As a fan of BCPL (from the Alto), I only wish it was better documented.
For example, Tripos has next to no documentation on it including how to
compile and load it. Documentation on the runtimes is also lacking (and
that's where the rubber meets the road).
Unfortunately, the Alto changes were not picked up so it remains an
isolated branch (and *dead* by the definitions put forward).
We've been working on restoring and powering up a fairly rare bird of IBM Midrange machine, the IBM System/38.
We had some good success this past weekend that I'd like to share.
https://crusty.computer/?p=89
June Work Recap: Edith – The Crusty Computer Club
crusty.computer
tl;dr: she powered up and no smoke came out and no sparks came out! There are several repairs needed but they are known and fixable.
Yes, I did early development on both. At least the interface to the OS was Pascal. I still have the early documentation buried in a box somewhere.
Sent from my iPhone
> On Jun 20, 2026, at 2:02 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> On Sat, 20 Jun 2026, ben via cctalk wrote:
>> PL/1 and C are the only two high level languages a operating system is written in, that I can think of that are well documented, and easily found on the WEB.
>
> I heard that all of the Lisa OS, and much of Macintosh, were written in Pascal. (obviously other than some low-level drivers and performance critical routines?)
> Is that correct?
>
> http://pascal.hansotten.com/apple-lisa-pascal/
>
> When did Macintosh development switch to C?
>
> --
> Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
On 6/20/2026, ben <bfranchuk(a)jetnet.ab.ca> wrote:
> PL/1 and C are the only two high level languages a operating system is
> written in, that I can think of that are well documented, and easily
> found on the WEB.
Additional examples:
Pilot (the embedded operating system for the Xerox Star office
automation system) was written in Xerox's proprietary Mesa language.
History and documentation of Mesa (and some Pilot documentation and
early source code) are available here:
https://softwarepreservation.computerhistory.org/mesa/
Taos, the operating system for the DEC Systems Research Center Firefly
multiprocessor workstation, was written in Modula-2+, which added
threads, garbage collection, and runtime type dispatch to Modula-2.
History and documentation of Modula-2+ (and Taos) are available here:
https://softwarepreservation.computerhistory.org/modula2+/
SPIN, an extensible operating system written at the University of
Washington, was written in Modula-3 (with small extensions). History and
documentation for Modula-3 are available here:
https://softwarepreservation.computerhistory.org/modula3/ and
information on SPIN is available here:
https://softwarepreservation.computerhistory.org/modula3/#SPIN_M3 .
Intel's x86 technology as in the 8086 came into existence for the
microcomputer-user at this time back in June 1978. It was a response to
Motorola's and Zilog's move to 16-bit processing. Still in use today...the
basic tech so to speak. Can it be unseated by RISC(Apple and such) and
Nvidia?
Happy computing.
Murray 🙂
Anyone here have an interest or need for a HP13394A removable disk
pack? I stumbled across it in a garage cabinet at an estate sale.
According to google, it was used in a HP7920 disk drive system with
early HP mini processors. Before I post it on THAT website, figured I'd
check to see if anyone here could use it. Unit seems in fairly good
shape - at least physically. Please respond off-list if interested.
Steve Shumaker
UNCOL failed because of many reasons, none that I know of.
I put the blame on hardware design,throw some logic and memory together
CHEAP,QUICK and DIRTY and call it a computer if you can sell one.
Call it a computer standard if it for a PHD.
Today's memory is loosely based on 8 bit byte addressing, yet there
is no Mathematical abstract model to base the computing side of the
picture. What are the problems that need to be solved? What are the real
world hardware problems like I/O? Are things defined recursivity, in
that a simple version, can expand to a complex, and really complex
version. Register addressing,base register addressing, array, base
register addressing ... Algol 9000.
UNCOL is from the era, that it was thought lower cost hardware as gates
and memory it would possible have general purpose computer of 32K words
or more. 36 bits or bigger word length for single precision floating
point. A character set of LATIN upper and lower case letters,and a
limited ALGOL 60 character set, like '10' and 'BEGIN' keys.
The RLV12 (RL02 drive controller) in my PDP-11/23+ has decided to quit
working when it gets hot in the room.
RT-11 won't boot, with an ERR 15 Controller Error.
The defect may have become permanent, will have to check in the morning
when everything's cool.
The drives themselves are not indicating any faults, and both of them
exhibit the same behavior on boot.
Trying to rig up an emulator (or boot XXDP from the Teac 3.5" floppy)
introduces a whole new set of hair-pullers.
Since the RLV12 is so complex, I am tempted just to replace it, if one
can be had... so does anyone have one they don't need? :)
thanks
Charles
Anyone do any real work with either the Icon or Unicon language family? I recall fondly sending off for a 1/2" tape with an early Icon distribution from the University of Arizona. I played around with it personally, but never got to use either professionally.
Darn - my beloved Planar ELT320 terminal has died. I was just sitting
there using it and suddenly the screen went blank. The keyboard still works
and the power LED lights, so not a simply power supply failure.
Does anybody have a schematic or service manual for these guys? It's one
of my favorite terminals - not only does it have a beautiful orange/amber EL
display, but it's also way smaller and lighter than any VTxxx terminal of
the era.
Thanks
Bob
