity here or if the V2 reference and the code on the tape are only related in that they're both for Explor?

- Matt G.

[TUHS] Re: Early UNIX Explor Support?

[Ken Thompson]

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explor is (was) a graphical language by ken knowlton.
it ran offline on the mainframe and produced a mag tape
to be run on a machine called tapex. the tapex machine
exposed micro-film that had to be developed and printed.

not the quickest turnaround.

anyway, i wrote a unix version of explor that printed directly
on a tek display terminal. it was never really used for
anything. somewhere, i have polaroids of pictures of
explor output on the tek.


On Mon, May 22, 2023 at 5:00 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:

> Good day, something I've come across in my documentation study that I
> finally got around to researching a bit is a reference to the language
> Explor in the V2 ld(I) page:
>
> 'There are libraries for Fortran (x="f"), C (x="c"), Explor (x="e") and B
> (x="b").'
>
> The manual has no corresponding mention of any Explor environment, not
> even a section VI page.  The only other UNIX Explor reference I can easily
> find is on the mailing list here indicating that there is a version of
> Explor for UNIX on a 1977 tape here (in the 1/explor+dl directory):
> https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Applications/Usenix_77/ug091377.tar.gz
>
> Does anyone know if there is continuity here or if the V2 reference and
> the code on the tape are only related in that they're both for Explor?
>
> - Matt G.
>

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[TUHS] Re: Early UNIX Explor Support?

[segaloco via TUHS]

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Thank you for the background Ken! I did see in the '77 tape correspondence with Ken Knowlton regarding Explor and a few other informational files sprinkled in. Glad this tape is backed up in a few places.

- Matt G.

------- Original Message -------
On Monday, May 22nd, 2023 at 5:07 PM, Ken Thompson <kenbob@gmail.com> wrote:

> explor is (was) a graphical language by ken knowlton.
> it ran offline on the mainframe and produced a mag tape
> to be run on a machine called tapex. the tapex machine
> exposed micro-film that had to be developed and printed.
>
> not the quickest turnaround.
>
> anyway, i wrote a unix version of explor that printed directly
> on a tek display terminal. it was never really used for
> anything. somewhere, i have polaroids of pictures of
> explor output on the tek.
>
> On Mon, May 22, 2023 at 5:00 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
>
>> Good day, something I've come across in my documentation study that I finally got around to researching a bit is a reference to the language Explor in the V2 ld(I) page:
>>
>> 'There are libraries for Fortran (x="f"), C (x="c"), Explor (x="e") and B (x="b").'
>>
>> The manual has no corresponding mention of any Explor environment, not even a section VI page. The only other UNIX Explor reference I can easily find is on the mailing list here indicating that there is a version of Explor for UNIX on a 1977 tape here (in the 1/explor+dl directory): https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Applications/Usenix_77/ug091377.tar.gz
>>
>> Does anyone know if there is continuity here or if the V2 reference and the code on the tape are only related in that they're both for Explor?
>>
>> - Matt G.

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