Restoration of 1st Edition Unix kernel sources

http://code.google.com/p/unix-jun72/

by tolini • 15 years ago

103 13 15 years ago

code.google.com

tibbon• 15 years ago

Link to the Caldera license doesn't seem to work. Otherwise, very cool!

binarycrusader• 15 years ago

It's posted at groklaw here:

http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20040224035032...

And here:

http://www.mckusick.com/csrg/calder-lic.pdf

mycroftiv• 15 years ago

Anyone interested in this should definitely read the description of a lot related work of recovery in the excellent paper by Warren Toomey on the restoration of early UNIX artifacts. There was a lot more involved than just doing an OCR scan of old documents, it is really impressive. http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix09/tech/full_papers/toome...

p4bl0• 15 years ago

Also of interest: http://www.tuhs.org/

gord• 15 years ago

Would be nice if this ran in the browser, if only to avoid bitrot.

caf2• 15 years ago

The (long, long) pre-standard C that it's written in isn't even understood by modern C compilers - bitrot is pretty much a given at this point.

sliverstorm• 15 years ago

They recovered a working compiler, and the darn thing was recovered from a printout- it's not that long. Portable, perhaps?

SoftwareMaven• 15 years ago

What a really great example of Vinge's software archeology! I've felt that way on some projects, but obviously nothing like this.

cpeterso• 15 years ago

Another Vernor Vinge concept I love is the "software midden heap", layers of software standing on the shoulders of and papering over the bugs of earlier software. Will anyone be able to excise rotting middle layers without breaking software compatibility?

For example, Vinge's A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY describes a software system thousands of years in the future that still uses the time_t epoch (and none of the system's space-faring users know the significance of 01970-01-01).

petegrif• 15 years ago

Fabulous!

uriel• 15 years ago

For anyone interested in this kind of archaeology I have put together a web interface for the 1st Edition manual pages:

http://man.cat-v.org/unix-1st/

StephenFalken• 15 years ago

Back in April 2006, the great Al Kossow of Bitsavers uncovered some unknown papers and documented his findings on The Unix Heritage Society mailing list:

"Preliminary Relase of UNIX Implentation Document" -> http://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/2006-April/001367.html

The files -> http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/bellLabs/unix/

For as strange as it may sound, this amazing finding went unnoticed for 2 years. Nobody paid any attention to this precious paper...until April 2008. That's when the whole restoration process really started:

"Whence 1st Edition Unix Kernel Assembly?" -> http://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/2008-April/001695.html

There was a mailing list specially dedicated to the whole restauration process:

"The Unix-jun72 Archives" -> http://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/unix-jun72/

It was really an impressive effort for bringing back to life the first edition of the operating system that forever changed the computer world.

Restoration of 1st Edition Unix kernel sources

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