18 Jan
2014
18 Jan
'14
12:31 a.m.
On Jan 17, 2014, at 4:20 PM, Henk Gooijen <henk.gooijen at hotmail.com> wrote:
From: "Paul Koning" <paulkoning at
comcast.net>
Sent: Friday, January 17, 2014 9:07 PM
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: "The search for the lost Cray supercomputer OS"
Yes, that?s where the names comes from ? now Technical University Eindhoven. It was the
primary OS used on the Electrologica EL-X8 machine when that was the main computer at the
university (late 1960s). And Dijkstra is its main creator.
I corresponded briefly with the lead on the EL-X8 emulator project and the impression I
got is that he didn?t know of a copy of THE. I assume he asked the university, but I
suppose it would not hurt to double check.
Another possibility would be Dijkstra?s archives at University of Texas in Austin.
paul
One of the most historically significant
operating systems that?s likely to be in the ?not to be found? category would be THE.
(See ?The THE Operating system? by Dijkstra. It is where the principles of ring based
design and synchronizing by semaphores was invented.) Maybe, just maybe, it might exist
in the form of listings, and since it?s a fairly small body of assembly language code that
might be good enough. Then there would be the problem of the emulation, though I do know
one is being worked on, and at least one real machine might also still exist.
paul
As Dijksta was Dutch, am I guessing correctly the "THE" stands for "TH
Eindhoven"?
("TH" is the abbreviation for "Technische Hogeschool", freely
translated to Technical Highschool).
If so, it might make sense to inquire at the computer dept of THE ... or already done?