6 Apr
2002
6 Apr
'02
2:26 a.m.
Hi,
Derek Peschel <dpeschel(a)eskimo.com> said:
On Fri, Apr 05, 2002 at 01:25:29PM +0100, Stan Barr
wrote:
I was quoting from the listing. However reading the docs for the
emulator it says:
"It should be emphasiszed that these programs - like almost all of the
routines supplied with the Edsac emulator - have not been rewritten,
but are historical artifacts. They have been sitting in the original
conference proceedings since 1949."
Don't know about PDP-8 programs, but a copy
of a program
to print squares, by M.V.Wilkes, May 1949 is available
for the EDSAC emulator...could this be the oldest surviving
computer program? (Of course, the operating sustem - or
Initial Orders as it was known - is older.)
I thought the squares program was lost and had to be reconstructed.
Also, I'd call the Initial Orders more of an assembler/loader
than an OS, since it didn't incldue any subroutines you could use
for things like I/O. Eventually they added a library of I/O and
math subroutines, some utilities (mostly for debugging), and a
fancier version of the Initial Orders that allowed you to decide
at load time where subroutines should go. But you still had to
decide what subroutines to use and copy them to your input tape.
Yor're right, of course...
The tic-tac-toe (noughts and crosses) program is
undoubtedly
one of the oldest computer games.
--
Cheers,
Stan Barr stanb(a)dial.pipex.com
The future was never like this!